An Opportunity for Middle School and High School Students:

ISU’s involvement in AASHTO’s TRAC™ Program was initiated by Professor Brent Phares in 2015.

The TRAC™ (Transportation and Civil Engineering) Program was designed by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) for use in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) classes. It is a hands-on, educational outreach program which State Departments of Transportation provide free of charge to middle and high schools in their state.

The TRAC™ Program introduces students to the work world of transportation. Middle and high school teachers are supplied with a TRAC PAC which contains education modules featuring professionally developed curricula that meet national standards of learning. Each module contains the equipment, software, and supplies needed to perform the activity.

Accelerated Bridge Construction:
While Professor Brent Phares did not fully incorporate ABC into the established AASHTO TRAC™ Program in 2015, as this was the first year of ISU’s involvement in the program, in his face-to-face and Skype meetings with the student participants he emphasized the topic of traffic congestion and the importance of using ABC to build bridges faster and to design them to be constructible.

For more information on ISU’s participation in the AASHTO’s TRAC™ Program, contact Sharon Prochnow at prochnow@iastate.edu.

For more information on AASHTO’s TRAC™ Program, see the TRAC™ website.