Be Visible for Safety!

Main Curriculum Connection:  Grade 4 Science 

Learning Objectives

• To investigate how various light conditions affect the ability to see people wearing different types of clothing  
• To apply learnings to decide appropriate clothing to wear when being a pedestrian or cyclist 

Resources Needed  

• A room where light levels can be controlled  
• Different colours of objects (e.g., clothing, backpack, etc.):
  • Dark coloured 
  • Light coloured 
  • Fluorescent 
  • Shiny 
  • Reflective  
• Flashlights to simulate headlights of a vehicle  
• Recording sheet (Sample on next page) 

Instructions 

1.  Lower the light level in the room and ask students to record what they can and cannot see.
2. ask students to use these observations to develop a hypothesis of which colour will increase visibility of a pedestrian. Will one colour be more visible from far way than another colour? 
3. Place the different coloured objects around the room. Try to make sure they are as far from each other as possible. 
4. Divide students into small groups (enough small groups as there are coloured items)
5. Assign each group to stand 10 metres (or as far as possible) from one of the items. Note: In three-quarters of a second a vehicle traveling at 50 km/h will go 10 metres (33 feet) or about two vehicle lengths before the driver can start to apply the brakes. 
6. With full light conditions, ask students in each group to rate their coloured object on a scale of 0 (not visible) to 5 (highly visible) and record their answer. Ask students to think about each object in relation to others they have rated…is it more visible or less visible than the others? What can they see – nothing, an outline, shades of grey, or colour? 
7. Repeat Step 5 adjusting the lighting each time: 

• Lowest room light possible, flashlight turned off 
• Lowest room light possible, flashlight turned on 

1.  Ask groups to move to the next object and repeat Steps 6 and 7 and continue moving to next object until all groups have investigated 
2. Once all groups have observed each object in the different light conditions, ask students to work as a group to review their results and assess whether their hypothesis was true. What conclusions can they make? 

Cross-curricular and Integrated Learning

 Students can  

• Graph their results
• Apply what they have learned by designing a piece of something to improve the visibility of pedestrians in lower light conditions  
• Develop art works to educate others about what they learned  
• Write and deliver PA announcements to educate other students about what to wear to be a safe pedestrian.