Click Clack Front & Back

How many students heard the message?
875

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:
To increase the compliance of teens, adults, and all passengers wearing seat belts in both the front and back seat through the town of Oakland, New Jersey, and beyond. We want to start a movement to bring awareness to our community about drivers’ safety, specifically seat belts. Our motto “Click-Clack Front and Back” is symbolic of us trying to get people to understand that no matter where you are in the car – front or back you have to wear your seat belt; it’s the law, but more importantly can have an impact on saving lives. According to the National Traffic Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA), in 2017, 47% of passenger occupants killed were not wearing their seatbelt. Also, the majority of teens involved in fatal crashes aren’t wearing their seat belts, 54% of unrestrained 13-15-year-old passenger vehicle occupants killed in crashes in 2017. ( https://www.nhtsa.gov/risky-driving/seat-belts)
This is not only a Graduated Driver’s License issue; it involves the entire family and community. What example are the parents/guardians setting for their children, be they young adults, teenagers, tweens, or a youngster in the appropriate child restraint system? By bringing awareness to this subject, we hope that we can encourage the people who do not wear their seat belt to wear it, and for those who do, have them spread this positive message. It can be a matter of life or death.

Target Audience:
The “Click Clack Front and Back” project is targeting any individual adult, teen, or child that will be traveling in a motor vehicle. Our primary focus will be the students in grades 9-12 at Indian Hills High School. We hope to share our message with their parents, older and younger siblings, relatives, and all those that travel to and from Indian Hills High School, including the teachers, administrators, and support staff.

The team felt it was essential to cover the same message from ways that would most appeal to the various age groups since they were looking to appeal to a wide range. Here are some suggested activities that they did or would have done if not for the Covid-19 pandemic.

Some ideas on how to convey the message to kids includes-crafts, coloring pages, dance, songs, things that the children could share with a parent/guardian/grandparent or another adult relative.

Some proposed ideas for teenagers include but are not limited to -social media-Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, a catchy song/dance, messages on Schoology and, a video involving “Brave” our school mascot. During the lunch periods, would ask students to participate in signing the Pledge 2 Win Share the Road Campaign High School Challenge to be eligible to win a $50.00 Visa gift card, would include sponsoring various school level contests to include but not limited to: selfie-promoting seatbelt use, seatbelt safety memes, Boomerangs, traffic safety songs, poems, posters. Teen traffic safety school-wide assembly presentation.

Some recommended ideas for adults involve sending an e-blast message from the school explaining the program. Social media-Facebook, Taking the online Pledge 2 Win for the $50.00 Visa gift card, being present at the library for a children’s outreach, and other various community events that take place before May when the campaign concludes.

Execution:
This is our first year participating in the program. The 11 sophomores comprising the “‘Click-Clack Front and Back” (CCF&B) team met with Kate O’Connor on Tuesday, December 17, 2019, and had already created the motto, t-shirt and knew that they wanted to focus on seatbelt safety in both the front and back seat. We met six times after school from 2:40 until 3:30 pm in January, February, and March. From March 28 until this week, we have met 18 times via Zoom after our virtual school day.
January 17, 2020, was the first meeting that proved to be incredibly productive! The “Click Clack Front and Back” team created a timeline for things that they wanted to accomplish before February. Items included jump-starting the use of social media, messages/facts on the morning announcements during the homeroom, polls, and FYI’s about seat belt safety on Schoology, our schools’ learning management system (LMS). Reach out to the SADD club for current statistics from the Hackensack University Medical Center Seat Belt Challenge for 2018-2019, make contact with Oakland police, the mayor, and local newspapers.
At the February 7 meeting, they wanted to accomplish the following: order t-shirts to wear at promotional events to convey the “Click Clack Front and Back” message, and create a pre-survey on seatbelt use. Start promoting the Take the Pledge by having students sign up during the lunch periods. They planned to display a trifold explaining our research findings, statistics on seat belt use, and why it is so important to wear a seat belt in the front and backseats, create bumper stickers (clings) with “Click Clack Front and Back” logo. Share safe winter traveling tips, use the proceeds of a bake sale to support giveaways during the lunch periods and order additional t-shirts to give away as prizes, were all things we aspired to have done before the March 16 Midterm Update.

Teamwork:
This group has completed the project by coming together 26 times, seven times in person, and 18 times through Zoom besides the independent work they did before these meetings! In my opinion, that is quite an accomplishment for first-time participants. These 11 students have been friends since middle school, and I believe that their close friendship contributed to their ability to work so well together. The energy that this group exuded when working together was awesome! After a long school day physically or virtually, I looked forward to what they would come up with at the planning session. Throughout this process, I have gotten to learn the individual team member’s strengths and would go to them for help in their area of expertise. Kayla took charge; organized meetings brought the group together. Chloe F. designed an ad for the Playbill and did the voiceover for the PSA. Taylor is laser-focused and helped the team set goals to get tasks accomplished. Alexa’s strong point was social media, so she created, posted on Twitter and Instagram accounts. Jake was instrumental in creating the pre and post-surveys and the TikTok page. Abby suggested it was better for posts on Schoology to come from the team members instead of me, she was right! Abby, Jake, and Alexa took turns posting polls and information on Schoology. Their efforts have resulted in 432 students responding to the posts! Sam’s excellent question got the team brainstorming great ideas. Sydney was familiar with YouTube and offered to post the team’s videos. Marissa always provided constructive feedback and was instrumental in increasing the membership on Facebook. Chloe T. created out social media logos and offered to put the final video summary together. Marianne created and updates the “Click Clack Front and Back” website. These kids have taught me that social media can be something anyone can learn at any point in their lifetime, and proved anything can be accomplished even with a physical barrier.

Use of Resources:
The team identified seat belt use as the topic by personal observations they had made traveling to and from school. The Seat Belt Pre-Survey was posted on Facebook by a team member’s mother and our Instagram page. We did reach out to Officer Bryan Rowin, who oversees the Traffic Bureau for the Borough of Oakland Police Department. Due to the Co-vid 19 pandemic, we were unable to get an in-person or a video interview; however, Officer Rowin was gracious enough to answer the team’s questions via email.

The team’s findings were delivered to the students and staff via informational polls, posts, and a Kahoot game on Schoology. We used posts on all forms of social media that were created by the group to spread the message about seatbelt safety.
The assessment of the project involved a Seat belt Post-Research Survey that was posted on our social media sites. Through the support of the Health and Physical Education Department on Friday, May 15, the survey was published via Schoology. At 9:40 am, we had 194 responses by the end of the school day; we had 405! We included two open-ended questions that allowed respondents to give us direct feedback on the effectiveness of our campaign and to help guide future campaign ideas and how to reach more individuals best.
Our campaign was delivered via our social media sites, website, Schoology, and having a newspaper article written about the campaign published in the Suburban Times and on NJ.com, written by Marsha Stoltz.

Use of Media:
With the unexpected Covid-19 pandemic, the only way we could share our project was through the media. One team member stated that her grandmother had heard about our campaign on 1010 Wins and said, “I have a famous granddaughter,” however, I have not been able to find definitive proof of that other than grandma’s word. We understood the importance of social media to spread our message and reach high school populations. We created an Instagram https://www.instagram.com/clickclackfrontandback_ihhs/, where we shared videos, polls, pledges, and Bingo. We also promoted our safety message through twitter https://twitter.com/clickclackfron1. We provided updated information, including weekly posts, safety messages, and pictures of our Zoom meetings on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/jill.fackelman.9/. Our student-created website provided a wealth of information on seatbelt safety and was visited by 473 individuals as of yesterday. https://mdoss22.wixsite.com/clickclackfandb
To keep current with the times, we even created a TikTok @clickclackfrontback.
Also, we knew how important it was to reach not only our community but inspire others to do something like this in their school. We were fortunate to have an article written by Marsha Stoltz about Indian Hills’s participation published in the Suburban News and online https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/bergen/oakland/2020/05/04/indian-hills-students-competing-u-got-brains-champion-schools-program/3050116001/?fbclid=IwAR1GepmtxIGRpC5J7tyOHleyNA1qmbEVE5JIs7cpC6WFxtcvdz3WBR2FLdQ
Both our PSA and Final Project Summary are on YouTube. We used our school’s LMS to share messages, polls, pledges, and a Kahoot game with students and staff. All parents at IHHS received an e-blast message explaining our campaign, promoting our social media and website, and Take the Pledge link.

Thoroughness:
According to the CDC, teens, as both passengers and drivers, have the lowest seat belt use of any age group. The 11 members of the team are sophomores, some with their permit, and the ones that selected the topic they wanted to work on based on observations they made of adults and teens driving to Indian Hills High School. They used the following websites to gather information and statistics about seat belt use among adults and teens. The sites used include National Traffic Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA), for both information on seat belts and teen driving, National Safety Council (NSC), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), and Pekin Insurance, and AAA.
https://www.nhtsa.gov/risky-driving/seat-belts
https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/motor-vehicle/occupant-protection/seat-belts/
https://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/seatbelts/facts.html
https://www.teendriversource.org/teen-crash-risks-prevention/rules-of-the-road/seat-belt-use-facts-and-stats
https://www.nhtsa.gov/road-safety/teen-driving
http://blog.pekininsurance.com/individual/shocking-seatbelt-facts-that-will-make-you-buckle-up
https://teendriving.aaa.com/NJ/

Our project demonstrates an understanding of teen driving safety because wearing your seat belt applies to all ages. Based on our research and polls, there were a significant number of teenagers who said that they don’t wear their belt in the backset. We wanted to be a part of this project because we saw an issue in our community and worked together to solve it. Our recent feedback shows that several students, parents, teachers, and teens gave us the recognition that we were doing great to help our school and our community be safer.

Impact:
Based upon administering a pre and post-survey, some data significant to us in measuring change and impact on seat belt use behavior in the front and back seat. Driver’s with a license or permit responded to the presurvey that 9.2% did not wear their seat belt in the front seat. With the same parameters, that number decreased to 0% in the post-survey. Drivers with a license or permit responding to the pre-survey question regarding wearing a seatbelt in the back seat were 24.1%. In the post-survey, that number decreased to 9.2%, with a measurable change of 14.9% that were positively impacted to change using their behavior buckling up in the backseat. In terms of knowledge from our posts on Schoology, 66.12% understood and guessed correctly that seat belts save 15,000 lives –> people did our Kahoot, and have been reading our Instagram posts. On Schoology, 68% guessed that 13-19 are the most likely not to wear their seat belts –> based on the analysis, this shows that teens don’t have faith in their ability to use an instrument/ follow the law correctly. While the change in backseat seat belt use decreased the fact that 9.2% of people surveyed are still not wearing seat belts is of great concern. It shows that there is still a need for an intervention/education that will focus on increasing the number of individuals wearing their seatbelt to 0% to further contribute to the safety of all community members in Oakland, NJ and beyond.

Sustainability:
The fact that more people are wearing their seat belt in the front seat is excellent! There will be a change in students coming up each year getting their permit, probationary license, and eventually a basic license. We need to continue to share this message with students present and in the future. There were so many face-to-face interactions that we didn’t get to share with IHHS students and staff that we could plan for next year. The biggest concern is the number of people still not wearing their seat belts in the back seat and the danger that poses to the students and community. Our focus will always be on seat belt safety usage but with an emphasis on rear-seat seat belt use compliance. Perhaps we can target the project to focus on back seat seat belt compliance. Since it is a secondary offense and not a primary offense; therefore, a police officer is not allowed to stop a motorist unless there is a primary offense being violated. I recently came across this article and thought it could be something for the students to consider for a project next year.
https://nj1015.com/nj-rear-seat-belt-law-needs-tightening-safety-group-says/

Unexpected Lessons Learned:
Some lessons learned include plan and execute early, and that technology can have a big piece in making things happen in the first year of participating. This team is composed of very resilient teenagers! Have each team member identify their strengths, be it planning, creating flyers, posters, writing, technology, social media expertise, making up a jingle/song whatever. Have a plan for each meeting, let each team member state what they focused on, where they are in the process and what the target is to hit for the following session. Goal planning/setting is a big part of this group’s successes. Let each member have the opportunity to share their opinion and teach other members of the group how to do something new. Those that are strong in analyzing data can show a few team members how to do it in Excel or Google. Another member whose talent may include using iMovie lets them teach two others so that this is truly a team effort. Doing so would help for more team members to broaden their skill set for the following year. For example, as a parent, teachers used the Remind app to notify me of my children’s music lessons at school. Remind became an intricate part of how I communicated with the team since we have been home beside the weekly Zooms, thus improving my skill set in an area that was previously unfamiliar to me. These kids have taught me that social media can be something anyone can learn. Some takeaways that the team shared with me include the following: we realized, based on the post-survey feedback, the importance of seat belts can not be overlooked. We feel by showing our student body that there are teenagers who care about the lives of others, that it will hopefully influence others to think twice about not buckling up. We want them to remember to “Click Clack Front and Back” and ask themselves “What’s Holding Them Back?”

Stipend Reporting:

  • Click-Clack Front and Back t-shirt: $285.40

Total: $285.40

MEDIA