School Cycling License: Skills Test with Student Judges

A final skills test for the bike unit: a closed-schoolyard course with a bike check, start, shoulder check, slalom, U-turn, hand signal and stop. Students serve as judges with a rubric, and at the end each rider gets a "license" or an improvement plan.

How to play

1. Present the six-station course and the three-level rubric for each station (5 min).
2. Judge training: three students per station practice the rubric while watching the teacher ride a model run (5 min).
3. Test: half the class judges while the other half rides the course, starting every 30 seconds; then they switch (15 min).
4. Second chance at each rider's lowest-scoring station (5 min).
5. Hand out "passed" licenses or improvement plans and discuss how reliable the scores were (5 min).

Rules

• Helmet buckled for the whole test.
• Judges stand outside the riding line, at least 6 feet away.
• No passing on the course; if you catch up to someone, brake.
• This is not a race: time is used only to space out the starts.

Variations

Adaptations

• Limited mobility: serves as head judge and coordinates the scores at their station.
• Autism: sees the course on a map in advance and walks it before the test.
• Nervous riders: may do the test in two parts with a break in between.

Learning goals

• Demonstrate the basic skills to ride a bike safely.
• Apply a rubric fairly and responsibly as a judge.
• Identify personal weak points and plan how to improve them.

Equipment for a class of 25

• bikes: 10
• helmets: 10
• cones: 40
• chalk: 3
• worksheets: 30
• stopwatch: 2

Teacher tip

If there are not enough bikes, ask the local police or city hall (many run bike safety programs with loaner bikes) or a cycling club, or let students bring their own with parent permission; with 10 bikes, work in groups of three that rotate. At the end, compare scores from two judges at the same station to discuss objectivity in assessment.

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