Mobile School Presentations (MSPs) engage students in sustainable transportation awareness while giving them a visceral, “seats on” experience with a diverse fleet of human powered vehicles. Through multimedia presentations that show the unique technical, environmental, and cultural roles that bicycles play around the world, we hope to spark thought and discussion about transportation within their environment and community. Connecting with a local volunteer base, our entire Rideable Museum fleet of tricycles, tandems, recumbents, trailers and cargo bikes is pedaled to local schools or is opened on site for students to experience how they work and their context.
Part 1: The project will facilitate and document 20 Mobile School Presentations with local schools in Eugene. We will be composing a short video which will illustrate the process and impact of the presentations. With interviews from students, teachers, volunteers, and family members, the video will also function as a how-to and will be a way to introduce Mobile School Presentations to other communities.
Part 2: The Pedalers Express Ride will be the extension of the Eugene Mobile School Presentations project. Modeled after the Pony Express which historically used relay riders on horse back to deliver messages across the country, we will use a cargo bike that was produced through our Apprenticeship Program. Relay riders will go city by city from Portland, OR to Brooklyn, NY. The cargo bike rider for each leg of the ride will connect local people who use diverse human powered vehicles with the goal of sparking Mobile School Presentations along the way.
Part 1:
The Mobile School Presentations project will organize 20 different school groups in Eugene, OR. Diverse students from elementary school to college age will be reached through presentations at CAT or at individual schools. Volunteers mobilized by CAT will help transport and supervise our fleet at each presentation. A camera person will document the process, comments and laughter. The edited documentary will serve as the means of outreach to a broader audience.
Part 2:
The Pedalers Express Ride will visit up to 30 cities across the country and will assist local bike communities to organize their own MSPs. A Long Haul Cargo Bike made by Human Powed Machines Apprentices will get relayed between cities. The Long Haul will be equipped with the necessary equipment and materials for the presentations. Riders will be organized to relay the bike from city to city.
Mobile School Presentations are a way for kids to realize the potential of how human powered transport can positively affect their daily lives while at the same time solving greater social and environmental problems. Presentations will include a “seats on” experience with diverse human powered vehicles and will emphasize existing usages that can serve as models.
They will learn how to critically analyze their current transportation system and brainstorm solutions. They will see how other people from different cultures get around. We will show through multimedia many examples of how people have achieved a high quality of life while being sustainable.