Ravens Striving for Safe Driving
How many students heard the message of your project?
1200
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
Objective:
Clearly state the objective of your project.
Our project was aimed at reducing driving distractions by fostering awareness of the dangers associated with distracted driving. Through a multifaceted approach, we engaged and educated our school community, parents, and the wider public on the importance of safe driving practices.
Execution:
Describe your project and its implementation.
For our project we wanted to promote safe driving within our school, community, and state. Within our school we did a safe driving scavenger hunt where students needed to find trivia about distracted driving. Additionally, we hosted the first ever Safe Driving Night where parents and community members were invited to watch the Share the Keys presentation from NJM and interact at a variety of safe driving booths. Booths included wearing distracted driving goggles and blindfolds to mimic distracted driving, as well as distracted driving trivia and games. The distracted driving goggles will be used on May 2nd during our portion of Senior Safety & Awareness Day where students will try to drive a golf cart wearing the goggles under police supervision. We also will be hosting an assembly called “Distracted Driving/Deadly Consequences” for students on May 20th.
Outside of our school walls we went to the NJ State House to speak on behalf of the work we began last year, Senate Resolution SR39. This resolution urges restaurants to include warnings against use of mobile ordering features while driving. While speaking to the Senate Law and Public Safety Committee, we also showed our video of how our idea could actually be implemented. The senate resolution passed unanimously and now we are working on a house resolution.
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)
We reached out to over a dozen local businesses to help with our Safe Driving campaign. While not many replied, we received help from our local fire and police departments. Our fire department hung a custom banner during their Operation Santa and our local police department will be helping us during our distracted driving station at our Senior Safety and Awareness Day. Finally, the NJEA is providing us with the funds for the Distracted Driving Deadly Consequences assembly. The union also helped to run a booth at Safe Driving Night.
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)
We created visually appealing flyers and videos for each event. During our announcements, we included some Tik Tok trends to captivate people’s attention when announcing our events. We made many parts of our campaign bright, fun and interactive, so not only would it capture more student’s attention but also cause them to participate. We created our very own green screen photo booth for safe driving night, having student-made backgrounds surrounding our case. We created a scavenger hunt around Bring Your Child To Work Day, influencing students to participate to keep the teachers’ kids busy. Besides these new activities, we continued to work on our display case that was started last year, along with using our slogan: Ravens Striving For Safe Driving.
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).
You can see photos of us in the presentation. We met weekly on Tuesdays to plan our campaign. At each meeting attendance was taken.
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 local resources to help present our project through our display case, Safe Driving Night, and senate resolution. In our display case and the Safe Driving Night trivia and games, we included facts from the NHTSA. Our idea for the senate resolution was inspired by statistics The NDP Group and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute.
Use of Media:
Document how you used media in your project (examples: local radio, TV, newspapers, social media, websites, video, PSAs).
We sent out a press release about SR39. Here are the articles that were written:
https://rhs.robbinsville.k12.nj.us/m/news/show_news.jsp?REC_ID=897346&id=0
Robbinsville High School Juniors Urge State Lawmakers to Address Distracted Driving
Evaluation and Impact:
Describe how you measured the impact of your project (examples: pre/post observational studies, surveys, quizzes, interviews, etc.)
We used Google Forms to keep track of how many people completed our scavenger hunt and attended Safe Driving Night. We also will have questions on the exit surveys for Senior Safety & Awareness Day and the Distracted Driving Deadly Consequences assembly to ask how many students had texted while driving before the event vs. if they think they will do so in the future.
Sustainability:
How will your project have a lasting effect on your target group?
With the help of Bill SR39, we will decrease the amount of distracted driving in the state of NJ. We are in the works of making our Safe Driving Night mandatory in order to obtain a parking pass.
Unexpected Lessons Learned:
Describe any unintended results that came out of your project.
During our Share the Keys event the presenter told us that other schools get higher attendance rates by making it mandatory for students who want to get a parking pass. We think this is a great idea and are already in talks with our administration to get this approved to start next year!
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
FatalVision Goggles $925
Banner for fire truck $65
Bus to State House & Six Flags $409.49
Total $1399.49
PROJECT MEDIA
