Neighborhood Safety Map

From "stranger danger" films to cartoon characters' warnings about fires and muggers, public safety campaigns have long educated children about potential hazards.  One group of 3rd graders decided it was time for youths to speak for themselves about danger and safety.  The students created a map of their neighborhood's safety features.

The students began with a discussion about the basic word behind their project: safety. What were neighborhood safety features, and why and how did communities provide them?  They invited representatives from the police and fire departments and from the local utilities company to speak about safety on the street and around power lines. 

Once they had an idea of what they were going to map, the students had to learn about where they were going to map.  They studied community plans, seeing for the first time their neighborhood's full design and practicing general map-reading skills, such as how to read legends and how to scale an area to fit a piece of paper. 

Armed with this knowledge, the students were ready to hit the streets. Working in supervised small groups, they walked their neighborhood, noting safety features such as street signs, traffic patterns, fire hydrants, clearly marked businesses, and telephones.  They recorded the information on a map they drew and copied it for distribution to parents and community members at an open house.  The students donated their large-scale original safety map to the public library as a neighborhood resource.

Though the students something that would long be a tangible resource for the whole community, their success was even more evident in their change in attitude.  After spending such a lot of time outside their classroom, connecting with the businesses and people in their neighborhood, the students became more self-confident in their surroundings.  And nothing can keep children safer than such awareness.

Adapted from "Route to Reform: K-8 service-learning Curriculum Ideas," © 1994-95 National Youth Leadership Council.