Web-based Lesson Plans

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High School Transportation Safety

Lessons, Activities, Interview Forms, Fact Sheets, Card games, Board Games, Discussions & Resources.

Topics Include:

  • Bicycle Safety: Awareness
  • Who Rides a Bicycle
  • A Safe Bicycle
  • Dangers in the Road
  • Bicycle Safety: Getting Around
  • Crash Lesson A
  • Visibility
  • Traffic Signs & Signals
  • Crash Lesson B
  • Road Safety Board Game
  • Traffic Safety: Share the Road
  • Save the Drama – Wear a Seat Belt
  • High School Heroes
  • Supplemental Lessons: Effects of Alcohol Impaired Driving
  • Effects of Drug Impaired Driving
  • Distracted Driving

Drivers Education: Grade 10

Lessons, Activities, Benchmarks, Writing Exercises, Fact Sheets, Discussions & Resources.

Topics Include:

  • New Jersey Driver License
  • New Jersey Driver Manual
  • Driver and Passenger Safety
  • Rules of the Road
  • Passing, Yielding, Entering, Exiting Highways
  • Special Conditions, Turning, Stopping, Parking
  • Aggression, Distraction, Conditions, Collisions
  • Driving Situations, Problems, Accidents, Action
  • Alcohol and Driving
  • Drugs and Driving
  • Cell Phones and Driving
  • Driver Privileges and Penalties
  • Sharing the Road
  • Vehicle Information
  • Driver Information
  • Traffic Signals and Road Markings
  • Traffic Signs
  • New Jersey Driver Test Review
  • New Jersey Driver Test Administration
  • Car Purchase Project

Safe Driving

Share the Keys
Parent/teen safe driving orientation that is designed to reduce teen driver crash risks by increasing parental involvement. Approximately 90 minutes in length, the orientation is presented by facilitators in community based settings (i.e. schools, libraries) and can be linked to parking permit requirements, classroom driver education programs and back-to-school nights. The orientation is ideally suited for parents and their teens in the pre-permit or permit state of licensure (parents and their teens already holding a probationary license will also benefit)
Program Description
Provides an overview of the program and how to become a facilitator
Program Manual
Introduced in the orientation, this 24-page booklet presents research, helpful advice and contracts that support parental involvement and safe driving behaviors.
Safe Driving
Students study the potential dangers, risks and statistics associated with a variety of road safety issues.
Safe Driving Solutions
NY Times lesson plan. Students act as commissioners researching safety standards for vehicles and highways. They then draft recommendations to be included in a new highway safety bill.
70 Rules of Defensive Driving
Expert Robert Schaller shares wisdom from teaching defensive driving. Each tip can be used to spark discussion in classroom.
Staying Alive: The Physics, Mathematics, and Engineering of Safe Driving
A Learning Module from the Sciences Education Foundation where students learn about movement, speed and braking distances, and the dangers of talking on a cell phone while driving, driving at night, and passing on a 2 lane road, and how much space to leave between cars on a freeway.

Share The Road

With Pedestrians
What Georgia Drivers Must Know About Pedestrians. Illustrated driving rules and common driver violations for sharing the road with pedestrians
With Bicyclists
Share the Road Lesson Plan for Driver Education Classrooms from the League of Illinois Bicyclists
With Motorcyclists
The For Car Drivers website from the Motorcycle Safety Foundation provides safety tips, video instruction and other resources for car drivers on sharing the road with motorcyclists.

Highway Safety

Breakdowns in Highway Transportation System
Students are introduced to the highway transportation system.

Graduated Driver License (GDL)

No license to drive
NY Times lesson plan. Students reflect on the advantages, responsibilities and obstacles of driving, learn about recent trends in the licensing of teen drivers, and create a safe driving campaign.

Inexperienced Drivers

Novice Drivers
Students explore the concept of social trade-offs in the context of graduated driver licensing.

Seatbelts

Save the Drama: Wear a Seatbelt
National Youth Traffic Safety Month Lesson Plan.

Distracted Driving

Texting and Driving-Your Right or a New Way to Crash?
Promotes a heightened awareness of the harmful effects of texting while driving.
AAA Traffic Safety Education Materials-Senior High Lesson Plan-Text Messaging
This lesson takes a closer look at one aspect of distracted driving-text messaging.
Every Waking Minute-Examining Personal Media Habits
NY Times Lesson Plan. Students take a close look at their media habits, identify detrimental habits, and develop personal plans of action.
Driven to Distraction
NY Times. Through Articles, videos, and interactive features, the Times has examined the risks of texting behind the wheel.
Bumping Back Distracted Driving
National Youth Traffic Safety Month Lesson Plan

Aggressive Driving

Smooth Operator
A unique public service initiative to combat aggressive driving.Site defines aggressive driving and gives causes and facts to share with students

Road Rage

It’s a Mad World
NY Times Lesson Plan. Students learn the factors that lead to anger and techniques for coping with it. Students write and act-out real-life scenarios that cause frustration including road rage.

Speeding

Collision Course
NY Times Lesson Plan. Students measure the speed of moving marbles and use the results to calculate velocity and momentum. They then use their understanding to analyze events leading to a Japanese train crash. (Activities can be adapted to analyze speeding while driving).

Impaired Driving

Do-Re-We Won’t Drink or Drive Impaired
National Youth Traffic Safety Month Lesson Plan

Drowsy Driving

Let’s Sleep on It
NY Times Lesson Plan. Students share opinions about facts related to sleep and analyze their own experiences and observations.
Getting Up on the Wrong Side of the Bed Every Day?
NY Times Lesson Plan. Students explore the effects of sleep deprivation in teenagers and evaluate the impact of being better rested on their daily activities

Rail and Bus Safety

NJ Transit - "Look, Listen Up, Stay Alive"
An innovative Driver Education Safety Program that includes a PowerPoint presentation explaining signs, signals and concepts of rail, light rail and bus safety and graphic consequences of motorist error. The program also includes a video on railroad safety, instructor lesson plans, student copies and a safety quiz.

Technology

Steer Clear of Trouble
NY Times Lesson Plan. Students use the Internet to investigate safe driving practices and technologies, and then “publish” a manual of safe driving for teenagers.

Auto Maintenance

Auto Mechanics Preparation
Hands on project for students to learn the basics of auto maintenance.

Purchasing a car

Buy a Car
Students use research, critical thinking, and complex decision-making skills to learn how to purchase a car.
Purchasing Your First Car
Students research and compare costs of purchasing a car.

Auto Insurance

Auto Insurance-Rights and Responsibilities
Your options may vary depending on the state.

Work Zone Safety

Turning Point: Roadway Work Zone Safety for New Drivers
Created by the Federal Highway Administration, this website focuses on roadway work zone safety for new drivers. Information, tips and tools are presented in three separate sections: For Teens, For Parents, For Educators.

The Teenage Brain

What Were They Thinking? Exploring Teen Brain Development
NY Times Lesson Plan. Students review scientific research on the teenage brain and discuss its implications to topics related to teens’ freedom and accountability.
The Mind: An Incredible Machine
Students explore the differences between the functioning of a teenage brain and the functioning of an adult brain.

Miscellaneous

Shared Lesson Plans

Breathing Life Into Your Driver's Ed Curriculum
(Maureen Nussman)
Emotional and Physical Stresses that Affect Driving
(Erica Stypinski and John Gragilla) Students learn the importance of not driving while under physical and emotional stresses.
Intersections
(John Gragilla and Erica Stypinski) Students identify the different forms of intersections and how to maneuver safely through them.
Why Do Drivers Crash?
Students learn common causes of car crashes/collisions among teens and adults.

Teen Driving Blogs

We’ve compiled a list of blogs on topics of teen driving safety that can be used to spark discussion in the classroom:

Teen driving resource sites for educators:

Don’t Drive Stupid
New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety innovative program to educate young drivers about staying safe behind the wheel. Free resources for educators.
Toyota Teen Driver Educational Kit
A free defensive driver program for educators including teacher’s guide, activities, quizzes and more.
Ford driving skills for life educators page
Lesson plans and free educational materials for educators