Safety Science Tools
Buckle Up for Safety!
Open your students’ eyes to the importance of scientific literacy. As a Science Educator, you can help them
draw connections between science, engineering, math, and language. These lessons can help build their
confidence, strengthen their interest, and apply their knowledge to solve new problems.
BUCKLE UP ACTIVITY
How can I be a safety equipment role model for others? Safety Smart students stay safe by using the right
safety equipment for all modes of travel!
For this activity, students will be practicing how to talk to people about wearing seat belts and then create
a Public Service Announcement (PSA) that supports seatbelt usage. Begin by explaining what a PSA is—
unlike a typical ad that is used to sell a product, a public service announcement (PSA) is an ad that is used
to increase people’s understanding of an issue and perhaps change their behavior.
Next, divide students into 3 – 4 groups. Ask each group to come up with a scenario where they might have
to talk to someone about wearing their seat belt. Have each group act out their scenario. Here are two
examples:
• You are riding home from soccer practice with a parent of a friend. They aren’t wearing a seat belt.
What would you do? Response: You should remind the parent of the importance of wearing a
seatbelt and that it can save their life. Even if the parent chooses not to wear their seat belt, you
should wear yours because that is what a Safety Smart student would do.
• Your mom is taking you to school one morning, and she is not wearing a seat belt. She says she is a
safe driver and doesn’t worry about wearing a seat belt. What would you do? Response: You should
remind your mom of the importance of wearing a seatbelt and that it can save her life. And remind
her that just because she is a safe driver, doesn’t mean everyone else on the road drives safely. Other
drivers can cause you to get in an accident.
Once the groups have spent a few minutes acting out their scenario, hand out 1 - 2 sheets of heavy white
stock paper to each group and have them create PSA posters based on their scenario. The PSAs should
encourage everyone to buckle up for safety. Hang the completed posters around the school to promote
seat belt awareness.
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Safety Science Tools
Buckle Up for Safety!
SAFETY SMART® SCIENCE
Teach your students the science behind buckling up:
The basic idea of a seatbelt is very simple: When your car comes to an abrupt stop it keeps you in place and
not flying through the windshield or toward the dashboard.
The law that explains why your body is thrown forward if the car abruptly stops is called Newton’s First
Law – the Law of Inertia. The Law of Inertia says that an object at rest will stay at rest forever, as long
as nothing pushes or pulls on it. And an object in motion will stay in motion, traveling in a straight line,
forever, until something pushes or pulls on it. To put it another way, inertia is every object’s resistance to
changing its speed and direction of travel. Things naturally want to keep going.
If a car is speeding along at 50 miles per hour, inertia wants to keep it going 50 mph in one direction. Air
resistance and friction with the road are constantly slowing it down, but the engine’s power compensates
for this energy loss.
Anything that is in the car, including the driver and passengers, has its own inertia, which is separate from
the car’s inertia. The car accelerates riders to its speed. Imagine that you’re coasting at a steady 50 miles
per hour. Your speed and the car’s speed are pretty much equal, so you feel like you and the car are moving
as a single unit.
But if the car were to crash into a telephone pole. The force of the pole would bring the car to an abrupt
stop, but your speed would remain the same. Without a seatbelt, you would either be thrown into the
steering wheel at 50 miles per hour or go flying through the windshield at 50 miles per hour. Just as the
pole slowed the car down, the dashboard, windshield or the road would slow you down by exerting a
tremendous amount of force.
Something has to exert force on you to slow you down. A seatbelt applies the stopping force to the durable
parts of your body.
EXTRA CREDIT: Post your PSA to one or all of your school’s social media channels and #safetysmartschool
for a chance to be featured on ulsafetysmart.com.
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