Grab Your Backpack and Notebook…We’re Heading into the Classroom
After nearly three decades, the Progressive Agriculture Safety Day® (PAF Safety Day) program is going somewhere we have never been before…the classroom! A primary motivational factor for the new Classroom-based delivery mode was knowing that many children could benefit from a PAF Safety Day experience but may not have been able to yet due to limited resources or other barriers. Furthermore, there are the sobering statistics highlighting the number of children injured or that dies annually due to agriculture-related incidents. These reasons, among others, left all of us at the Progressive Agriculture Foundation continually asking the question, “Is there more we can do to prevent these incidents from occurring?”
While this new delivery-mode has been part of discussions throughout the years, the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic only reaffirmed the need and sparked a yearning to bring this concept to fruition even sooner. Considering that schools place a tremendous value on the safety, health, and well-being of their students, it just made sense that the classroom is where we needed to be. However, before diving right in and making this delivery mode available to anyone interested, a pilot took place during the 2021-2022 academic year.
For the pilot, we garnered interest from both our current PAF Safety Day coordinators, along with funding partners and program supporters. There were 22 individuals from 15 states that completed an at-your-own pace, online training as a PAF Safety Day coordinator to deliver this program in an elementary school in their local community. Each PAF Safety Day coordinator was placed in one of two test groups and received curriculum, materials, and durable resource kits to facilitate learning in the classroom for various topics. The topic included All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV)/ Utility Task Vehicle (UTV) safety, chemical safety, disability awareness, see and be seen (blind spots/visibility safety), sun safety, underground utilities safety, water safety, and weather safety. As the pilot concludes, here are some key findings:
To date, nearly 400 students in kindergarten through sixth grade have participated. Through the completion of pre, post, and post-post surveys, students have shown knowledge gained, as well as identified measures to live a safer and healthier life including creating a safety plan in the event of severe weather, always swimming with a buddy, being aware of their surroundings, and wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) such as helmets, sunscreen, and reflective clothing.
Through a post-pilot survey, 100% of the PAF Safety Day coordinators noted the Progressive Agriculture Foundation provided them with everything needed to successfully present on the topics from the at-your-own pace, online training to the online toolkits to the resource kit. Building a relationship with the schools and teachers, along with presenting and completing the hands-on activities or demonstrations with the students, was recognized as the most rewarding and positive part of the experience.
Teachers, teachers’ aides, and even parents, who observed the program being delivered noted the session length, content, and materials were age-appropriate, with 100% providing a 5-star rating when asked, “how engaged the students were during hands-on activities and demonstrations.” Additionally, the survey revealed that they would recommend this program to a friend or colleague.
To learn more and how you can offer the Progressive Agriculture Safety Day® program’s Classroom-based delivery mode to a school near you, visit: www.progressiveag.org/Classroom.