Learning Goal: Students will be able to identify the differences in choosing personal challenges or acting impulsively.
Many teens are risk takers. Unfortunately, the risks they choose are not always positive. Teens need to seek out positive risks. Each individual has a comfort zone outside of which they typically do not stray. To become more successful, people must venture outside their comfort zones and take positive risks that enable them to grow.
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Activity #1: Brainstorm Safety Issues for Teens - Class Discussion
Activity #2: Significant Safety Issues in our School - Small Groups
- In small groups (the people around you), generate a list of 5 potential or current safety issues for teens in our school and discuss what kind of risk behaviours are associated with each issue
- Students can begin this activity with the handout - "5 Safety Issues Mind Map"
Activity #3: Riding a Bicycle
- Learning to ride a bicycle may have been a potential risky situation when you were a small child but learning to ride had positive results and benefits? How?
- What are 3 other positive risks taken in life?
Activity #4: Smart Risks vs. Impulsive Behaviour - Create a Collage
This activity will focus on students and their ability to identify smart risks versus impulsive behaviour. In pairs, your task is to create an electronic collage that displays the difference between to the two decisions at hand. Be sure that your collage contains words and pictures that depict both actions. Be sure to talk over with your partner the differences between the two, and how you can identify each in visual forms. You will print and submit this collage when your are finished.
What can students do to promote and enhance risk-management skills and attitudes?
- evaluate personal risk-taking behaviors
- attend programs aimed at risk taking, such as the Prevent Alcohol and Risk Related Trauma in Youth (PARTY) program or presentations sponsored by Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD) or Students Against Drunk Drivers (SADD)
- evaluate personal impulsiveness and develop strategies for critical thinking before acting on impulse
- practice thinking through their actions before engaging in high-risk behaviours
- provide feedback to peers regarding impulsiveness and choices
- consult parents or trusted adults when unsure about the risks involved in personal decisions
- talk through the process and merits of taking risks when appropriate
- practice taking personal risks in safe situations; e.g., present personal viewpoints; be willing to make mistakes and learn from them
- choose to develop calculated risk-taking behaviours through incremental risk taking, starting with small risks and working toward significant ones