This is the fourth year that our school participates in Your Ideas Your Initiatives. The program is now integrated in our school curriculum.
The ideas
The Ideas (This task was performed during two weeks, four class hours a week)
The teacher-coach sets the stage for students with real-life examples of prevention and safety actions on the road. Work was done in the classes with the Renault booklets to introduce road safety topics. The booklets, as well as videos selected by the teachers, allowed students to have a global vision of road safety issues. Some students had previous knowledge about mobility, not only in their hometown but also in other cities that they had visited before; therefore, it was possible to make a global contextualization of the topic.
1. Brainstorming session (This task was performed during two classes)
After having approached the topic, a discussion was opened on the most sensitive areas of mobility affecting students, teachers, administrators as well as those living in the neighborhood of the school. Brainstorming focused on the difficulties that are evident day by day related to road safety, such as: where to park, where students get out of vehicles, waiting areas to pick up students, avoiding the double line, responsibilities of passengers and pedestrians, among others. Then, they chose the most frequent problems and proposed possible actions they could take to help change some behaviors and thus, improve the different risk situations that arise during the school day.
2. Working in groups (This task was performed during four weeks, four class hours a week)
Students discussed and gather the background information needed for their work.
The students were divided into small groups to work on each issue, with the aim of proposing a solution and an educational campaign in order to put their proposals in motion.
3. Groups presentation and selection of the idea (This task was performed during two weeks, four class hours a week)
The teacher-coach and students negotiated the criteria for presenting and socializing the projects.
The proposals of each small group were circulated. Then, the students and the teachers selected the best work, ones which could provide concrete solutions and were easy to implement. For example, three activities were selected for children: a pairing game, a puzzle and a car circuit.
The initiatives
The initiatives (This task was performed during four class hours)
Students take on the role of project designers: After unifying the strategies for the educational campaign about the problems, we proceeded to decide what type of activities would be most appropriate to impact the educational community. In order to put the project in motion, functions and responsibilities were decided such as drawing logos, designing shocking phrases to create an impact, and designing a presentation for the other members of the school.
4. Definition of tasks and teams to develop the initiative (This task was performed during two weeks, four class hours a week)
Students gathered the information and materials necessary for the project: theoretical and recreational activities.
The topics of the different activities proposed were defined by the groups:
• Drinking and driving
• Drugs and driving
• Cell phones and driving
• Speeding
• The use of a seat belt in the front and rear of the vehicle
• Helmet use for motorcyclists
• Fatigue
• Distractions inside the vehicle: putting on makeup, smoking, changing radio stations, arguing with passengers, and so on.
• Respect for pedestrian crossings, such as zebra crossings and bridges
Each grade defined the activity that would allow them to transmit and create awareness of these problems to members of the school community.
In this way ninth graders chose to make infographics which would contain theoretical - statistical information and images to help people understand the problems locally and externally.
Tenth graders decided to create mobility campaigns that made parents and employees of the school aware of the importance of respecting and following road rules since they are those who use the access and parking spaces of the school. For this purpose, leaflets were designed with important information about the behavior expected in the pathway and to discourage bringing cars during restricted hours in the city.
Eleventh graders decided to make posters using pictures of themselves and images showing risky situations in order to elicit reflection.
Each of these activities would be exhibited at the institution's knowledge center, supported by library managers. The exhibition was open to the general public, and an invitation was sent to parents and staff by the school’s communication department.
For the students, special schedules were created so that each elementary and middle school group would have the opportunity to visit the exhibition and to listen and share with high school students who acted as presenters. High school students guided the public through the exhibition, generating reflections and inviting visitors to react to the information presented. The activities in the exhibition were intended not only to create awareness, but also to empower us to face real problems and be active agents of change.
Implementation
(This task was performed during two weeks)
Ninth Grade:
The ninth graders worked in pairs to create an infographic about one of the topics selected from the brainstorming. This infographic was composed of two important elements: a theoretical part and a statistical part for each of the topics. They needed to consult the internet for the information, and it was required that each student have a specific role and responsibility to keep in mind and that one of the products had to be an image. Being aware of the purpose of this infographic, all the information had to be presented in a simple way and the images needed to be carefully selected since the target audience was elementary school students.
Materials:
The students used their electronic devices, computers, cell phones, iPads, and etcetera. They used pages such as Piktochart for infographic creation in addition to material commonly used in the classroom for taking notes. The teacher’s role was guiding and supporting student work construction.
Tenth Grade:
Tenth graders worked in small groups of three students. Each group had to create a mobility campaign; in this way the assignation of roles became an important task for the development of the project, for defining the slogan, for choosing the colors used in the campaign logo, for selecting the resources to be used, for gathering the information and for determining who would present the material for elaboration. Within the classroom, the students defined the way to transmit the information to the parents. The idea was to carry out the campaign in the morning and in the afternoon, which required that the students define the schedules themselves.
Materials:
Most of the materials used were banners, cards, flyers, reflective vests, colored papers and elements commonly used in the classroom.
Eleventh grade:
Eleventh graders worked in pairs or in groups of three students. Each group had to create an advertising poster where they were the protagonists. For its realization, the students had to choose a topic and the way in which they would present it. They also had to determine what photos they were going to take and where to take them. It should be noted that this project had to be done preferably in the school, although for some subjects it was done outside the school.
Materials
The students used electronic devices like cellphones, computers, iPads, cameras, among others, as well as elements commonly used in the classroom. Once created and edited, the publicity was printed in poster format by an advertising agency. For the questions game, they worked with the Kahoot program (Kahoot is an online tool with a collection of questions on specific topics that are created by teachers and students. They are asked in real-time, to an unlimited number of “players”, creating a social, fun and game-like learning environment. https://getkahoot.com/).
