Texting and Karting

According to textinganddrivingsafety.com, 77% of young adults are very or somewhat confident that they can safely text while driving, and that 55% of them claim that it's easy. Given that texting and walking is a skill I have yet to master, I find this statistic scary but I can believe it's true. This is a common enough practice that chances are your students have either texted while driving or have been in the car with someone who has.

39 states have outlawed texting while driving, and 10 states have banned all handheld devices while on the road. In California, the first offence will get you a $76 fine and the second is a $190 fine. See what your state has to say about texting and driving.

There are a couple different ways to approach this issue. This page has a lot of interesting statistics (the one about driving the length of a football field could be presented without too much artistic ability). You can also include your own QR code to AT&T's It Can Wait Pledge.

Testing, Testing

Another easy passive program on this topic (again using QR codes) would link to the videos mentioned on the bottom of that statistics page. I believe this video, starring the bravest Belgian driving instructor ever, is the one they're referring to. Make your magic code square and write something like "Don't scan this" across the top if you want to be extra sneaky. Print out a bunch of these flyers and post them around your building. Unfortunately, this is not the most inclusive way to program because not everyone (including me) has a smart phone. It's worth a try anyway though, because enough students have smart phones and can help spread the message by word of mouth.

If they all start planning to move to Belgium, ask if they finished the video.

So how can you make an active program out of this without dying? Who would be up to the task? Can you rent that Belgian guy?

Close enough.

Ideally, this program will involve a Wii. My school's programming building had one available for rent, which was really awesome and useful. If you can petition a leadership group/hall council or someone to get one for you, do it. It's a pretty big draw and those dance games make great active programs. If you don't have a Wii, you can always set up an obstacle course, but with that there is the possibility of face breakage.

Like this, but less awesome.

While some students are racing, have other students text them. The drivers have to respond to every text. At the end of the race, have them switch places. It's not the most realistic simulation, but it will  be memorable the next time they get behind the wheel!