Teens in the Driver Seat

A peer-to-peer safe driving program for your school.

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STOP! Stack the Blocks Activity

speeding
This hands-on activity raises awareness about the dangers of speeding and helps show that the faster the speed, the more stopping distance is required. You and your peers will conceptualize the distance by stacking blocks to guess how many building stories it takes for a car traveling X miles per hour to stop to better visualize the longer stopping distances that are needed when traveling at high speeds. These items can be borrowed by completing a resource request form.

 Items Needed
  • Set of 100 blocks or downloadable block grid (print one for each player)
  • Set of activity cards, printed back and front

 Steps
  1. Set up your activity table/station by having a hard surface for people to stack blocks.
  2. Choose one person to be the activity facilitator who will hold and read the activity cards.
  3. Invite peers to play a game and give activity instructions:
    • Player Instructions: Based on the card shown, you will see a vehicle traveling at a certain speed. Something unexpected will run in the road and it’s up to you to guess the stopping distance in feet when traveling at that speed so as not to hit what’s in the road. The way you’ll guess the stopping distance is by stacking blocks, where each block represents one story of a building or about 10-12 feet.
  4. Show the front of the card to players. The back of the card reveals the answer so make sure you keep it hidden.
  5. When players are done with their guess, show them the correct answer. Ask a few questions to get players thinking about speeding behaviors, such as:
    • Have you been in a crash or close call as a driver and had to slam on the brakes?
    • Have you been a passenger when the driver had to slap on their brakes?
    • Have you been a pedestrian when a car coming towards you slammed on their brakes?
    • Do you tend to follow speed limits or only in certain circumstances?
    • Talk about how road conditions, weather, and road design can impact speed and encourage your peers to slow down accordingly. For example, at 75 mph, the stopping distance nearly doubles to 900 feet for wet pavement conditions.
  6. Reward the player that guesses closest with a TDS outreach item or piece of candy.
  7. Let a new set of players play a different scenario or play another round with the same group.
  8. Submit an online activity form at t-driver.com to get credit for completing a speeding awareness activity.
The Omnicalculator stopping distance calculator, which uses the AASHTO Design Guidelines, was used to create this activity. 

Don’t Forget
  • The blocks and activity cards are for program schools. Please take care not to damage the items.
  • Take pictures of the activity and post them to social tagging @teensdriverseat.

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