Hot topic on public safety awareness campaigns

With summer on the way, now is the time that various agencies will be trying to get us to think about our behaviour, in the interests of public safety.

Public safety involves the protection of the general population from all manner of significant danger, injury, damage, or harm, such as may occur in a natural disaster, and the prevention of the same.

Here in New Zealand we have an abundance of education campaigns about prevention, such as the ‘Slip Slop Slap Slide’ campaign promoted by the Cancer Society and the ‘Speed Kills’ message from the Land Transport Safety Authority (LSTA).

This Hot Topic lists resources on TKI that can be used in a study of these campaigns.  With younger classes, you could study the messages of various campaigns, while more advanced classes may wish to examine how campaigns are created and what methods they use to get their messages across.  

Resources on TKI

Safety campaigns

Fight The Obesity Epidemic
Fight the Obesity Epidemic (FOE) is a New Zealand voluntary organisation promoting policies to lower the rate of type 2 diabetes and obesity in children. This website features their current campaign as well as information about obesity, issues, current news and research, links to other websites, and recent publications.
http://www.foe.org.nz/

Meningococcal B - be wise, immunise
This website describes the epidemic of meningococcal B disease in New Zealand. It provides information about the signs and symptons, spread and long term effects of the disease, and the meningococcal vaccine. Key information is available in a number of languages.
http://www.immunise.moh.govt.nz/index.html

Cancer Society - Wellington
This website for the Cancer Society, Wellington Division, provides information on lifestyle issues to prevent or detect cancer early. The section on health promotion and education provides links to student activities and information.
http://www.cancersoc.org.nz

Cancer Society of New Zealand
This website for the Cancer Society includes information related to cancer in the areas of nutrition / physical activity, tobacco control, sun protection, men's health, and women's health. See the section ‘Cancer Information’ for information about the ozone layer, the effect of ultraviolet (UV) radiation and how to be ‘SunSmart’.
http://www.cancernz.org.nz

Crossing the Road
This webpage contains a link to the video Crossing the Road which was profiled on The Knowledge Breakfast series. The video can be viewed online or sourced from the TKI site. Crossing the Road shows students at levels 3–4 working in the technology curriculum to research the very real need for a way to safely cross the road.
http://knowledge.nzoom.com/knowledge_detail/0,2210,99877-181-186,00.html

RoadSense - Ata Haere
This website provides support for an education programme to improve the safety of primary and intermediate children when they are on or near the road.
http://www.roadsense.co.nz/

Safekids
This website, from Auckland's Starship Children's Hospital, provides information to reduce the incidence and severity of unintentional injury to children aged 0–14 years, in New Zealand. The information includes factsheets and statistics about children's injuries, safe routes to school, Kidsafe Week, and advocacy strategies.
http://www.safekids.org.nz

Headlice.Org for Kids - Animations
This website is aimed at primary school students. It gives clear animated information about the life cycle of headlice, how they are spread, and what they look like under a microscope.
http://www.headlice.org/kids/animations/index.htm

Getting the message across

Convince Me!
In this lesson, students are made aware of the techniques used by advertisers to sell products and services. They are alerted to the purposes and intents of advertisements that try to shape their opinions and affect their behaviour as they look for and analyse examples of those advertisements.
http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/gen_act/view/convince.html

Teaching and Learning Strategies
This page from Saskatchewan Education website contains strategies for helping students become aware of processes for constructing and communicating meaning. It includes links to information on speaking, listening, writing, and reading with appropriate strategies, learning activities, assessment, and checklist sheets in PDF format.
http://www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/docs/ela20/teach1.html

About Narcotics
This website was created by a class at Remuera Intermediate School and won third place in its category in the NetGuide Web Challenge. It provides a students' view of narcotics, with a general description of various narcotics and the effects they may have on a user. The site covers a range of categories of narcotics such as depressants, stimulants, inhalants, and hallucinogens.
http://schools.netguide.co.nz/remueratwenty/

Children's Conceptualization of Some Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Concepts as Taught by "Keeping Ourselves Safe", A New Zealand Prevention Programme
This publication presents selected findings of a study which combined quantitative and qualitative methodologies to investigate how children conceptualised sexual abuse prevention concepts as taught by the Keeping Ourselves Safe Programme (KOS). Participants in the study were primary school children, aged between five and 11, who had recently completed the KOS programme.
http://www.massey.ac.nz/~trauma/issues/1999-1/woolley1.htm

Exemplar - English Level 2 - Transactional Writing: Argument
This assessment material entitled 'Skateboarders at School', provides an example of student work illustrating quality related to the English curriculum at level 2. In this work, the student is aware of his audience and writes directly to them. He appeals to their sense of fairness, and presents his reasons in sound logical order. http://www.tki.org.nz/r/assessment/exemplars/eng/trans/wpp_2c_e.php

Exemplar - English Level 2 - Transactional Writing: Argument
This assessment material entitled 'Six-year-olds Can Cook', provides an example of student work illustrating quality related to the English curriculum statement at level 2. The student is very keen to get his message across and uses a range of strongly stated opinions, with good supporting detail from his own background, to persuade the reader of his point of view. He is very aware of his audience and appeals to them through a blend of facts and emotions.
http://www.tki.org.nz/r/assessment/exemplars/eng/trans/wpp_2f_e.php

Interpreting media

Related Hot Topic

Kidsafe Week (September 2001)
http://www.tki.org.nz/r/hot_topics/kidsafe_e.php

Please note: These links were valid when this page was posted. However the Web is very volatile, and TKI has no control over outside websites. Please let us know if you find anything inappropriate, if you find a broken link, or if you have an update for a link by emailing links@tki.org.nz. Te Kete Ipurangi recommends that teachers view all websites we link to before using them with students.

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