According to the Center for Disease Control, about 4.7 million middle and high school students in the United States use at least one tobacco product, including e-cigarettes.  The goal of the event is to educate students on the harmful effects of vaping to their health.  Students experienced a reality check through the vaping awareness interactive game show. 

PEERS’s Adam Simmons was emcee, and Ryan de St. Germain provided tech support for the presenters.  FHS Staff distributed hand held remote controls, similar to an automobile keyless entry fob.  Two large screens flashed multiple choice questions relating to vaping and nicotine intake, while the emcee voiced the question to the audience.  Students chose their answer with the remote aimed at the screen.  After four or five questions, the students with the most correct answers were shown on the screen by the “winning” remote numbers.

Adam picked four contestants from those winning numbers to come to the players stations.  He then asked a question about use of vaping products that demanded an immediate response.  A light would shine in front of the player who pushed the fastest button.  Just like Jeopardy and the other television game shows!

          Correct responders then received actual prizes in the form of five-dollar bills or had to perform an amusing feat in front of the audience.  The excitement was palpable.   While having fun, the students were learning how dangerous vaping and nicotine inhalation was, especially for their age group.  They also saw how the makers of these electronic devices were using fruit and candy flavors to attract young people.

The PEERS Foundation is doing research with the results of these programs throughout the nation over the past year.  The feedback from school districts has been positive and encouraging.   The game show dramatically raises awareness of how smoking e-cigarettes can manifest into addiction and health issues.

House Bill 1070 proposes that a person may not hold or use a phone device in a driver’s seat of a car while the vehicle is in motion. This includes typing, transmitting or reading a text message while driving a vehicle.

However, the bill still allows drivers to use their phone as long as it’s hands free or voice operated. Drivers may also be allowed to use their phone to call 911 to report an emergency.

State officials said the bill passed in a hearing on Tuesday in Indianapolis. Officials said the bill passed 8-1 out of the committee.

Fort Wayne’s NBC talked with several people around Fort Wayne about the proposed bill.

Fort Wayne’s NBC stopped by Barber’s United and talked with Jesus Vargas.

“You need safety, but at the same time, I don’t know how this bill would help because people still do it (drive and use phone). People still get distracted,” said Jesus Vargas, a barber.

Fort Wayne’s NBC talked with a few people at a gas station.

“To pass in Fort Wayne and to be enforced, I do believe it would prevent a lot of accidents,” said Nicholas Carrillo, customer at a gas station. “It would be very beneficial to traffic and pedestrians and anyone.”

Fort Wayne’s NBC also talked with officials from PEERS Foundation, a non-profit focused on empowering young people to build healthy and successful lives.

Leaders with the organization said the proposed bill will make a positive difference in the long-term.

“I think this bill is one of the most important bills to go through and needs to go through every state,” said Michael Seymore, Chairman of the Board PEERS Foundation.” And this literally is a life saving bill. We are losing too many people to distractions and especially around their cell phones.”

Grand Rapids, Michigan – December 4, 2019 – On November 18, 2010, twenty-year-old Missouri resident Kaela Marie Archambault died when she crashed head-on into a school bus, the result of distracted driving. Since that horrific day, her father, Shawn Archambault, has made it his mission to honor his daughter’s memory by inspiring others to become safe drivers and advocating for road improvement in Missouri.

On the recent ninth anniversary of Kaela’s death, Archambault’s KMA Foundation, along with the East- West Gateway Council of Governments, Missouri Department of Transportation, and Missouri Coalition for Roadway Safety agreed to take the Grand Rapids, Michigan based PEERS Foundation’s Augmented Reality Distracted Driving Education Simulator (ARDDES) distracted driving prevention program to six Missouri high schools as part of the East-West Gateway and Missouri Department of Transportation’s St. Louis Youth Drive for Tomorrow program. “Automobile accidents are the leading cause of death for youth ages 15 to 20 in Missouri, and a whopping fifty percent of Missouri’s teen drivers admit to texting while driving,” said PEERS Foundation’s CEO, Mike Seymore.

The high-energy ARDDES experience incorporates live teaching, video testimony, and peer interaction with the PEERS Foundation’s state-of-the-art driving simulator to educate students about the dangers of distracted driving. “Students have always heard the details of a fatal accident caused by distracted driving and how it has affected the loved ones left behind during the ARDDES presentation. We feel that sharing Kaela’s story and having her father present at each event to share his experience will certainly bring home the reality of how dangerous distracted driving is,” said Seymore.

PEERS’ ARDDES Simulator experience is as lifelike as it can possibly be. Students ‘drive’ an actual car while wearing a Meta-2 augmented reality headset which allows for a 360-degree immersive experience in the simulator. Oncoming cars, passing traffic, and pedestrians are visible in the car’s windows and rear-view mirror, and ‘drivers’ are able to safely experience distractions such as tuning the radio, talking on the phone, and texting. To intensify the experience, each simulated drive is broadcast on a big screen allowing waiting students to witness their peer’s simulated driving successes and failures.

As part of the St. Louis Youth Drive for Tomorrow program, each participating school will receive KMA’s safe-driving pledge banner. This banner is signed by students during the presentation and then displayed in the school as a regular reminder to students of their commitment to distraction-free driving. The KMA Foundation will also be awarding a $500 scholarship to one senior from each school.

A 501c3 non-profit organization based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the PEERS Foundation creates innovative and interactive interventions to engage today’s youth and empower them to make better decisions around health, wellness, and education.

Julie Piotrowski with the PEERS Foundation says, “We have kids sit in the car. In the real actual car and we place an augmented reality headset on their head. Once they have it on they’ll be inside a virtual city. They can see it out in front of their car and on both side views.”

It’s called Augmented Reality Distracted Driving Education Simulator…or ARDDES. Students drive at thirty miles per hour in the sim. All while they’re told what to do on their phone.

Piotrowski says, “Have them get on Snapchat or look up something on Google maps. Give them real-life situations and show them how quickly things can go wrong once they’re distracted on their cell phone.”

One of the students to buckle in was high school junior Trenton Clark.

Clark says, “You’re literally seeing like everything. And the wheel perception is like there is no power steering. It’s literally like your drunk or something like that. Or distracted. It’s crazy.”

Clark says the experience is one that will stick with him.

Clark explains, “Not to text and drive that’s for sure. To keep all senses when I’m driving and to look both ways. And in anything I’m doing make sure I’m off my phone.”

https://www.wthitv.com/content/news/Loogootee-hosts-virtual-reality-driving-simulator-567564971.html

By Randy M. Cauthron, Managing Editor

Orlo Azul, with the PEERS Foundation, served as the game show host as part of an informative program on vaping on nicotine dangers presented to the Spencer Middle School students Thursday afternoon. Students answered questions and were afforded opportunities to play other games for cash and candy.

Photos by Randy M. Cauthron

Game show approach delivers facts on growing trend

Taking an original approach to educating middle school students to the dangers associated with vaping, facts were delivered to the sixth through eighth grade classes in a game show. Rather than a gym full of quiet, reluctant youth — game show host Orlo Azul had students screaming, jumping up and down and cheering for one another as he introduced the information through interactive trivia questions — offering up cash and prizes to the winners.

Orlo Azul — whose real name is Orlando Estrada — works with the PEERS Foundation and has been offering these unique, fact-based, presentations across the country for eight-plus years.

“We do a trivia game show and we do various themes,” Estrada said. “Today’s theme is ‘Vaping and Nicotine Awareness’ and we give out prize money and cash. … We are always teaching about these topics, but there’s a better way to approach it versus ‘this is right, this is wrong.’ Why can’t we have fun and explore the details.”

Such is the approach as hand-held entry pads were distributed to teams of two throughout the gym. Winners were selected from several rounds of multiple choice and true-false questions regarding vaping facts, stats and general information. Winners were allowed to participate in additional games for cash and candy prizes. Estrada would hand out $100 in cash all totaled in the one hour show to some very happy winners, along with an assortment of candy to those who finished runner-up.

“It’s engaging,” Estrada said. “It’s all about participation. Everybody has a chance to participate at some point.”

Tammy Delaney, Spencer Middle School principal, credited the district’s school resource officer with brining the program.

“Daaron Hansen, our SRO, brought it to us to provide an opportunity for our kids to learn some information about vaping so they might be able to make smart choices about vaping,” she said. “Presenting it in a gamified method is a great way to engage kids and help them learn.”

“The purpose is to raise awareness of the vaping epidemic going on,” said Hansen, who also leads the DARE program. “It’s a huge problem.

He continued, “With this vaping they’re actually targeting kids by making it in those flavors — the watermelon, cherry. That’s how they’re drawing all those kids in. It’s not very well regulated. The deaths are starting to show up and the lung and health related issues are really starting to show up.”

Delaney said the school plans to follow up with students Friday.

“We will do some talking, read a couple of articles and get some feedback from the kids. The kids were very engaged and walked away with some good information they didn’t have before.”

Combined support from the Spencer Drug Education Fund and Spencer Schools Foundation provided funding for the special programming.

Founded in 2007, the PEERS Foundation, based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is a nonprofit organization that seeks to empower young people to build healthy and successful lives through innovative and interactive learning programs. Michael and Scott Seymore formed the PEERS Foundation to help bring educational programs to young people throughout the United States. With years of experience in event design and construction, booking, management and execution, they have spearheaded the success of the PEERS Foundation.

Randy Cauthron

Managing Editor

Spencer Daily Reporter

Northwest Iowa Publishing

[email protected]

712-262-6610 Ext 116

“We’re all guilty of it – which by the way, you just ran a red light,” he continued, narrating a rather poor performance by one teen driver.

It wasn’t just red lights that were run at L’Anse Creuse High school in Macomb and Clarenceville High School in Livonia. Stop signs were hit, foliage was crushed. It was a mess.

“It was very hard to concentrate on where I was going,” said Madison Meyers, a student. “And I couldn’t really see that well in it.”

“I didn’t do that well in the simulation,” said Brendan Mahoney, another student. “I hit a tree and a stop sign – ran a couple of red lights.”

It was chaos in the Professionals Encouraging Educational Reforms (PEER) driving simulator Monday, when the folks showed teens, safely, just how impaired their driving was when they become distracted.

“In five seconds, traveling 55 MPH, you went the whole length of a football field while looking at your phone,” said Julie Piotrowski, of the PEERS Foundation. “it’s very serious. You can lose family members just by being on your phone.”

Distracted driving, which isn’t limited to just texting and driving but anything where your eyes or hands are taken from their appropriate places in the vehicle and your focus is diverted elsewhere, kills 10 teens per day. 

Despite the horrific statistics, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports the number of deaths related to distracted driving crashes fell by 12.4 percent from 2017 to 2018. Even with the positive numbers, they aren’t anywhere close to where they should be. Which is why PEERS is traveling to high schools around the region, teaching kids about just how dangerous is to be distracted while behind the wheel.

https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/metro-detroit-teens-simulated-texting-while-driving-it-didnt-go-well

Tuesday, students at Wausau East High School used an augmented reality simulator to experience the dangers of distracted driving first-hand.

“A lot can go wrong really quickly [be]cause the simulator took maybe at most twenty seconds,” said 11th grade student RJ Brod.

The PEERS Foundation simulator students tested Tuesday featured augmented reality goggles that offer a 360 degree view. A representative from the foundation said it’s the only technology of its kind used for distracted driving simulations in the U.S.
Distracted driving prevention educator Susan Meekhof added an extra level of diversion to the experience by prompting students to take selfies, text, or use the Internet.

“While they’re texting they’re messing up, all over the road they’re speeding they’re crashing into trees,” said Meekhof. “They make a mess.”
According to the PEERS Foundation, 88% of students who experience the simulator “strongly agree” that they are more likely to eliminate distractions afterward.

Students Tuesday didn’t just learn from the immersive augmented realty experience. P.E.E.R.S educators also presented distracted driving statistic and a video showcasing one driver’s experience getting hit by a distracted driver.
Teachers at Wausau East said the entire event created a dialogue to talk about those issues.

“It lead into some really good conversations about kids who are making good choices or kids who say I could do better,” said health and P.E. teacher Jessica Truax.

For school resource officer Nick Stetzer, the event was the perfect opportunity to teach students about consequences.

“Driving is definitely a privilege, not a right, ” said Stezter. “So I think taking that and putting that into perspective for these kids is an eye opening experience.”
Students Tuesday also signed a pledge to avoid distractions while driving. The entire event was sponsored by State Farm at no cost to the school.
The penalty for texting and driving in Wisconsin ranges anywhere from $20 to $400.

https://www.wjfw.com/storydetails/20191203192155/wausau_students_learn_about_distracted_driving_in_augmented_reality_simulator

This was made possible through the PEERS Foundation which is a nationwide health and wellness foundation that along with State Farm are visiting schools across the country bring along the Augmented Reality Distracted Driving Education Simulator(ARDDES).

The simulator features eye-tracking software which shows students how long they take their eyes off the road while using their phones.

“For adults, for kids – I think everyone needs that reminder that – to drive distracted is really dangerous. Not only for yourself but for the people around you,” said Jessica Truax who is a health and physical education teacher at the school.

The head-mounted augmented reality display presents the students with realistic scenarios.