Cambridge Central School Driver Ed

​Our Driver Education offers students a comprehensive, four phase program that concentrates on physical, mental, social and emotional skill training. The program consists of over 24  hours of classroom and 24 hours of lab with on-road instruction. This program will focus on the skills needed for a student driver to become a safer, more responsible decision maker as it relates to the highway transportation system. We hope to provide a good foundation for a lifetime of safe driving and that students will gain skills and the ability to contribute to the improvement of traffic safety in our community and the State of New York.

PREREQUISITE:
We would like students to have passed 4 high school classes prior to enrollment and be age 16 by the first day of class. This helps to demonstrate a readiness and maturity level for this fast paced, high level skill training.


UNITS OF INSTRUCTION:

Highway Transportation System               Rules of the Road
Signs, Signals & Roadway Markings         Basic Car Control 
Performing Basic Vehicle Maneuvers        Managing Risk with the SIPDE Process
Perceptive Driving Skills                          Decision Making and Risk Assessment Skills
Driving in Rural Areas                             Driving in Adverse Conditions        
Driving In Urban Traffic                           Driving on Expressways
Negotiating Intersections                        Effects of Driver Condition 
Alcohol, Other Drugs and Driving             Dealing W Distractions 
Sharing the Road with Others                 Natural Laws & Car Control  
Maintaining Your Vehicle                         Handling Emergencies
Insuring a Vehicle                                   Buying a Vehicle

STUDENT OUTCOMES:
  1. Develop knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to become safe, low risk, responsible driver.
  2. Learn how to identify, predict, decide, and execute in a manner that develops the behavior and mental skills necessary to help manage risk.
  3. Have a working overview of the driving task and skills needed to navigate the complex highway transportation system and become a safe driver.
  4. Learn how to use various strategies; SIPDE Process, the Smith System and Zone Control Driving System,  to process and apply these accepted concepts into safe driving behaviors.*
  5. Develop sound habits for searching and managing space, visibility and traction problems.
  6. Help students make sound decisions about driving-related behaviors; controlling emotions, attitude, distractions, drowsiness, drugs, deadly driving.

​MAJOR LEARNING EXPERIENCES TO ACHIEVE OUTCOMES:
  1. Have students classify which risk factors they, as responsible drivers, would be able to eliminate or minimize.
  2. Use in-class and simulator lab driving rehearsals to help students practice targeting and perceptual skills.
  3. Students will learn the procedures and visual check points in a non-threatening range environment.
  4. Using range, students will experience the problems associated with space-time relationships, backing and parking situations.
  5. Using multimedia presentations of community areas, students will identify critical clues for searching, identifying, and making low risk decisions.
  6. On road experiences at multiple speeds and conditions will be used to show students the natural laws that affect their vehicles.
  7. Local law enforcement and Health department will be utilized in the classroom to discuss unique community problems, risk factors, and state/local traffic laws and distracted and drowsy campaigns.
  8. While behind the wheel, students will be taken to areas within our community where high conflicts between other users is constant and frequent.
  9. Using digital images and video of traffic scenes, students will identify lane choices and hazard detection.
  10. A final classroom test provided to our program by  NYSDTSEA will be administered to determine how well students understand traffic safety concepts and an on road test to determine space, time, and decision making skills in complex traffic situations will demonstrate readiness and further driving practice.   It may also provide and indication if the student is close to being ready for road testing.

ADOPTED TEXT & TERMS
  1. Responsible Driving, Tenth Edition - Glencoe, 2005
  2. Drive Right, Prentice Hall
  3. How to Drive, AAA
  4. New York/ Rules of the Road - 2012 Edition.
  5. SIPDE - Search, Identify, Predict, Decide, Execute - Mental Processing as we drive.
  6. New York State Driver Traffic Safety Education Association materials -  NYSDTSEA