For secondary school levels:
- s2
Staying focused as a pedestrian
To encourage young people to consider the range of distractions that can impact on pedestrian safety.
Learning objectives
Collisions on our roads remain one of the main causes of accidental deaths among children and young people in Scotland. This resource has been developed to help equip students with the knowledge, skills, and confidence they need to make positive choices on and around our roads.
By the end of Lesson 2, students will be able to describe common distractions experienced by pedestrians, develop an awareness of their own behaviour and the impact on their own personal safety, and be informed about ways to stay safe as a pedestrian.
Find all downloadable resources below.
Overview
Mechanimals love when you are distracted. It makes it much easier for them to cause you harm.
Activity 1
Spot the distraction – 15 mins
This could act as a discussion starter around pedestrian distractions. Questions that could be posed around these clips:
- On a scale of 1-10, how likely is this to happen in real life?
- What other things can distract you from the road?
- In pairs, create a list of the top 3 things that could distract a pedestrian
Activity 2
Beats v Mechanimals – 15 mins
In this activity, students watch a short film featuring a girl listening to a remix of a song. Hidden within the music are real road sounds, car engines, horns, brakes, and shouts of warning. After viewing, the class discuss how many of these sounds they noticed, revealing how easily important road cues can be missed when we’re distracted or ‘lost in the moment’.
Encourage discussion about pedestrian distractions. Why should you have the sound lower or an ear clear when walking near Mechanimals? Is talking on your phone as dangerous as listening to music? How many accidents are caused by distractions?
Downloadable materials
Explore the downloadable materials for this lesson, including a PDF outline for quick reference, a PowerPoint presentation, and supplementary videos that bring the content to life.