Don’t Pile, Not Worth the Trial
How many students heard the message of your project?
1200
Estimated percentage of your student body?
81-90%
Who has your project aimed to reach?
Freshman class, Sophomore class, Junior class, Senior class, Parents, Community at large
Objective:
The objective of our project was to continue educating the students, teachers, administration and community of Kearny about the dangers of distracted driving. We emphasized the number of people in a car with a GDL licensed driver. The GDL law is still foreign to many and we are still trying to work the the school and community to enforce the law and to have these drivers comply with the law. Our main emphasis for number of passengers is because we notice that students continue to pile in cars exceeding the amount of passengers they can have in their car. From our survey conducted it was determined that students thought distracted driving caused by passengers in the car was a large percentage for accidents. As we complete our project we hope we have educated the population of Kearny to understand the importance of abiding the law and the reasons/statistics that support the laws.
Target Audience:
The main target of our project is the students and the community of Kearny. We find it important to not only educate the students about these laws but to educate the community so they can help keep the GDL licensed drivers accountable to the laws of the road and to help keep their community safe. The students have been educated through Driver Education classes, guest speakers and student reach outs, however, when there is an inch, they will take a foot..so it is important to get the community members that are supporting the youth to be as knowledgeable as well.
Execution:
Our project was to implement something that can help promote our message even further.. we are still currently in the process of implementing our own parking spot for a student of the month that is picked by one of the supervisors, that will allow one senior student to park in this spot that is in a guarded parking lot for one month. The students will need to donate a $1 that will be donated to the Brain Injury Alliance at the end of each month. The students will need to demonstrate an understanding of the rules of the road, along with the importance of the GDL laws. Students will then be entering the raffle, where one student will get that spot. In Kearny there are no parking lots because of the lack of space, so it is very difficult to get parking spots unless parking extremely far from the school. We are at a standstill right now because we have to now go to the City Council meeting because the spot we are looking to take over is currently not owned by the Kearny School District but rather the town of Kearny. We are fighting to try to get that spot for the student chosen from the hours of 8am- 4 pm. We have put together information, statistics and other points to help with our case and are hoping when we can present to the council, that our progress from this program will be noticed and understood as being helpful to improve the driving of GDL drivers as well as educating the community of the importance of following the GDL laws.
Teamwork:
We had a google classroom page that was geared towards message boards, meeting notes/ideas, workspace for PSA, workspace for organizing messages to the students, google slides for guidance monitor/daily morning announcement statistics. We had sign-in- sheets, took photos to document our meetings and the work students were doing to get our message across with hanging up posters, putting posters in teachers mailboxes to be displayed in their classrooms, handing out lanyards, bracelets to students to help him to always remember.
Use of resources:
Throughout our project we were trying to extend our message to different outlets to help relay the message of distracted driving. We were able to get the support of many local businesses- allowing the students to hang posters in their storefront windows, give away free bracelets with our messages, stickers on pizza boxes, etc.
The Hudson County Police were helping us by posting our information to their websites and by hanging posters we made to their facility.
We are still continuing to work with the Town of Kearny to help relay our message to other outlets.
Use of media:
We used social media for posting information: twitter, instagram and facebook.
We also completed a PSA that was also posted to our school website to reach the entire community.
We used our guidance departments TVs in the hallways-scrolling different statistics of distracted driving.
Thoroughness:
We have based all of our project off of statistics that proves driver safety, especially distracted driving is a main reason for why new drivers are now following a GDL license format. We are trying to hopefully encourage students/community to think about specifically the amount of people allowed in a car with the GDL licensed driver at a time. We are also aware that the students are not abiding by all the laws of the GDL, and we see on a daily basis the students gathering in cars and driving away with more than one person. We hope that by meeting with the Town of Kearny, we can further help them understand the importance of getting a spot for a GDL driver to earn, that will help encourage them to abide the laws.
Impact:
We used a survey this year. The survey was taken by all grade levels. The survey indicated that from the beginning of the school year to the present, there has been an increase of awareness of the GDL law. Students were educated by their peers through variety of outlets that helped students become more knowledgeable and aware of the GDL law and the importance in abiding by it. The statistics were recorded in google forms and we later were able to map it out in excel sheets and see the significant increase of knowledge the students had about the GDL law and what it overall entailed.
Sustainability:
We are hoping that our project will hope the students realize that they are not invincible and that anything can happen at any given time. We are hoping that they are given tools, statistics and other information about why these laws are in place and why they should be followed. It is important for them to understand that their actions can impact not only themselves but an entire family, community and society as a whole. When getting your license, you are accepting the responsibilities you have by using the roadways of NJ. Mistakes, accidents happen, but by not following the law, that is a different story and something that cannot be tolerated.
Unexpected Lessons Learned:
There were no really unintended results except for the fact that we thought we would be able to get the parking spot for the senior student up and running this year, but all the meetings we have had setup, seem to get pushed back further and further. We are hoping the beginning of next year, we can roll this out immediately, so the first month a Senior can have their designated parking spot!
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
Lanyards, Materials – $300.00
Posters, Stickers, T-Shirts – $500.00
Local Vendor Gift Cards – $200.00
Total – $1,000
Did your school project raise any funds as a result of the stipend received? – YES
PROJECT MEDIA
