Qs & As: The new Canadian Risk Watch

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Q1. What is Risk Watch?
Risk Watch is a comprehensive educational program that teaches students in Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 8 safe decision-making practices to prevent childhood injuries. Covering the eight leading causes of childhood injuries, Risk Watch consists of a variety of activities and lesson ideas elementary schoolteachers can incorporate into daily lesson plans. These activities teach students to make safe decisions when facing potentially hazardous situations.

Q2. Do we need to teach injury prevention?

• The leading cause of death and disability for children in Canada is preventable injury.
• More children die annually from injuries than from all other childhood diseases combined.
• 40,000 children and youth are seen in hospital emergency departments every year due to injuries in the home.
• The annual economic burden of unintentional injuries for all ages in Canada is $8.7 billion.

Source: SMARTRISK, a national injury prevention organization

Q3. Is Risk Watch relevant to Canadian classrooms?
Risk Watch was originally developed by the National Fire Protection Association in the United States but recently was revised for use in Canadian classrooms. The Canadian version was developed by teachers across the country to ensure activities and lesson plans are easy to use, age-appropriate, most relevant to teachers’ classroom needs, and complement school curricula. The Canadian version incorporates resources and educational approaches relevant to Canadian teaching methods, addresses regional safety issues in Canada, and includes the latest Canadian injury prevention information and data. Also, it is available in French.

Q4. Why would teachers want to use the new Canadian Risk Watch?
Risk Watch makes it easy for teachers to meet teaching requirements and reinforces current teaching methods. For example, each suggested safety lesson includes:

• The “Look First, Think Twice, Choose Smart” decision-making model. Each lesson plan reinforces in students this three-step decision-making model that will develop critical thinking skills and lead to safe decision-making;
• Challenging and varied activities, and detailed lesson plans that include activities for split-grade classes and in-class and wider school extensions;
• Age-appropriate activities for all grade levels;
• Activities that extend learning into the home and community;
• The teaching of behaviours rather than rules and the inclusion of positive language (“Do” instead of “Don’t”) to reflect current teaching methods;
• Expanded community resource sections teachers can access for more information on specific risk areas;
• A focus on Canadian and regional issues (use of ATV’s and snowmobiles, ice safety, forest fires, etc.);
• Canadian statistics, legislation, and terminology (i.e. hazard symbols);
• Availability in French.

Q5. How does the new Risk Watch fit with the Ontario curriculum?

• Assessment tools for each lesson plan/activity in each risk area are included. The new assessment tools help teachers meet the reporting needs of the Ontario curriculum and make it easy to measure learning across schools and regions for larger scale evaluation purposes.
• Risk Watch activities are designed to help teachers meet the learning outcomes required by the Ontario curriculum.
• Reflection opportunities and exercises built into each lesson plan/activity foster sequential learning that encourages students to build on knowledge and experience gained in previous years. Activities promoting sequential learning complement teaching techniques used in Ontario classrooms.
• The reflection activities also foster critical thinking skills to better complement the teaching techniques used in Ontario classrooms.
• Cross-curricular applications are highlighted throughout the program. For example, activities include: floatation/buoyancy exercises (see the “Water and Ice Safety” section of the Grade 3/4 module); gravity activities (see the “Bike and Pedestrian Safety” section of the Grade 7/8 module); writing exercises (see the “Choking, Suffocation and Strangulation Prevention” section of the Grade 3/4 module); skit writing and performing (see the “Water and Ice Safety” section of the Grade 1/2 module); television ad production (see the “Choking, Suffocation and Strangulation Prevention” section of the Grade 5/6 module); and many others that can be used across core subject areas.

Q6. How easily can Risk Watch be incorporated into daily lesson plans?
Very easily. Each activity is presented as a lesson card outlining step-by-step instructions for incorporation into daily lesson plans. Each lesson card outlines everything from background information about the risk area to resources required for the in-class activity to exercises that demonstrate learning to assessment techniques to extensions into the home and community.

Q7. How can Risk Watch be used?
Risk Watch is very flexible in its use. The following are suggested formats of implementation:

• Ten-hour intensive program: Teachers can spend one hour per week on activities addressing each of the eight risk areas covered in Risk Watch. Then a final two hours can be spent on suggested activities that require students to draw upon all the knowledge they gained in each of the one hour activities and apply that knowledge to new scenarios.
• Comprehensive program: This year-long program involves teaching all eight lesson plans in their entirety, highlighting one risk area per month. For example, October could be designated as Fire and Burn Prevention Month, during which activities and lesson ideas provided in the program can be incorporated into lesson plans for a variety of subject areas throughout the month. Following the eight months, activity suggestions are provided that require students to draw upon all the knowledge they gained and apply that knowledge to new scenarios.
• A third option: This allows for the teacher to be considerably flexible. If, on any given day, teachers have a spare 30 minutes they need to fill there are activities and lesson plans in Risk Watch that can be used. Or, if teachers recognize specific safety issues important to their students or their area they can be incorporated into the Risk Watch program.

Q8. Does Risk Watch work?
Teachers are encouraged to report to their local fire department or to the Office of the Fire Marshal incidents in which students have applied the safety lessons taught in Risk Watch to real-life scenarios to prevent injuries to themselves or those around them. Based on the high frequency of these reports, the Office of the Fire Marshal knows that Risk Watch is working: evidence shows that students are learning safe behaviours and are putting those behaviours into practice.