STEM School bikes to, from school to cap off bike lesson

Students of all grade levels strapped on their helmets and knee pads and rode side by side to and from school Wednesday.

At Cannon River STEM School, the annual National Walk and Bike To School Day is more than just a few kids taking a trip around the corner. It’s the grand finale of a full-scale lesson plan in the physical-education class.

STEM School Interventionist Leah Byersdorfer, who typically deals with behavior-related affairs, said seeing the kids coming up the hill is a sight to behold.

“It makes my heart full of joy,” she said. “They come around, and they’re smiling and they’re happy and they’re so, so excited. They’re proud. I mean, it’s a decent bike ride. We had some kindergarteners doing it, and some younger kids, so they’re tired and proud. We even had parents who biked along too. It’s just an awesome event.”

The biking unit is taught by STEM School Health and Physical Education teacher Heather Teigen, who teaches all the grades at the school. Rather than just a single day, she’s the attended training sessions to make the event the finale of a two-week unit about biking.

It covers the safety protocols, proper protective gear, rules of the road and, of course, how to ride a bike. They even learned the ABCs — but not the alphabet.

“The ABC bike check,” she said. “It’s air in the tires, front and back brakes and chain. The kids learn how to put the front brake back on if it’s popped off. Many of them learned how to put their chain back on. It’s really neat, seeing a lot of the kids starting to have increased confidence in knowing how to do some basic bike repairs.”

Pedestrian safety is also part of the unit.

“The kids also learn arm signals,” she said. “So they’re learning how to signal left, right, stop and they practice those arm signals. Then, we set up a figure-eight course on campus. A figure-eight course teaches them how to yield and ‘How do I deal with oncoming traffic?’”

After the instructor training, the school gets to use a trailer-full of bicycles to train and practice on during gym class. While the springtime sees high demand for the trailers and schools only get to keep the trailer for a week, they’re able to keep it for two weeks if they use it in the fall.

“I love to have it in the fall,” she said. “It’s beautiful, and a great time to be outside.”

She said it’s some students’ first time riding a bike.

“It’s really fun to see kids learn to ride a bike,” Teigen said. “Every year, there are two or three kids in every class who don’t know how to ride a bike, all the way up to middle school. You would think everybody knows how to ride a bike, but I’ve learned that’s not the case. Not everyone lives on a safe road to learn how to ride a bike.”

The two-week lesson plan came to a head on Wednesday, when about two dozen students and parents walked their bikes down the hill from the STEM School to ride the trail to Fleckenstein Bluffs Park, where many played on the playground and the Dienst family even biked the rest of the way home.