Stay Alert, Stay Alive- Road Safety Day
How many students heard the message of your project?
4000
Estimated percentage of your student body?
91-100%
Who has your project aimed to reach?
Freshman class| Sophomore class| Junior class| Senior class| School professionals| Parents| Community at large| Other Monmouth county
Objective:
Clearly state the objective of your project.
Our objective was to educate the high school students and community about road safety in order to mitigate the rising infractions and unsafe behaviors on the Matawan/Aberdeen roads and foster a partnership with the local police departments. After seeing just how many violations on bicycles our middle schoolers and freshmen were getting in addition to the rising availability of THC products made it obvious to us that we needed to target our students and educate them.
Execution:
Describe your project and its implementation.
In order to combat these issues head on, we decided to go back to the basics, use targeted instruction, and create something that could become part of the curriculum at the high school for years to come.
We wanted to not only engage every single member of the student body, but also avail ourselves of our community involvement. We created instructional activities appropriate for each grade level had them rotate through our 8 period day. Since every student is required to take physical education, we decided keep the activities contained within our 47 minute period so we were sure to target every student. When we developed this idea, we first had to get approval from the high school administration. Once approved, we reached out to our community organizations for help and put together the logistics. For the freshman we needed pedestrian and bike safety and asked the BIANJ. For sophomores, we enlisted NJM to deliver the “What do you consider lethal?” presentation specifically developed for students in driver’s Ed. For juniors, many of which are already driving we wanted to concentrate on experiential activities which is why we used the Fatal Vision goggles monitored by the Aberdeen police department. Almost all of our seniors drive so we asked the Arrive Alive Tour to give our students a virtual reality experience with distracted driving as well as under the influence of alcohol and THC.
School/Community Engagement:
How did you reach your student body and the community? (examples: connecting with nearby colleges, schools, local police departments, persons affected by teen crashes, local/county/state governments, and local businesses)
SADD and the Civic Leaders are the two clubs that spearheaded the day, but we were excited to have student volunteers from lots of clubs during the planning and execution like academic challenge, Key club, interact club, the anime club, etc… and even the PTO stepped in to help out for the day and provided lunch for all the presenters! Furthermore, associations in our community such as the Aberdeen Police department, NJM, the BIANJ, and MADD all came out to lend a hand in making our day a success. Although the representative from MADD did not do a presentation, he came out to spend time with our students, hand out brochures, and make connections. We hope to build on this relationship and avail ourselves of other offerings in the future.
Creativity:
What makes your project unique and engaging? How did you engage with other student groups to creatively spread your message? (Examples: create artwork, music, plays, unique campaign slogan/logos)
Although we’ve gone back to basics with targeted education- we’ve really focused on the long haul, however, we thought the hype and excitement of making it a “Day,” would add to the positive experience and foster learning. Additionally, for those students already driving, we employed experiential tasks so they would get a deeper understanding of the dangers of distracted driving and driving under the influence.
Teamwork:
Show how you worked as a team in designing and implementing your project (examples: sign-in sheets at meetings, photos of the group working on tasks).
We started off with just SADD and Civic leaders, but once we got our administration and teachers involved, we gained student members from so many clubs and activities. Furthermore, we were able to enlist the assistance of our parent-teacher organization and the community. Together we had meetings to decide on appropriate activities, meetings for logistics, and everyone came together on the big day. Working together has given a new appreciation for the roles we all played in the final project.
Use of Research/Data:
Show how you used local resources to help identify, deliver, assess, and present your project (Examples: local/statewide/national data.).
We used moving violation data from the local police as well as conducting surveys and behaviors ourselves. In addition, we checked the local NJ statistics and found that driving under the influence of marijuana has risen steadily since 2007 and made it’s highest jump after the legalization in NJ. It was this data that drove us specifically for the freshmen (bike and pedestrian safety) and senior (Arrive Alive virtual reality) activity choices.
Use of Media:
Document how you used media in your project (examples: local radio, TV, newspapers, social media, websites, video, PSAs).
Because we had the Arrive Alive Tour technology which has been updated to simulate THC we thought we might have a hook that the news would like to cover. The following news outlets were invited: ABC 7 NY, Asbury Park Press, CBS 2 NY, Fox, News 12 NJ, and NJ.com.
We were excited when the Asbury Park Press showed their interest! They published a video story, photo gallery, and an article about us. We continue using our social media twitter/X profile and are still seeing engagement. In addition, we started a SADD Instagram account hoping to add to that realm. As always, we have the SADD website, the high school and district website, our huskytv YouTube channel, the Aberdeen police and Aberdeen community facebook pages, and the Aberdeen township website, Facebook page, twitter, and instagram all at our disposal to disseminate our message. Everyone at the community level has been helping as much as they can towards this goal.
Evaluation and Impact:
Describe how you measured the impact of your project (examples: pre/post observational studies, surveys, quizzes, interviews, etc.)
We’ve evaluated the event in several ways. We had a nine question exit survey the day of the event to guage immediate impact. In addition, we sent a google form out through classes a couple of weeks after the event. We also plan to check in again after prom and the beginning of next year. Here’s a highlight of what our students had to say…My favorite part about the day, specifically the presentation, was the extra information about how much of a responsibility driving is. Many teens die in vehicle accidents due to texting or other forms of distraction. This tells me to stay focused on the road at all times when driving to prevent the chances of being under an accident. It also tells me to be strongly aware of my surrounding because other people driving might be distracted, and I have to make sure I am paying attention to other drivers just so I can avoid an accident in the nick of time.- Lucas G.
One of the things that I remember from the presentation the most was how much could go wrong with only a few seconds of distracted driving. When he said that by checking your phone for 4 seconds while driving on a highway, your car could go the length of a football field, I was shocked. He also showed stories of people who were in car crashes and didn’t wear their seatbelts. The difference between wearing a seatbelt and not, is literally life and death. I always wore them anyways, but now I will make sure to tell any friends I see not wearing them. -Max C.
I think the best part of the whole day in general was how everything was enforced with safety but kind of calmly. It wasn’t all thrown at you in one and it made it easier to understand things and take in what to do. I also enjoyed how if you answer a question even if you get it right or wrong you still get a prize. This makes it a little more more fun and joyful which makes the information more intriguing to listen too.- Gavin V.
Sustainability:
How will your project have a lasting effect on your target group?
We believe that we needed to target every student in the school and provide them with grade specific information in order to make it pertinent and to make it last. We hope that by doing this every year, the learning and ideas will be cemented into the culture of our high school. Furthermore, experiential Learning is the process of learning by doing and for our 11th and 12th graders who are either driving already or about to drive, we focused on this aspect. By engaging students in hands-on experiences and reflection, they are better able to connect the knowledge learned to real-world situations. We can see that we made an impact and we have already started planning to do this again next year. Although we may initiate other campaigns in the future, our students see the value in what they learned this year. SADD had 11 new members (that’s double our current members) at the first meeting after our “Road Safety Day.” This proves that not only do our students think it was valuable, but also that they want to help us make it better.
Unexpected Lessons Learned:
Describe any unintended results that came out of your project.
No matter how many spreadsheets you make, things will not always go as planned. We thought the day was going to be flawless because we had already planned backups and contingencies, but we definitely hit a few bumps. Thankfully our advisors Mrs. Ciaravino and Mrs. O’Neill didn’t let anything throw them off. They taught us to not panic and find alternative solutions. No one other than us and our presenters knew that things hadn’t gone as planned. In a nutshell, resilience and flexibilty are necessary when planning events.
Stipend Reporting:
Your school received a stipend to support your Champion School Teen Driving Safety Project. Additionally, any funds that you raised as a result of your project must be reinvested into transportation safety. The purpose of this report is to itemize expenditures for your project that were paid from the stipend
Busing $1800
Total $1800
PROJECT MEDIA
