School Zone Safety Subject of National Science Teacher Journal Article
Oct. 2, 2025
Dylan Fedell, a science teacher at Palisades High School and a student in the COE's Supervisor of Curriculum and Instruction certification program, recently published a paper outlining an engaging physics lesson for high school students. The lesson applies data science to an issue any high schooler will find familiar: school zone safety.
Fedell cites the following sobering statistics:
Despite a school zone speed limit of only 15 mph, Pennsylvania (PA) school zones rank 5th most dangerous in the country (WFMZ-TV Citation2024). A recent report found that between 2014 and 2021, there were 34 crashes involving pedestrians and cyclists in school zones, resulting in a fatality rate of 2 in 90.
He adds, "For my students, these facts become more tangible when they learn about recent incidents in the nearby city of Allentown, where a student was struck and a teacher’s aide was killed within a two-week span (Koltnow Citation2022)."
The article, titled School Zone Safety: Where Physics and Data Science Intersect, is published in the 2025 Back to School edition of The Science Teacher, a national journal for high school science teachers.
To read the full article, visit https://bit.ly/46zBTkr.
