News

Distracted Driving Simulator Comes To PCA

Teen Driver Safety Week takes place October 16-22, and in preparation, The National Safety Council and State Farm partnered with local law enforcement departments and Mothers Against Drunk Driving to present “The Distracted Driving Simulator Tour”. The goal is to remind teen drivers that distracted driving can be deadly. 

Last week, this outdoor, hands-on learning experience came to our PCA campus. Director of Campus Security, Tony Poston, believed it would be a valuable opportunity for our students, “It is important to educate our students on the dangers they will come across when they are in school and when they graduate to become safe drivers in the future.”

Our Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors rotated through several different stations which gave them a taste of what they might face on the roadways. These stations included a virtual reality Distracted Driving Simulator, giving them an up-close look at what can go wrong in various situations including texting-while-driving, impaired driving and poor road conditions like snow and strong wind. Students climbed behind the wheel of a stationary vehicle, donned virtual reality goggles, and hit the gas as a mock scenario played out before their eyes. Students tried to respond to the road map in front of them as their classmates watched what was happening on a television monitor.

At another station, students navigated their way through the twists and turns of small orange cones while wearing Fatal Vision Goggles, goggles which simulate vision impairment. Next up was a mock traffic stop where local law enforcement officers reviewed the steps of what to do during a routine traffic stop. 

Students also rotated through a sobriety testing station, where they put on vision impairing goggles and were asked to walk in a straight line in a mock field sobriety test. Finally, representatives from Mothers Against Drunk Drivers spoke with students and asked them driving trivia questions.

There’s no doubt PCA students gained a better understanding of the potentially deadly effects of distracted driving, coming away with information that will hopefully make them better and safer drivers in the future.

3rd Graders Discover Biomes & Animal Life At Barrier Island

Dolphins, alligators, and pelicans, oh my! These are just a few of the animals that third grade students encountered as we traveled to Bulls Island last Wednesday to learn about South Carolina's biomes and animal life.

Bulls Island is the largest of four barrier islands in the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge. As we ventured off in the cool breeze on the 30 minute boat ride over to the island, students saw dolphins swimming, seagulls and pelicans flying, and even an Oystercatcher bird. They discovered what a barrier island is and discussed the food chain, learning about apex predators, such as alligators. They also discussed how marsh grass (Spartina) is one of the only plants that can survive in this type of estuary ecosystem and how it decomposes each season into pluff mud and then grows again year after year! On the trip, we found ourselves right over a 70-foot deep shark hole and learned how there are only two in the area. The other one is over near Sullivan’s Island.  

We took a step back in time as we arrived at Bulls Island. We learned about how the island was originally inhabited by the Sewee Native Americans in the 1600’s and they called the island Oneiscau. There is one house still standing on the island and former US State Senator, Gayer Dominick, who bought the island in 1925, owned it. The house was used as an inn until 1969. Dominick later gave the island to the National Wildlife Refuge. While standing under a beautiful, large oak tree next to the blue house, we learned more about oak trees, resurrection fern, and Spanish moss. We saw several baby alligators as we hiked towards the beach. Students found beautiful shells and learned about sea pansies while spending time together on the beach. Several of the items found prompted great questions on the boat ride back about vertebrates and invertebrates. 

When asking students about their favorite parts of the trip, they replied with, “the boat ride”, “seeing baby alligators”, and “collecting large and unique shells.”