In Spain traffic accidents are the fifth cause of non-natural death, excessive and inadequate speed being one of the main risk factors. Our challenge: making drivers aware of the importance of obeying speed limits.
The ideas
In Spain traffic accidents are the fifth cause of non-natural death, with excessive and inadequate speed one of the main risk factors. The town where the school is located is not immune to this fact; there have been illegal car races on secondary roads leading to death. Our challenge: making drivers aware of the importance of obeying speed limits.
To meet this challenge we created activities working in small groups, encouraging the use of ICT while developing our creativity. Learning kinematics was added into the 4TH year ESO Physics and Chemistry subjects; at the same time, we worked to raise awareness of risk factors that have become a social problem.
We worked out reaction time, braking and stopping for different speeds and vehicles, discussed which circumstances can change the reaction time, and how the condition of a road being dry or wet influences those distances.
We calculated the height a vehicle must be placed so, when in free fall, the effect of impact against the floor is the same as when impacting against a wall. In this way we have verified that when the speed is doubled, the height is multiplied by four.
We searched for information in different ways; after that, we brainstormed the causes that make drivers go over the speed limit, looked at responsible behaviours to improve safety and preventive measures by the administration to bring respect for speed limits, the consequences of driving too fast, etc.
Our conclusions have been reflected on a mind map where the 6W’ technique has been applied. We asked ourselves who exceeds the speed limits - when, how, where, why - and the consequences of speeding. We developed a wide view of the problem and tools to create our final digital project. We learned who we have to direct our campaign to, the message we must communicate and how to do it.
The initiatives
We formed different groups with each one preparing a final digital product. For the young people who exceed speed limits, we developed a story to tell of a youngster who exceeds the speed limit after a night of celebration, two rap songs using teenagers’ language to recommend good practices on the road, an infographic and “digital local language”. For the older public who exceed the speed limits because they are in a hurry – usually in the morning when they go to work – we made a short documentary and did a radio interview.
We held a round table at a local broadcasting station “Radio Gáldar” with Juan Santiago García Socas, Chief Sergeant of the Civil Traffic Guard in Santa María de Guía ( Las Palmas), Ana Rodrígues, President of Spinal Injury and Greatly Disabled (ASPAYM) Canarias, and the teacher of the group to talk about the project and to debate the possible consequences deriving from excessive speed; we also discussed the steps taken by administrations, driver development in past years, and related topics. With this activity we have attempted to increase understanding within the community: school, families, friends, in short, the town where the centre is located.
The project has been published on the school’s blog, the physics and chemistry school blog, the school’s digital magazine and on the Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest accounts. We acquired a URL for our work with the hashtag #IESSauloTorón.
Our digital work was displayed and projected at school and became known by the entire educational community: students, teachers, parents and non-academic staff.
The impact of the activity on the students of the group has been evaluated. In the survey, 21 students out of 25 said the activity has made them conscious of the real problem of excessive speed on the roads.
