Drunk Goggles (Sara Pachacki)

Title: Drunk Goggles

Principle(s) Investigated: The purpose of the goggles is to demonstrate to students that using alcohol distorts their perceptions, upsets their balance, makes ordinary activities difficult, and can make some activities (like driving a car or riding a bike) deadly.

Standards : 7 Practicing Health- Enhancing Behaviors. All students will demonstrate the ability to practice behaviors that reduce risk and promote health.

Materials: Goggles, Vaseline, toothpicks, tweezers, Student cell phones for a timer, access to computer for the form

Procedure: Students are divided into pairs.

1. One member will try to pick up as many toothpicks with tweezers as he can in one minute while the other will act as the time keeper

2. The students will log the amount of toothpicks that were picked up while “sober” and place all the toothpicks back into the pile and mix them all up again.

3. The member will then put on the goggles that have Vaseline smeared on them. The other member will act as timer for one minute to see how many of the toothpicks they can pick up while “drunk.” The amount of blue ones selected will be logged in the chart.

4. Repeat steps 1-3 with member #2

5. Answer questions individually in the form.

Student prior knowledge: Students will already have learned the various side effects of alcohol and drug use. They will know that drunk driving causes many accidents and deaths every year.

Teaching Points:

Drinking alcohol can cause problems with mood, judgment, reflexes, balance, and control. Many bad things happen under these circumstances, including car crashes, falls, biking, and walking injuries, fights, and assaults. Never drive with someone who has been drinking. No one should drive if they have been drinking.

It is illegal in the state of California to drink if you are under the age of 21.

Young people who drink have a far greater chance than adults of having a crash, getting in a fight, being assaulted, being poisoned by alcohol, or becoming addicted. The law is there to protect young people. Even though wearing the goggles can be a fun and novel feeling, they convey a very serious lesson. Keep it serious.

Take Home Messages:

Alcohol distorts perceptions and upsets balance, makes ordinary activities difficult and activities (like driving a car or riding a bike) deadly. Alcohol also causes poor judgment and depression resulting in bad or potentially life threatening choices.

Americans take 233 billion trips in cars each year. Of those, about one out of every two thousand trips are taken by those who are driving under the influence of alcohol. Yet, almost one out of every three traffic deaths involve drunk driving.

So a proportionally tiny amount of bad behavior is one of the major causes of death and injury on our roadways.

Every 53 minutes, on average, someone is killed in a drunk driving crash (9,878 people in 2011). Every two minutes, someone is injured because of this entirely preventable crime.

About one-third of the drunk driving problem – arrests, crashes, deaths, and injuries – comes from repeat offenders. At any given point, we potentially share the roads with 2 million people with three or more drunk driving offenses. Taking away their licenses isn’t enough; 50-75% of them drive anyway. This is why we need to require ignition interlocks for all drunk driving offenders – we can stop these offenders before they repeat their crimes.

Two-thirds of the drunk driving problem comes from people who, before they kill or injure themselves or others, have yet to be arrested.

Explanation:

Make sure every student gets the chance to be the “drunk.” Collect all student data from across the class and show on the graph the results of sober vs. drunk. Though we can’t demonstrate by actually drinking and driving, this simulation of distorting ones eye sight and perspective gives the students an idea of how one cannot do simple hand eye coordination when vision is distorted. Utilizing vision distorting goggles simulate the effects of alcohol consumption on the body.

Slip on the goggles and experience the effects of reduced alertness, delayed reaction time, confusion, visual distortion, alteration of depth and distance perception, reduced peripheral vision, double vision, and lack of muscle coordination. Combine the goggles with otherwise simple participant tasks like walking the line, picking up coins, setting objects on a table and you’ll create engaging and effective impairment demonstrations that won’t be forgotten soon.

Questions:

1. List 5 activities that would be more challenging for you if you were under the influence.

2. Does each person who drinks react the same way to the same amount of alcohol? Why?

3. How does this activity transpire into a real world scenario?

Applications to Everyday Life:

Alcohol distorts perceptions and upsets balance, makes ordinary activities difficult and activities (like driving a car or riding a bike) deadly.

Alcohol also causes poor judgment and depression resulting in bad or potentially life threatening choices.

Photographs: Include a photograph of you or students performing the experiment/demonstration, and a close-up, easy to interpret photograph of the activity --these can be included later.

Videos: Include links to videos posted on the web that relate to your activity. These can be videos you have made or ones others have made. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej_2uT7D8yI&feature=related