NIKITA THUMMALACOURTNEY CHEUNGMARGARET LUNAEMILY CHEN

Icebreakers

Can a backpack with LED lights make a student more visible to a driver in a vehicle in motion than a backpack without LED lights?

Testable Question

Hypothesis • We think that LED lights on backpack will make children

more visible to a vehicle in motion compared to a backpack without LED lights

• We did LED lights, because they are brighter and consume less energy

• Bright lights on the back pack will enhance visibility so that the driver can see the child clearer on the street

• We feel this can prevent accidents and ensure child safety.

• Based on our research many pedestrians including children going to school are injured and killed by vehicle accidents

• Improving visibility of the student going back and forth from school will prevent accidents.

• It improves pedestrian safety

• Our backpack will illuminate in the light and darkness

• Most children do not follow traffic rules are not cautious. With our LED backpack, cars would be able to see the children from a far distance and get ready to stop. This would reduce the risk of children getting in serious car injuries.

• Safety saves lives

How does this invention help your community?

Research • More than 270,000 people get hit by cars every year.

• 29 pedestrians have been killed by cars in Las Vegas, NV in 2012.

• In 2009, 63,092 pedestrians got hit by cars. There was 4,092 fatalities and 59,000 injuries.

• 70% of pedestrian deaths happened at night or in some darkness nationally.

• ⅓ of 200 pedestrians killed

• ⅓ of 200 drivers of motorcycles are killed

• ⅓ of 200 drivers of cars are killed

• Almost 100,000 pedestrians get injured every year in the U.S. 6,000 pedestrians were killed

• Nevada is ranked 8th most dangerous in the nation for pedestrian deaths.

• From 2000 to 2009, 421 pedestrians were killed in Las Vegas

• LED lights produce visible light when an electrical current is passed through them.

• LED lights can be more efficient, durable, versatile, and last longer.

Research

• LED lights don’t radiate as much heat as incandescent or halogen light bulbs do.

• The inventors of the LED lights are Nick Holonyak and Oleg Lasev.

• When an LED is switched on, electrons are able to, with holes within the device releasing energy in the form of protons. This effect is called electroluminescence and color of the light (corresponding to the energy of the proton) is determined by the energy of the photons which is determined by the energy band gap of the semi conductor.

Research

• In July 2013, 29 pedestrians in Southern Nevada were killed. Police have responded to more reports of pedestrians being killed in all of 2011.

• In 2003, there was a total of 42,643 traffic fatalities in the United States. The 0-14 age group accounted for 15% of these traffic fatalities.

• In the U.S. at least fifty children are being backed over by vehicles every week. Forty-eight are treated in hospital emergency rooms and at least two children are fatally injured every week due to poor visibility by the driver.

Research

-A flashlight (at our night walk)

-A log book

-Scissors

-Ruler

-A sewing kit

-2 backpacks

-Blue LED lights

-Red LED lights

-A crosswalk

-A timer (on phone)

-Measuring tape

- AA Batteries (to power our LED lights)

Materials

1.Take the backpack, ruler, scissors, LED string lights (battery powered), and sewing kit incase you make a mistake.

2.Make a slit in the middle of one strap of the backpack. The strap does not have to have padding, but we prefer you do.

3.Insert controller of the LED lights in the slit.

Process for Making the Backpack

1. Now take the LED string light and make it go up the strap and cut a hole at the very top. Have the LED string light come out of there.

2. Cut your first hole and have the LED light come out of the hole.

3. Now cut a few more holes, and measure the distance between each hole, and weave the LED string lights through them. Continue this process through the entire backpack and weave in center when you get there.

4. Your backpack is now complete.

Process for Making the Backpack (continued)

1. We went to our crosswalk (had to be a crosswalk without stoplights, for example, a crosswalk in a neighborhood or next to one like we did).

2. We took the measuring tape and measured 240 feet.

3. Two people stood 240 feet away from the crosswalk. The other two stood at the crosswalk.

Process for the Walks During Daytime

1. When a car that was going straight and not turning left came and passed the 240 feet point, the two people who stood 240 feet away would wave as a signal for the other two to start crossing the sidewalk. The two people would start walking.

2. The people at the 240 feet point would start to time when the car came at the 240 feet point and see how long it would take for the driver to realize the two people walking and stop.

3. Once we got our time, we would record it in our log book. We kept timing and walking for 5 cars.

Process for the Walks During Daytime (continued)

1. We went to our crosswalk (had to be a crosswalk without stoplights, for example, a crosswalk in a neighborhood or next to one like we did).

2. We took the measuring tape and measured 240 feet.

3. Two people stood 240 feet away from the crosswalk. The other two stood at the crosswalk.

Process for the Walks During Nighttime

1. When a car that was going straight and not turning left came and passed the 240 feet point, the two people who stood 240 feet away would show the flashlight as a signal for the other two to start crossing the street. The two people would start walking.

2. The people at the 240 feet point would start to time when the car came at the 240 feet point and see how long it would take for the driver to realize the two people walking and stop.

3. Once we got our time, we would record it in our log book. We kept timing and walking for 5 cars.

Process for Walks During Nighttime (continued)

Results: Data TableLED backpack during day

LED backpack during night

Regular backpack during day

Regular backpack during night

Car 1: 3 sec Car 1: 5 sec Car 1: 4 sec Car 1: 6 sec

Car 2: 4 sec Car 2: 5 sec Car 2: 8 sec Car 2: 6 sec

Car 3: 5 sec Car 3: 4 sec Car 3: 12 sec Car 3: 6 sec

Car 4: 4 sec Car 4: 5 sec Car 4: 6 sec Car 4: 7 sec

Car 5: 5 sec Car 5: 4 sec Car 5: 6 sec Car 5: 6 sec

Average ≈ 4 Average ≈ 5 Average ≈ 7 Average ≈ 6

Results: Graph 1

Car 1 Car 2 Car 3 Car 4 Car 50

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

Walk in Daytime

LED backpack Regular backpack

Car 1 Car 2 Car 3 Car 4 Car 50

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Walk in Night Time

LED backpack Regular backpack

Results: Graph 2

1. While we were doing the walks for both day and night, speed varied between drivers. Most of the drivers we saw were all going way past the speed limit! We estimated the speed they were going to be about 50-60 miles per hour! The speed limit was 30 miles per hour at the crosswalk we were at. • We had parent supervision, but we still were very cautious when

doing the walks. We never walked when a car was going way past the speed limit. We only went when a car was going at 30 miles per hour. Being this cautious took us a while to complete the walks, but at least we were safe.

Sources of Experimental Error

2. Another source of experimental error was for the walks during nighttime. We didn’t want to go to a crosswalk in complete darkness, so we chose a crosswalk that had a few streetlights. We used the same crosswalk for both night and day walks.

The streetlights helped us see which cars were going incredibly fast and which cars were going at the speed limit. The streetlights helped us be more safe, but the LED lights were not as clear as we hoped they would be, because the streetlights’ light shone on the LED lights a little and the LED lights could not shine as bright as they would in complete darkness.

Sources of Experimental Error

Question:

In this experiment, we were trying to answer the question, “Can a backpack with LED lights make a person more visible to drivers versus a backpack without LED lights?”

Our hypothesis was that LED lights on a backpack will improve visibility of children to a vehicles in motion compared to children with backpacks that do not have LED lights.

LED lights will work in night and day and they are brighter.

Conclusion

• ENHANCED VISIBILITY OF A CHILD ON STREET WILL CAUSE LESS ACCIDENTS AND PREVENTS DEATHS FROM VEHICLE ACCIDENTS.

• VISIBLE BACKPACK=VISIBLE CHILD=LESS ACCIDENTS=CHILD SAFETY=LESS DEATHS/INJURIES

• WE PROVED OUR HYPOTHESIS IS CORRECT

Conclusion

LED lights can be taken so much further in the future.

• Use of two colored LED lights to enhance better visibility to driver

• Educate kids on street safety

• Add LED lights to all material a pedestrian may have such as phone cases, reusable water bottles, purses, and so much more

What can we do in the future?

A lot of people helped us with this project, supplied money for our materials, and made sure we were safe at the crosswalk. The names of the people are shown below:

Ram Thummala – bought the blue LED lights, and supervised every single walk.

Maureen Luna – bought us our first polka dot backpack and supervised the night walks with Ram Thummala.

Leann Tang – bought us the red LED lights and also bought us our second black with little bit of pink backpack.

Special Thanks

1. "Dyed Plastic Boosts Solar Cells." MIT Technology Review. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2013.

2. "THE UNWALKABLE LAS VEGAS." Las Vegas CityLife. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2013.

3. "Can We Cross in Time?" Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School n.d.: n. pag. Web.

4. "Las Vegas Review-Journal." Las Vegas Review-Journal. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Dec. 2014.

5. "Number Of Pedestrians Killed Rises For First Time In Five Years." Aol Autos. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2014.

6. "DATA & RESOURCES." Pedestrian & Bicycle Information Center. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2014.

7. "PEDESTRIANS (Safe Drive Training)." PEDESTRIANS (Safe Drive Training). N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2014.

Bibliography

1. "Las Vegas Review-Journal." Cars vs. People: Death Toll on Streets Alarming. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2013.

2. "Transportation For America » Report Documents Preventable Pedestrian Deaths, Ranks Most Dangerous Metro Areas." Universal Feedburner. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2013.

3. "Albright Stoddard Blog." Pedestrian Accidents and Injuries in Las Vegas, Nevada. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2013.

4. "Kill Speed." Kill Speed. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2013.

5. "Beat the Traffic - Las Vegas Current Traffic Conditions - 8 News NOW." Beat the Traffic - Las Vegas Current Traffic Conditions - 8 News NOW. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2013.

6. "Learn About LEDs." : ENERGY STAR. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2013.

7. "A Look at 15 of the Most Dangerous Intersections in Las Vegas." LasVegasSun.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2013.

Bibliography

We decided to build a website to give more information about our project. Our URL of our website is shown below.

http://4icebreakers.weebly.com

Website

Thanks for Listening!!! Any Questions?