Update: Bike across Canada program

At École élémentaire publique Jeanne-Sauvé, students have been biking on stationary bikes for three years now. If you would like to know how it all started you can view my article on this website.

Our progress:

2014-2015: 8316 km in 141 days.

2013-2014: 8316 km in 178 days.

2012-2013:  8316 km in 135 days.

You can view our progress throughout the year here.

The bikes:

For the 2015-2016 school year, we purchased new and better bikes!

Our original bikes were great because they did not cost a lot. However, many bikes had to be replaced. I went to Wal-mart with defective bikes so many times that I was basically told to never come back with one. The other disadvantage was that I had to set them all up. On average, it took about an hour to assemble. That excludes actually going to Wa-lmart to purchase them. I cleared out a couple of their stock a few times.

These new bikes came assembled. You never know with children. More information can be found here and here.

The ride:

We travelled to some of the big Canadian cities in the first three year. In 2015-2016, we're changing the route a bit. We will be travelling to cities that speak French. 

5 schools from my school board now have stationary bikes in their classrooms!

What I've learned...

1. Let the students figure out who goes on the bikes. It builds leadership.

2. I've noticed students aren't that good at multi-tasking. If they're pedalling, reading becomes difficult. If they're reading, they tend to stop pedalling.

3. I find that the best time to be on the bike is during a lesson. Students who don't usually participate do when they are pedalling.

4. I spent way too many minutes tracking kilometers going from class to class at the end of the day (30-45 minutes per day). Now, each student is assigned a class and they track the kilometers. Again, this builds leadership.
5. I prefer the stationary bikes to the desk pedals (ergonomic reasons). The bikes are adjustable.