Safety: Let's Take It Home

Here's a quick quiz: can your students identify all the risks on the home safety worksheet?

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MatchCard Science Home Safety Worksheet

Objective: Identify health risks that may be present in the home.

MatchCard: Download below.

MatchCard Information Pieces describe risk factors, causes, and preventive measures for the following safety hazards: poisoning, falls, drowning, fire, carbon monoxide, radon, firearms, teen driving.

Print the Home Safety MatchCard

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This is MatchCard #7 of the Nutrition, Health, and Safety Unit Study. Find more information on MatchCard Science below.

Safety In the Home

Use the safety MatchCard as a before and after quiz. This can be taught in a five day lesson plan with activities below.

Keep Your Ears Open

Note what accidents and injuries are reported in the news during the time of your study. Which are most frequently reported? Do you think the frequency of news reports reflects which types of accidents are most common? At the end of the week, share one story about an accident and how it might have been prevented. It can be a story you heard on the news or from an eye witness.

Falls: Not a Laughing Matter

Day One

To Prepare: Write the following on slips of paper:

• You are blind and use a cane
• You are on crutches
• You are elderly with poor eye sight
• You are a 13 month toddler
• You are a curious puppy

You may want to put them in blown up balloons. Students pop one balloon (or one at a time) and have to play that role.

Go through your house (inside and out) and find any hazards that might create falls if you had a visitor with one of these conditions. It might be fun to do this first thing in the morning or before people have picked up

Drowning

Day Two

Identify areas where individuals might drown.

What lifeguard courses are available in your area? What CPR courses are available? Consider taking a course if you have a swimming pool or swim often in a public area.

Firearms

Day Two

Discuss both sides of the arguments for and against personal firearms.

What firearm safety courses are available in your community? Consider taking a course if there are firearms in your home or you or your family hunt.

Fire Safety

Day Three

Discuss and practice these safety rules:

• Stop, drop and roll
• Close a door if a fire is in a room and you can’t contain it
• Crawl low
• Touch a door or knob before opening it
• Meet at a designated place.

Learn about the three classes of fires with MatchCard #8.

Radon and Carbon Monoxide Detectors

Day Three

Compare the costs of radon detectors and carbon monoxide detectors and fire detectors at a local hardware store or an on-line shop. What kind of detector does your home need?

Discuss the need for ventilation when an automobile is running.

Poisons

Day Four

Go on a hunt for poisons in your home. Are they all stored safely? Identify items in the kitchen and garage that could be potentially hazardous.

If you have pets, consider what poisons might affect them.

Discuss poison control number. Discuss they sometimes want to induce vomiting, but sometimes do not if the act of vomitting causes acid to do more damage.

New Drivers

Day Five

Driving is not a danger factor as much for the home as it is outside the house. Obviously, more education will be acquired when the student starts to drive. This information will get younger kids thinking about safety measures long before they get behind the wheel the first time.

It takes time for a driver to develop reflect action. If the car in front stops suddenly, an experienced driver will often slam on the breaks due to reflexes before his or her brain completely grasps the situation in front. This doesn’t happen as quickly with new drivers.

What steps can you take to decrease outside stimulation (passengers, loud music) while gaining experience as a driver?

What driver safety courses are available in your community? Does your insurance have a discount for passing a driver safety course?

Think: Teen drivers whose parents bought their car have more accidents than those who bought it themselves. Why?