| Racing
Against Drugs is a community-based drug/alcohol awareness and injury prevention
program for students. It was originally developed in 1994 through a partnership of the
London RCMP, the Ford Motor Company and the former London Board of Education. |
Students enrolled in Grade 4 & 5 in
Leeds, Grenville and Lanark are
invited to attend a two-hour session of Racing Against Drugs. The event
reaches
approximately 2000 students each year. It runs for three days and two sessions are
held each day.
This event is held one year in a Smiths Falls location and the alternate year in a
Brockville location. |
When students arrive at the Racing Against Drugs
event they will see approximately 25 "pit stops" set up. Each "pit
stop" is run by a different community agency or group and they each have an
interactive, seven-minute presentation with a clear and distinct message related to
substance use. Students are put into groups of
approximately 10 and rotated around the venue changing pit stops every seven
minutes. Each group of students will have time to visit approximately ten to twelve
pit stops during their 2-hour session.
After approximately 90 minutes of visiting the "pit stops" students are
then invited to watch their teachers race remote control cars on a giant racetrack.
The "Final Race", as it's been coined, matches teachers from one school
against teachers from other schools attending the same session. This provides an
entertaining conclusion to the event and school moral booster for the students.
Students come away from the event energized and more aware of the far-reaching
consequences of substance abuse.
A complementary Racing Against Drugs Teacher's package, developed by the Durham
regional public and separate school boards is available. The learning begins in the
classroom where teachers deliver the Racing Against Drugs curriculum and engage the
students in pre-event activities. This curriculum is based on the Ontario curriculum
expectations. It can stand-alone or be a learning tool to reinforce the actual
lessons from the 1/2-day Racing Against Drugs event. The assessment unit is intended
for use at the conclusion of the Racing Against Drugs program (time permitted) to
assist teachers in providing students with the opportunity to consolidate their
learning from the content of the program. It has been prepared in the format of the
Provincial Assessment for Reading, Writing and Mathematics and provides direct links
with the Healthy Living strand from the Ontario curriculum: Health and Physical
Education and Science and Technology: Life Systems-Human Organ Systems. For further
links regarding this curriculum information please visit: www.autonet.ca/rad
Resources
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