Summer Safety: Students Teaching Students

Woodstown High School, Woodstown, NJ

Grade Levels:

Academic Focus/

Core Curriculum Standards:

The Arts(Visual and Performing) 1.2

Responsibility, Citizenship, Empathy

Summer Safety is a comprehensive Health/Physical Education service- learning project designed to teach summer safety awareness at a variety of levels. The project will encompass safety issues which include, but are not limited to, water safety, heat-related illnesses, poisoning, bicycle safety, and bites and stings. The goal of this project is to educate students in areas of summer safety so that their vacation months can be spent happily and safely. Students, in turn, will turnkey the information and teach lessons on safety to elementary school students. They also will be encouraged to share what they have learned with family and community members.

The project will take approximately 2-3 weeks to complete.

The project will be introduced in late April and continue into early May.

Digital camera; Art Supplies; First Aid-Responding to Emergencies Manual (sponsored by the American Red Cross)

Health & Physical Education: In preparation for this project students will be educated in the areas of safety awareness by way of the First Aid-Responding to Emergencies Manual. At the completion of the required units, the students will then each be assigned a topic based on their health class period. They will be responsible for teaching the elementary school students the information they have learned. A visual aid(s) will be required to accompany each lesson. Guest speakers will be utilized throughout the "Summer Safety" awareness fair. Some of these speakers will include, but not be limited to, area police officers, American Red Cross volunteers, and community members.

Language Arts: Students will practice reading, writing, speaking and listening skills.

Science: Students will learn the rules of health safety.

Visual Arts & Technology: Students will utilize these areas in designing visual and technological aids for teaching.

Consumer, Family & Life Skills: Students will practice problem-solving and self management skills as well as practicing values.

Hurdles Encountered:

Hurdle: Most likely, scheduling and time management will be issues.

To be determined by consensus of the teachers involved.

Performance-based Education: Projects, tests, presentation are geared toward achievement of clear-cut goal.

Cooperative Learning: Students will work independently at first and then move toward group work in order to develop their projects/presentations.

Interdisciplinary Approach: Although the focus will be on health and physical education, several other disciplines are involved.

Responsibility, citizenship as well as empathy for others will be demonstrated through completion of the project.

Media coverage; celebration at elementary schools following the training.

Key Findings: To be determined. Projected is assessing the differences in pre and post tests on safety to determine effect on learning.

Guest speakers and local elementary school students and teachers will be involved in the implementation of this service learning project.

Written survey/reflection will be an intrinsic part of the project. Projected question: Although this was a health & physical education project, it impacted many other areas – public speaking in conducting a lesson, responsibility in completing a task, citizenship in helping others, empathy in understanding the needs of younger students. 

Show specifically how this project affected two of these areas of your educational development.

Tests on individual units taught, as well as a rubric for the visual aid and oral presentation will be utilized as assessment means.