This letter is stimulated by two recent interactions with my students
and I thought the physics teachers community is in an ideal place to do
some real good.
One of the leading causes of death in teenagers is automobile
accidents, especially when alcohol is involved. As we all know, mere
preaching about the dangers of alcohol and about the risks of not
wearing seat belts does little good. As physics teachers, most of us
use automobile accidents and the use of seat belts as illustrative
examples of inertia and the impulse-momentum theorem. Sadly, that
information does little or nothing to change behavior.
Several years ago, I began at the beginning of each year to tell my
students that, if I ever saw any of them, anywhere, anytime, riding
in a car without a seat belt, I would give them an “F” for the quarter
since they had failed to learn inertia. After that idea registers, I
tell them that I cannot actually assign a grade based on behavior, but
I CAN do something even more painful -- I can assign a ten-page research
paper on the possible consequences of not wearing seatbelts and make
that assignment count for a huge portion of their quarter grade. Half
the grade is based on content, with the other half based on conformity
to the English Department’s standards for research papers -- and the
second half of the grading will be done by the English teacher who has
the deserved reputation for the most severe grading!
The text of the research paper assignment is included below; feel free
to modify or use it with your students. The first of the two
interactions which triggered this note to all of you happened about a
month ago during February’s heavy rains here in Northern California. A
student came up to me at the end of class one day and said, “Dr. Vajk,
I have to thank you.” I said, “That’s very nice, but what are you
thanking me for?” He explained that the previous afternoon, he, his
brother, and a friend were leaving school in his car. They did not
have their seat belts on, but the driver saw me walking along the
sidewalk by the school and remembered my threat. All three promptly
put on their seatbelts. Ten minutes later, on the freeway past the
Oakland Colisseum, a car cut in in front of them, and five seconds
later jammed on the brakes. My student hit the brakes, too, but
rear-ended the car in front at about 50 mph. My student’s car was
totalled (about $11,000 in damages), and the car which caused the
accident sped away (hit and run). The CHP officer at the scene told
them that, judging from the damage to the car, they would have been
dead had they not worn their seatbelts. Two of the three student in
the car suffered minor cuts on their hands.
The second interaction happened this past week, when I was crossing the
street outside school and a car rounded the corner right in front of
me, with another of my students (R.M.) in the front passenger seat
right under my nose, with no seatbelt. I yelled at him, “R., where’s
your seatbelt?” The next morning I handed him the assignment below.
R. is one of our better basketball players, with a sizeable scholarship
next year for an NCAA school and aspirations (I don’t know how
realistic) of making it to the NBA. Such students, one would think,
would have a serious interest in protecting their bodies from harm ---
but they seem to think they are invulnerable, even more than most
teenagers. In my school’s case, at least, the basketball coach
TOTALLY supports me in giving this assignment.
Best wishes to all -- for our students’ sake!
Peter Vajk
St. Joseph Notre Dame High School
(Jason Kidd’s alma mater)
1011 Chestnut Street
Alameda, CA 94501
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SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT RESEARCH PAPER
CONSEQUENCES OF NOT WEARING SEAT BELTS
TO: ____(student’s name)_____
You have earned a special assignment tailored to fit your
individualized learning needs. You have demonstrated by your failure
to use a seat belt on ____(date)____ that you do not understand and
appreciate the biomedical consequences to your own body of the Law of
Inertia and of the Impulse-Momentum Theorem.
Your individualized asignment is a ten page research paper which is due
on ____(date -- about three weeks later)____ as follows:
Section 1: Research the following frequent consequences of central
nervous system (CNS) injuries:
Include in your discussion the effects of these injuries on bowel
control, urinary continence, and sexual function. (This section
should be a minimum of seven pages in length.)
Section 2: Consider the following condition for yourself. Following an
auto-mobile accident in which you were not wearing your seatbelt, you
become quadriplegic and completely aphasic. (Translation in plain
English: you have NO ABILITY to move your arms or legs. Your mind is
fully awake and alert, and you understand everything spoken to you,
but your brain CANNOT cause your mouth to form words -- most of the
time, you cannot even find the right word to say.) Detail in not less
than one page how this would alter the course of your life from your
present plans and dreams.
Section 3: Given the conditions of Section 2, describe in vivid detail
one day in your new life, from waking in the morning to falling asleep
at night. Mini-mum length of this section shall be two pages.
Format: Page margins shall be no more than one inch on each side, top,
and bottom. If typed, 1-1/2 line spacing shall be used, in a type
size no larger than 12 point. If handwritten, college ruled paper
shall be used, and the text shall be single-spaced.
Grading: This report will count for 75% of your homework grade for this
quarter. Half of the grade will be based on the content of the paper;
the other half of the grade will be based on the guidelines used in the
English Depart-ment for research papers, including thesis statements,
paragraph structures, punctuation, grammar, spelling, and formatting
of references, footnotes, and bibliography. (This portion of the
grading will be done by Ms. M. C.) Internet resources may be used;
Section 1 must have a minimum of 5 different sources. Christopher
Reeves’s autobiography would provide useful information for Section 3.
(He is quadriplegic but CAN speak.)
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P.S. Isn't educationese jargon great? "Individualized instruction"
and "writing across the curriculum" serve my purpose very well in this
instance!