When I taught in Year Six I used to teach the children how to calculate speed of travel. A few lessons would culminate in the chance to create our own speed trap outside school. There has been a debate for many years about whether or not we should have speed bumps on the road alongside our school. Most cars stick to their speed limit, but some drive quite dangerously fast. The challenge for the lesson was for the children to find their own evidence to decide whether or not we needed speed bumps.
The children measured the playground. We then worked out how quickly vehicles must drive past the playground in order to break the speed limit of 30 miles an hour. The children then worked in teams to time how long the cars took to drive past and then worked out if the car was going too fast or not. If it went too fast a member of the group held up a 'Slow Down' message (which they'd written on a whiteboard). They found out that most cars kept to the limit, but there were a few who needed the warning.
It was in the middle of their investigation that the poor postman came along on his bike. The children thought it would be funny to time him as he rode past. I felt sorry for the man as he rode along whilst the children started running alongside him. He started to speed up to try to get ahead of them! Luckily the children worked out that he wasn't speeding and so he didn't get a warning. But his face as thirty children ran along with him suggests that next time he came past, he would probably go as quickly as possible!!
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