Stay Home
Stay Home
Background Information
Staying home is not frequently considered by teens as an option for decreasing vehicle miles traveled.
In this activity, students will use information from a previous module, "Getting There," to calculate now much they would save if they stayed home one day per week, month, or year. They will also consider and propose ways to compensate for what they might have missed by staying home.
Stay Home
Student Activities
1. Miles and energy saved by staying home: Use data from the "Smart Shopping Trips" module.
a. Record number of miles driven
weekly
monthly
annually
b. Using data from the appendices, calculate savings if you stayed home:
- One day per:
- week
- month
- year
- One week per:
- month
- year
In terms of:
- miles ("Shopping")
- gas (Appendix B)
- money (Appendix D)
- emissions (Appendix B)
If I stayed home: I would save:
| Miles | Gas | Money | Emissions | |
| One day per week: | $ | CO2 | ||
| NO | ||||
| SO2 | ||||
| One day per month: | $ | CO2 | ||
| NO | ||||
| CO2 | ||||
| One day per year: | $ | CO2 | ||
| NO | ||||
| SO2 | ||||
| One week per mo.: | $ | CO2 | ||
| NO | ||||
| SO2 | ||||
| One week per year: | $ | CO2 | ||
| NO | ||||
| SO2 |
2. Information about staying home:
a. Brainstorm with a team of fellow students:
- When you stay home, how do you use your time?
- How do you entertain yourself?
b. Interview other students and ask the same questions.
c. Focus group: Discuss:
- What would we miss by staying home?
- How might we make up for what we loose?
3. Devise an ad campaign aimed at staying home and enjoying it.
a. Determine your audience (fellow students, family, the general public).
b. Decide how you will inform them (posters, public service announcements on radio and TV, a newspaper article or letter to the editor, an assembly, etc.).
c. Present your campaign.
Stay Home
Teacher Notes
Students will probably feel that their greatest loss caused by staying home is lack of social interactions. Encourage students to consider how people compensated in the past and how they might also compensate. Encourage students to try staying home one day in a grading period. They could journal their experience and feelings for extra credit or for a class discussion and analysis.
Student extensions could include calculations for:
Interdisciplinary Approach: Environmental Studies, and Math.