Director of Teaching & Learning Miles Azzeh's Academic Spotlight: Jackie Sells and Lindsay Zych
Our Lansing USD 469 teachers are incredible at engaging our students in fantastic learning opportunities to reach their full potential every day in our district. To highlight and bring recognition to this great work, Director of Teaching and Learning Miles Azzeh will be regularly shining a spotlight on a stand-out teacher through "academic spotlights."
May 5, 2022 Academic Spotlight by Mr. Miles Azzeh:
Awareness and prevention are essential when it comes to learning about our health. With this concept in mind, Lansing High School PE Teachers Jackie Sells and Lindsay Zych have incorporated a unique lesson plan that first teaches students the effects of intoxication and then allows them to experience the impacts without consuming alcohol.
To begin the lesson, Officer Leif French (the school's School Resource Officer) spoke with the students about the legal side of alcohol and drugs. He shared stories about the dangers of intoxication and the legal consequences that follow the person afterward. It was highly informative, and the students were thoroughly captivated.
After Officer French's presentation, students were moved to a room where they participated in a "Fatal Vision" lab to simulate the effects of alcohol consumption on the body. Thanks to the generous help of the Lansing Educational Foundation and the Lansing Police Department, the PE department was able to purchase five Fatal Vision Goggles to use for the hands-on activity for the students.
"Each goggle represents a different BAC (Blood Alcohol Concentration) level of intoxication. Students would have to rotate through different stations the first time without the goggles and then repeat the same station with the goggles on. The stations include basic everyday life skills (pouring water or reading) to physical (catching a ball, walking a straight line, or operating a moving "vehicle"). The hope is that students will better understand intoxication and what it can do physically to the human body." - Jackie Sells
The students enjoyed rotating through the stations and were able to recognize just how difficult trying to do ordinary and simple tasks can become, no matter what level of intoxication you are at:
"I think the hardest station was the first station where we had to walk forwards and backward catching a ball, and I was falling and tripping everywhere." - Patrick Wong
"It was confusing, and it made me lose my sense of direction. I had to check every once in a while where I was going." - India Valverde
When the students completed the entire process, the teachers asked them to write a one-page reflection on their experiences with the lab and Officer French's presentation. Reflecting is a crucial (and often overlooked) portion of the learning process, so props to Ms. Sells and Ms. Zych for using it as a closure to a well-planned, memorable lesson, one that students walked away from learning the most important lesson of all:
"This taught me that you shouldn't drink and drive." - Dominic Meyer