Expanding Middle Schoolers’ Horizons, One Bike Ride at a Time
Photo of Riding for Focus participants taken by and used with permission from Ryan McKinney
BY Mira Molthen
The US is facing a major inactivity epidemic in children. Only 20-28% of children ages 6-17 meet the daily physical activity recommendations of one hour of exercise per day, which increases the risk of chronic disease. Jordan Carlson, Ph.D., professor of pediatrics at Children’s Mercy Kansas City, finds, “children’s physical activity is highly influenced by factors within our communities.” Outride is a nonprofit organization that believes increased biking accessibility for kids can help address one of these major barriers. They participate in research partnerships that highlight the benefits of biking for adolescents and support programming to make biking more accessible for youth.
Outride’s Riding for Focus Program (R4F) supports middle school students in learning how to ride a bike. Outride has partnered with over 400 schools in the US and Canada to incorporate biking lessons into middle school curriculum, including schools in Wisconsin.
Schools selected for this competitive program are given a grant that includes:
Bikes and helmets sized for students.
A curriculum to be integrated into class.
Teacher training and professional development.
Program evaluation tools to measure impact.
Ongoing technical assistance and community support.
Photo of a middle school student navigating a mountain biking bridge taken by and shared with permission from Ryan McKinney.
Upon completion of the program, Outride finds that riding bikes more frequently improves well-being, allowing students to escape the pressures of daily life. Ryan McKinney, a physical education teacher in Spooner, WI, and a R4F instructor, reflects on the different ways that the R4F has affected his students:
“Each student experiences different emotions, but for some of our students, completing the R4F program is a giant confidence booster. When you go from feeling like you’ll never learn how to ride, to be able to balance and swerve around obstacles, you start to feel like you can conquer other challenges as well.”
Another important benefit of this program is the capacity biking has to provide an outlet for stress in middle schoolers' lives. McKinney shares:
“We have ‘What will you Outride?’ prints by our bike shed doorway with the powerful reminders of things our students are learning to Outride including depression, lack of confidence, ADHD, etc.”
Students share that they find joy in biking. Esther Walker, Outride’s executive director, believes:
“There's a lot to be said about the joy and the fun that can come with [biking]. There are not that many activities where you get that sheer wind in your face and freedom and mobility.”
Photo of middle schooler’s practicing their mountain biking skills taken by and used with permission from Ryan McKinney.
Future: Outride’s impact goes beyond just benefiting middle schoolers. Although the long-term benefits of their programs have not yet been studied, several factors suggest the organization's future influence. Increased activity in childhood translates to increased activity in adulthood. By facilitating the creation of these habits at a young age, Outride’s program promotes lifelong activity.
As students begin to become more comfortable with biking, they may begin to use it as a method of transportation. This has both positive environmental and economic impacts when applied on a grand scale. In the US, the current percentage of trips in metropolitan areas made through active transport is 1%. If this were increased to 6%, it would save the U.S. approximately $780 million a year in health costs and avert approximately 7,000 days of work lost to illness.
Ryan finds that once the R4F students get into biking, they may also influence their families to bike and create new norms upholding bike accessibility. Previous studies have reported the influence parents have on their children’s cycling behavior, and Outride’s R4F program provides the foundation for students to be the influencers instead.
Want to get involved? Here are some steps you can take.
Outride is currently accepting applications for its Riding for Focus program during the 2026-27 school year, until February 28th, 2026! Linked here are details about the application.
Here is a link to Outride’s website to get engaged with some of their other programs.
Other programs also may have some opportunities to be involved with:
The Safe Routes to School program. This organization works to establish visibility and infrastructure for students who want to participate in biking to school.
The Wisconsin Bike Federation is a nonprofit that is local to Wisconsin. This organization works to make bikes more accessible. They also have involvement opportunities within schools.
The Bike Bus organization works to transform communities by creating a “bus” with bikes. Look more into this organization. If your school does not have this, you may want to create one yourself!