Farm Safety Camp Manual PDF Version


Judy Hartley
Georgia Department of Human Resources



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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Reviewed for NASD: 03/2003