Seat Belts and Service-Learning

Service-Learning: an educational strategy that involves students in meaningful service to their schools and/or communities, while engaging them in some form of reflection and/or study related to the service. Well designed service-learning projects connect with, reinforce, enrich, and enhance what students learn in the classroom by providing them opportunities to apply classroom content and skills to address real-world problems.

Step 1: The Alliance shows a service-learning class how to collect seat belt data at their school.

Step 2: The students devise a program to increase seat belt use by their peers.

Step 3: The students collect data to measure their program's results.

Conclusion: Drivers are 12% more likely to be observed wearing seat belts with each increment of service-learning quality.

"Not only did the seat belt service-learning projects help students academically—language arts (speeches and presentations),math (data collection), and science (physics of car crashes)—but they also helped with important intangibles: self-discipline, connecting learning with the real world, self-esteem, leadership."

"Students gained confidence about their roles in their school and community."

Teacher observations from the Teen Service-Learning Project

Listen to the "Put Your Seat Belt On" ringtone created by students at Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet High School in Nashville, Tenn. Do you have a ringtone you'd like to share? Post it on the Meharry Teen Service-Learning page on Facebook.