Watch your action, don’t cause distractions.
How many students heard the message of your project?
600
Estimated percentage of your student body?
71-80%
Who has your project aimed to reach?
Freshman class, Sophomore class, Junior class, Senior class, School professionals, Parents, Community at large
Objective:
Our project this year was to write and illustrate a children’s book that discusses the dangers of distracted driving. The purpose of this book is to raise awareness of how distracted driving can be dangerous for kids at a younger age. A chicken named Mr. Cluck is trying to cross the road when he almost gets hit by Mr. Cow. If Mr. Cow had not been distracted, he would have seen that Mr. Cluck was crossing the road much sooner. It is important to spread awareness to prevent distracted driving because 17.3% of fatal accidents in New Jersey are caused by distracted driving, making it the 6th highest rate in the country. Our hope is that if children can see how dangerous reckless driving can be, it will lead to them becoming safer drivers.
Target Audience:
With each idea we did we target different types of groups of people so we can create an overall impact on everyone in our community. With the children’s book our ideal target group would be 1st graders all the way to 4th graders. With our bracelets we target 5th grade all the way to adults even though most of the grades can’t drive they still can experience the effects of distracted driving which is why we targeted them. Then the survey targeted young adults to adults( ages 16 and older) as it was a survey designed for what type of drivers we have in our community. Also tells us what distracted these drivers. We targeted all age groups because everyone can be affected by distracted driving. Also we are a mainly walking district so it’s important to all of us to make sure we can try to drive safely to keep our future safe.
Execution:
Our project consisted of creating and giving a survey to various people in Bound Brook to receive data on different driver safety aspects. We analyzed the data and reflected on how it represented the community as a whole. We also made a children’s book that teaches a lesson about distracted driving and what to do and not to do on the road. The story follows a chicken that comes home to find his baby chicks crying out for food, so as any parent would do Mr. Cluck quickly leaves his home to go and get some food for the baby chicks. Meanwhile as the chicken went out, a cow was driving in a car stressing due to the fact that he was late to work. Since he was late he decided to look down on his phone to text his boss about him being late. As Mr. Cluck crosses the road to get food from the store Mr. Cow looks up from his phone and sees Mr. Cluck in the middle of the road and slams on the break. The car comes to a harsh stop nearly hitting the chicken. Officer Donut, seeing this pulls over Mr. Cow and starts to talk about the dangers of driving with distractions. He hands him a ticket for failing to yield to a pedestrian at a crosswalk with a fine of $200 dollars and the “Watch your actions don’t cause distractions” bracelet. This children’s book helps deliver an important message to the audience in an easier way. Instead of a boring book with just facts and information, the story will be colorful, fun, and appealing for a younger audience while still delivering a powerful message. We proceeded to hand out actual bracelets to students and staff and other members of the community.
Teamwork:
Our team was very cooperative throughout the process of creating this project. We were actively sharing our ideas and making suggestions. When we finally came up with the ideas of making a children’s book and gathering data via surveys, we executed them. Our children’s book was worked on by a group of our students, and the rest of us went out and surveyed people asking questions in regards to how much they are distracted while driving.
Use of resources:
Our local resources were crucial throughout the duration of our project as they gave us insight on the state of road safety in Bound Brook. By interviewing numerous locals and asking them questions regarding road safety within the town, we were able to document an accurate description of what the roads of Bound Brook are like to everyday citizens. And no other person can give us a more unbiased insight than Mrs.Johnson, the Elementary school’s crossing guard who has been on the corner of Cherry Ave and Hayward St. for well over a decade. Mrs.Johnson could not recall any times that she had seen anyone speeding, running red lights, or doing anything that would endanger the safety of any pedestrians walking by. Although Mrs.Johnson is only present for the morning and afternoon hours during the months that school is in session, her 10+ years of experience as the crossing guard of the Elementary school, and her not experiencing any reckless driving around the school, indicates that people generally drive safely around the Elementary School. Mrs.Johnson’s insight obligated us to survey the other crossing guards in the town that are stationed by school zones and their insight was crucial to us coming to the conclusion that people generally drive safely around school zones in Bound Brook.
Use of media:
Social media is used by everyone nowadays and we used this advantage by adding a link on our snapchat stories for others to fill out. People like our friends and family members answered our questions honestly since it was anonymous. We also posted the google form on Instagram so even more people got a chance to fill it out. A tik tok page was made for this PSA and we made a simple video letting people know to buckle their seat belts and focus on driving with #fyp to try to get on the peoples for you page to spread the message. Our group used popular apps used the most by others to promote “watch your actions,don’t cause distractions”.
Thoroughness:
Our project demonstrates teen safety driving by showing wrong from right when being on the road. Most teen drivers are safe drivers with their hands 9 and 3 as well as their eyes always on the road. It demonstrates the importance when driving on the road. When teens are distracted on the road it is most likely because they are either texting, changing the radio, talking to other passengers, trying to answer a call, or are not focused on their surrounding and are too into the conversation. Some of the most distracting things on the road are cell phones. When teens are driving on the road once they get to a red light or stop sign they check their phones to either chase the music, text someone, or check their notifications. Because of these actions they dont see when the light turn green so they are sitting at a green light and by the time they see the light is green when they try to go other cars who are turning try going at the same time. Our project shows how our teen drivers are safe.Once they get into the car we put our phones on do not disturb and place them somewhere that’ll make us not want to check them while we are driving. We make sure all passengers have their seatbelts on and start our safe drive. It is always good to keep both hands on the wheel in case of an emergency turn. When driving in the car the passengers, and other cars on the road’s life are in your hands.
Impact:
I felt we measured change every second we worked together as a group to show and explain what we do and why we do this. Everyone in this club has put hard work into this to make at least one person open their mind to listen to what we are saying. I felt the survey was a very big factor in how we can measure change and impact as we asked them different questions on distracted driving after we made a book and handed bracelets explaining our message. This survey showed us that most people were distracted drivers and we wanted to change that. So we made bracelets with our slogan where we handed them out while explaining what “Watch Your Action, Don’t Cause Distraction” is trying to represent. We also gave them some extra bracelets to give out to their friends to create awareness and from what i’ve seen a lot of people are wearing then which makes us as a group feel like we accomplished something small to create a bigger impact. With every idea we made we tried to create an everlasting impact so that the younger generation can continue what we did in trying to make this a better and safer community for everyone.
Sustainability:
Our message is an important one so it’s not something that people will forget since our group/club will keep spreading the type of PSA’s the following years. We also made sure our slogan was catchy and easy to remember. The tik tok video/account won’t get deleted, it will stay there to whoever runs into it. By not taking down the video we believe it will continue to reach a broader audience. The children’s book we made will be remembered by the kids and they’ll most likely mention it to their parents.
Unexpected Lessons Learned:
Our group had clear-cut objectives when coming into this project with the intended goals having outcomes that we fully expected such as getting the general message of the dangers of distracted driving across to a certain demographic specifically people 17+ due to them having substantially more experience with driving. But we were surprised at the appeal of our project to the younger demographic, specifically the children in the Elementary Schools. Although the target audience of our book was children, we did not expect the message to resonate with them as much as it did. By illustrating our message with fictional characters we can reach a common ground with the children which lets them better comprehend the intended message of our book. In turn, our group learned the importance of reaching common ground with our target audience, this is a tactic that many organizations practice to reach a target audience, such as an NBA team such as the Denver Nuggets creating a Tik Tok Account, and posting videos to relate with their younger fans.
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
Poster Boards- $25
Children’s Book, flyers with logo – $100
Bracelets – $300
Total $425
PROJECT MEDIA
