This Safety Camp Manual is designed to help organize a Safety Camp for children ages 8-12. It includes direction on various activities that can be used to teach children and the surrounding community about safety in Agriculture.
Courses That Can Make a Difference
A camp offers
a wonderful opportunity to teach children how to reduce the
risk of injury with new knowledge and skills. The campers are
a captive audience! It is very important to seize the moment
with the RIGHT information designed just for the age group you
have selected. This manual is designed for children 8-12 years
of age. The topics selected for inclusion are based on the leading
causes of childhood farm injury in Georgia. The material presented
in the day camp manual is not a warranty against injury. It
is one step in the process of raising awareness about childhood
farm injury. A recommended format for teaching safety to children
is a day camp for elementary aged children and integration of
agricultural safety and health topics into the school agricultural
curriculum.
Based on childhood farm injury data in Georgia, the following
topics are addressed by this camp manual, which is designed
for campers 8-12 years of age:
- Livestock
Safety - Animal inflicted injuries are the leading cause
of childhood farm injury in Georgia.
- Tractor
Safety- A leading cause of childhood farm injury.
- Skin
Cancer Prevention (SunSense) - A risk for adults in agriculture
that must be addressed in childhood to prevent or reduce
occurrence in adulthood.
- First-aid/First
Responder - Children may be the first to arrive on the scene
of a farm injury. They need skills and age-appropriate knowledge
to cope with the situation.
- ATV
Safety - A growing cause of childhood farm injury.
- Water
Safety - Pond drowning was the number one cause of childhood
farm- related death in the state.
The size
of classes should be limited to 15-25 campers of similar ages.
This allows ample time for each camper to interact and practice
new skills. The attention span for the 8-12 year old age group
is 15-20 minutes. This does not mean the class should be 15-20
minutes, but the approach must change over that time range to
reactivate interest. The writers recommend a class period of
35-50 minutes to allow hands on experiences, lecture, and games
on the same topic. This approach keeps interest up while providing
repetition. Repetition is important with the 8-12 year age group,
but it does not mean saying the same thing in the same way over
and over. It does mean offering the information more than once,
but in different ways. The lesson plans included in this manual
incorporate repetition and other techniques that make the classes
appropriate for the 8-12 age group. Most camps offer the same
class many times during the day to keep the class size small
enough for campers to learn through the activities included
in the
Farm Safety Camp Manual.
References
Andersen,
K.E. (1978).
Persuasion:Theory and Practice (2nd ed.).
Boston: Allyn and Bacon, Inc.
Dorr, A. "When I was a child, I thought as a child." In S.Withey
& R.Abels (Eds.). (1980).
Television and social behavior:
Beyond violence and children. Hillsdale , NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Glanz, K., Lewis, F.M., & Rimer, B.K.(Eds), (1997).
Health
Behavior and Health Education (2nd ed.). San Francisco:
Jossey-Boss.
Lee B. & Marlenga, B. (Eds.). (1999). Resource Manual: North
American Guidelines for Children's Agricultural Tasks. Marshfield,
WI:Marshfield Clinic.
Maibach, E., & Parrott, R.L. (Eds.). (1995).
Designing Health
Messages. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
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