Welcome to the virtual STEM Activities Center, a hub for transportation research-related activities geared towards elementary and secondary school students. Here you can find easy-to-follow videos that demonstrate activities modeled after actual TFHRC projects. These activities are meant to spark curiosity about infrastructure and the environment; road barriers and safety; communication among connected automated vehicles; and more. We hope the STEM Activities Center inspires the next generation of transportation researchers and engineers.

Please explore the STEM Activities Center, click on the touch points to enjoy these videos, and share them with students, teachers, and schools. Thank you for visiting!

Believe it or not, a lot of the research we conduct here involves breaking things, and the Structures Laboratory is a prime example. Researchers in this lab study the strength and durability of our Nation's bridges, including how much bad weather, weight from heavy trucks, and other wear and tear they can withstand before breaking down. Here's a special Structures Laboratory challenge for you: Create a model bridge and load it to failure. Like our researchers, find ways to improve the design, increase the durability, and test, test, test it!

Road users play a very important part in highway safety. Researchers in the Human Factors Laboratory study road user behavior to determine the best ways to avoid collisions, minimize confusion, and keep our highways safer and more efficient. One of the tools used is the Sign Lab, in which researchers test how quickly people can identify and react to different types of messages that are shown on signs.

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Anything that has matter, including roads and bridges, is essentially made up of chemical building blocks. Our Chemistry Laboratory researchers examine the chemical reactions that lead to breakdowns in roadways and the ways these can be repaired. By learning how various chemicals react when combined, you can start to understand, and improve, the world around you. Let's start by creating a cloud!

It's scary but true: every day there are collisions on our Nation’s highways. Yet the researchers at the Federal Outdoor Impact Laboratory (FOIL) strive to make them as safe as possible. By using computer simulations and live tests, this lab studies the impact and tests barriers that increase the safety of the drivers and passengers in collisions. For this activity, you will create a vehicle, stage the collision, and test ways to limit the damage that could be done to the car and the passenger.

If we aren't careful, flowing water can generate serious damage to entire towns, ruining roads and yards, and weakening bridges. The researchers at the J. Sterling Jones Hydraulics Research Laboratory run tests to examine the harm that water can cause on our roads and bridges and uncover ways to limit or prevent that damage. Researchers use a stream table to create a model of a vulnerable town and study water impact. Here is your turn to learn, too, by creating a stream table with a model town and simulating a stream.

Today’s new vehicles have high levels of automation, helping drivers avoid obstacles and making driving safer for the vehicle occupants. The researchers at the Saxton Transportation Operations Laboratory, or STOL, investigate how new vehicle technologies can work together with roadside equipment like traffic signals and sensors to allow cars to “talk” to each other and “see” pedestrians and cyclists as part of a cooperative driving automation or CDA system. While driving may seem simple, especially with the aid of new navigation and safety technologies, planning and following a path at speeds of up to 65 miles an hour with traffic in adjacent lanes is incredibly difficult for machines and relies on underappreciated human skills.

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Thank you for visiting!