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Raise Them Up!

People crossing the street need to be seen by drivers to 

cross safely. Students will discover how drivers of different 

sized vehicles may see people outside the vehicle. 

Students will learn about raised crosswalks and how they 

can make drivers slow down and make people more 

prominent in the driver’s field of vision.

Supplies

▸ Computer projection

▸ Masking tape OR yardsticks

(or ruler marked out on the wall)

▸ Calculators (1 per student group)

▸ Masking tape, duct tape, and/or chalk

▸ Air dry clay or play-doh

▸ Crayons or colored pencils

▸ Clip board, paper, pencils/markers

▸ Optional: Large pieces of cardboard

(e.g., collected from a big box/wholesale store)

▸ Optional: Toy cars

▸ Optional: String

Supplemental Materials Provided

▸ Visual aid: PowerPoint file with images of raised crosswalks in different settings

▸ Handout: Street segment (Activity Part 2, inside)

▸ Handout: Cut-outs of people (Activity Part 2, inside)

Audience: 

Suitable for all ages

Format: 

45-60-minute activity 

in a classroom setting

To Do in Advance

 A week ahead, ask students to be on the

look-out for examples of raised crosswalks.

 Identify nearby raised crosswalks in the

community.

 Review “The Why and How Behind the

Concepts” in the Primer

STEM Lessons for Pedestrian Safety: Raise Them Up!

FHWA-SA-20-090
STEM Lessons for Pedestrian Safety: Raise Them Up!

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Introduction to Concept 

and Activity

These concepts should be reinforced by 

the lesson leader the during activities.

▸ It is critical for drivers to see people who are

about to or are actively crossing the streets.

Some people take longer to cross the street or

are harder to see because they are shorter.

▸ Lots of local trips to community destinations are

short and it would be best to just walk or bike

there but the ability to cross the street safely is

important.

▸ Not all drivers are looking for people when they

should be and sometimes drivers are going

faster than they should.

▸ Lots of people do not drive or have a car so

they need to have safe places to cross the street

so they can get places or to a bus stop.

▸ Raised crosswalks are traffic calming measures

that allow people walking to cross at the same

level as the sidewalk, without needing to step

(or roll) down into the street. Raised crosswalks

offer a more comfortable crossing experience for

people walking while reducing the speed of

drivers at locations where people are likely to

cross. Each long edge of the raised crossing has

a ramp so drivers have to drive up on to the flat

part of the crossing and then back down again.

Activity Part 1 (5 minutes): 

Pose some silly questions and then 

facilitate brief discussion:

1. Why did the chicken cross the road?

A: To get to the other side.

2. Why did the fish cross the road?

A: To get to its school.

3. Why did the horse cross the road?

A: To get to its nay-borhood.

4. Why did the chicken stop crossing the road?

A: It got tired of everyone making so many jokes.

Sample discussion: 

Crossing the road is no joke...... People need 

to get to key neighborhood destinations, and 

just like the chicken, fish and horses, many 

people can’t or don’t want to drive and need 

to cross the road so that they can get places.

If you were crossing the street and a big car 

was driving straight towards you, would you 

prefer to be a chicken or a horse?” [Listen to 

the silly ideas]. 

One good reason that you prefer to be a 

horse is that you are much taller and bigger; 

drivers may not see that itty-bitty chicken in 

the crosswalk but should definitely see that 

much taller horse. How about if we raised the 

crosswalk so the chicken and all the rest of us 

can be seen better?

Activity Part 2 (10 minutes): 

Ask students to construct a 

raised crosswalk:

Inside location: using the handout of a street, 

build the sidewalk and crosswalk out of air-dry 

clay or play-doh. Students may also use toy cars 

and cut-outs of people. 

Outside location: depending on the surface 

use masking tape, duct tape, or chalk to mark 

off a street and crosswalk. Student can build the 

crosswalk out of lunch trays or other available 

sturdy materials such as gym/yoga mats.

A real-world crosswalk on a two-lane street is 10 

feet wide and 22-22 feet long. Scale down as 

needed given your chosen supplies and space 

constraints.
STEM Lessons for Pedestrian Safety: Raise Them Up!

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Activity Part 3 (5 minutes): Ask 

students to think of somewhere they 

have seen raised crosswalks in their 

community or a place they have 

visited. [It is likely that no student will have an 

example]. Ask students if there is a location where 

they would like to have a raised crosswalk (e.g., 

school parking lot, neighborhood street, entrance 

to local park). Use the visual aid to show images 

of real-life crosswalks. Optional: use Google Earth 

to navigate to raised crosswalks you know of or 

local ones mentioned by students.

Activity Part 4 (10 minutes): Switch 

focus to vehicle height in relation to 

the height of people crossing the street. 

Aggregate the height of every student 

in the group (e.g., student provides their 

height, students measure each other, or 

you assist with measuring). Ask students to 

calculate the median height and average 

height for the group. 

Activity Part 5 (15 minutes):

Provide the height for at least four 

different vehicle types:

▸ 54 inches: 2-door coupe (e.g., Ford Mustang)

▸ 58 inches: 4-door sedan

(e.g., Toyota Camry or Honda Accord)

▸ 65 inches: small SUV

(e.g., Subaru Crosstrek or Toyota Rav4)

▸ 70 inches: minivan

(e.g., Honda Odyssey or Dodge Caravan)

▸ 75 inches: truck

(e.g., Chevrolet Silverado or Dodge Ram 1500)

Option to mark these off on the wall or door 

using masking tape. Ask students to calculate 

the difference between the vehicle heights and 

the average/median student height. Option to 

use string to demonstrate the sightline from the 

approximate location of the driver to the student 

height. Facilitate discussion about how the ability 

to see and be seen changes with the type of 

vehicle and whether they factor in a raised 

crosswalk. 

Optional: This lesson could be adapted for 

an “all-comer” setting (e.g., family STEM night) 

and focus on the vehicle height portion of the 

lesson. Car height could be communicated with 

cardboard cut-outs. 

Optional: Building on Activity Part 3, students 

develop a “top ten list” of locations where they 

would like to see a raised crosswalk and then vote 

on the first choice. Guide a discussion about who 

the students could write a letter to about getting 

that raised crosswalk installed. 

Optional: Older students may be guided through 

a discussion about when/why raised crosswalks 

may not work in all situations (e.g., driveways; 

drainage; implications for other users – bicyclists, 

large trucks, EMS, and differences in application 

along a segment or at intersections). [This could 

be communicated through cards that get flipped 

over and then students are given 10 seconds to 

say why that element will not work with raised 

crosswalk—if they cannot answer the card gets 

“stolen” by someone else who comes up with a 

reason. Whomever names a good reason, keeps 

that card for points].

Optional: Older students (4th grade and up) 

with access to computers may be asked to use 

Google Earth to identify places where they would 

like to install a raised crosswalk in their community 

or they may be asked to navigate to existing 

raised crosswalks using coordinates you provide. 

Optional: Older students could be asked to use 

the internet to research the height of different 

vehicles. Students could then compare that 

information to their own height, average height 

of their class, etc. They could be asked to draw or 

model the differences and relate it back to sight 

lines (this would involve estimating the driver’s 

eye-level and the length/height of vehicle hoods).
STEM Lessons for Pedestrian Safety: Raise Them Up!

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Student Handout: Activity Part 2 - Street
STEM Lessons for Pedestrian Safety: Raise Them Up!

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Student Handout: Activity Part 2 - Cut-outs

Directions: Color & Cut
STEM Lessons for Pedestrian Safety: Raise Them Up!

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Student Handout: Activity Part 2 - Cut-outs

Directions: Color & Cut