Be the Boss: Designing a Safety Briefing

Materials Needed

• The safety text from Clip ‘n Climb Williamstown (provided below)
• Paper and colored pencils, markers, or crayons OR a tablet/computer with drawing software
• (Optional) A belt, scarf, or backpack to pretend-fit as a harness
• A notebook or piece of paper for jotting down ideas

Learning Objectives

Hello Jamie! Today, we're going to put on our expert hats. By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

• Identify the most important safety rules from a real-world example.
• Explain why safety rules are created by thinking like an engineer or a manager.
• Create your own clear and fun safety guide (either a poster or a script) for others.

The Safety Text for Our Investigation

A comprehensive safety and maintenance standard schedule is strictly adhered to at Clip ‘n Climb Williamstown. All climbers (and supervising adults for children under 12 years) are required to attend a safety briefing prior to climbing. Our trained staff will assist with fitting the harness, will explain how to climb safely, how to use the clips, how to do safety checks and how to jump down from your climb safely. Safety briefings always take place at 10 past the hour.

If you’re under 12 years of age, you need a staff member/adult to check your harness and belay line before each climb.

We use the Trublue Auto belay system which has been rated as the safest Worldwide Climbing Safety standard. The belays gently lower climbers to the ground. These belays make it safe and easy to climb free of a belay buddy.

Lesson Activities

Part 1: The Safety Detective (10 minutes)

Our first job is to be detectives. Let's read the text from Clip ‘n Climb together. As we read, your mission is to find the clues. What are the specific actions that people (both climbers and staff) must take to stay safe?

Let's find at least four key safety rules or procedures mentioned in the text. We can write them down in our notebook.

Guiding Questions:

• Who has to go to the safety briefing?
• What does a person under 12 need to do before every single climb?
• What are some things the staff teaches you during the briefing?
• What is the name of the special safety equipment they use?

Part 2: Thinking Like the Manager - The "Why" Game (15 minutes)

Great! Now that we have our list of rules, let's think about why they exist. Imagine we are the managers of Clip 'n Climb. For each rule we found, we need to explain our reasoning. This is the most important part of safety—understanding the "why."

Let's discuss these questions:

1. Rule: Everyone must attend a safety briefing.
   Why? What might happen if people skipped the briefing and just tried to figure it out on their own?
2. Rule: A grown-up must check the harness for climbers under 12 before each climb.
   Why? Why not just check it once at the beginning? What could change between climbs? (Hint: Think about wiggling, jumping, and moving around).
3. Rule: The staff teaches you how to "jump down safely."
   Why? Why is it important to know how to get down? Isn't climbing all about going up? What does the Trublue Auto belay system do for you?

(Optional Fun Activity: Let's use a backpack or a belt to practice a "harness check." How would you check to make sure it's snug and fitted correctly? This helps us see why a double-check is so important!)

Part 3: You're the Safety Officer! (25 minutes)

Now for the main event! Your final task is to take what we've learned and teach it to someone else. You have a choice of how you want to do this. Your goal is to make the rules clear, easy to understand, and memorable.

Choose ONE of the following projects:

• Option A: The Safety Poster Designer
  Design a bright, bold safety poster for Clip 'n Climb. Your poster must include:
  • A catchy title (e.g., "Climb Safe, Climb Smart!").
  • At least three key safety rules shown with pictures and simple words.
  • A visual that shows why one of the rules is important (e.g., a picture of a correctly fitted harness next to a "thumbs up").
• Option B: The Briefing Scriptwriter
  Write and perform a 1-minute safety briefing. Imagine you are the staff member talking to a new group of climbers. Your script must:
  • Welcome the climbers.
  • Clearly explain three of the most important safety steps.
  • Explain why one of those steps is critical for their fun and safety.
  • End with an encouraging and friendly sign-off (e.g., "Now go have a fantastic climb!").

Take your time to be creative. The best safety guides are the ones people actually pay attention to!

Wrap-Up & Reflection (5 minutes)

Let's present your project! If you made a poster, we'll hang it up and you can explain it. If you wrote a script, you can perform it for me.

After you share, let's think about this for a moment:

• How do safety rules help us have more fun, not less?
• Where else in life do we follow specific safety procedures? (e.g., crossing the street, cooking, riding a bike).

Amazing work today, Safety Officer Jamie! You've shown that you not only understand the rules but can also think critically about them and teach them to others, which is a very important skill.