ThinkFast

Think Fast is an interactive multi media “game show” presentation shown at high schools hosted by Alaska Injury Prevention Center with funding from the Alaska Highway Safety Office. The presentation is a mixture of pop culture media intermixed with information on local laws, consequences, and statistics of driving issues.

ThinkFastWebsite

The program provides a high energy and fun means of presenting serious information in a way that keeps students engaged and interested. The program has an evaluation component to identify if teen attitudes and behavior of underage drinking and risky driving behavior are changed to a heightened awareness of healthier and safer behavior.

Examples of past year’s results: In 2011, on the pretest, 15% of youth in attendance reported that they at least ‘sometimes’ ride in a car with a driver who has been drinking or using drugs. 29.2% of youth indicated on the Post Test that ThinkFast would influence their future decisions ‘a ton’ or ‘a lot’ when faced with having to decide whether or not to ride with an intoxicated driver. 83.3% of youth reported that ThinkFast would affect their attitudes about teen drinking, and 80.8% said ThinkFast would influence the actual decisions they made about alcohol use in the future.

In 2013, all high schools made statistically significant knowledge gains, with a 37.8% increase in score overall. When comparing test scores between groups in 2011, all high schools demonstrated a significant measure of knowledge gained with a 27.1% increase in score overall. This is consistent with the same measure during ThinkFast 2010, when there was a 26.7% increase in score overall.

In February 2013, ThinkFast was presented at the Chugiak, West, Service, South, Kenai, Soldotna, Colony, and Palmer high schools. Analysis of the results reveal that knowledge gains were statistically significant for all high schools. Additionally, all schools made statistically significant gains for intention to intervene during three different driving scenarios; these scenarios include intervening if someone driving them got a text or call, intervening if someone driving them was not buckled up, or intervening if someone driving them had been drinking alcohol. More results and findings can be found in the 2013 Alaska ThinkFast Evaluation Report.

Faculty Response

“The show was great. We had right around 500 kids that all seemed excited and active participants. We are looking forward to a possible visit again next spring!”

Brian Hosken, Activities Principal at West High School

“I received good communication throughout the process and everything ran seamlessly. Students truly enjoyed the event. Comments included “the best assembly ever!”–this is from high school students.”

Devon Roberts, Service High School

“Kids loved the Thinkfast assembly.”

Troy Christenson, South High School