"The Science Behind Distracted Driving"

The online article highlights the scientific study of David Strayer and his team at the University of Utah.

Here are all the word lists to support the reading of Grade 8 Unit 2's texts from SpringBoard's Common Core ELA series: Grant and Lee, Harrison Bergeron, The Giver, Banned Books Week, Fatal Text Message, Distracted Driving, How the Brain Reacts, Cellphones and driving
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. task
    any piece of work that is undertaken or attempted
    No longer are people simply talking on their cellphones, they're multi-tasking--checking email, updating social media and texting.
  2. hazardous
    involving risk or danger
    Particularly texting, that seems to be a really hazardous activity
  3. exceed
    be or do something to a greater degree
    much more dangerous than talking on a cellphone, rising to a level that exceeds what we see with someone who's driving drunk
  4. distracted
    having the attention diverted especially because of anxiety
    Strayer says we're becoming a nation of distracted drivers.
  5. manual
    of or relating to the hands
    That combination of the three: the visual, the manual, and the cognitive distraction significantly increases the crash risk
  6. sophisticated
    complex or intricate
    With two sophisticated driving simulators, an instrumented vehicle, an eye tracker, and a way to measure brain activity, Strayer and his team at the University of Utah have been able to pinpoint what's happening when a person texts while driving.
  7. significant
    fairly large
    That's a really significant crash risk.
  8. enact
    order by virtue of superior authority; decree
    It's one of the reasons many states have enacted laws to outlaw texting.
  9. summit
    a meeting of heads of governments
    Strayer's work has been featured at National Distracted Driving summits, used by states to enact no-texting while driving laws
  10. testify
    provide evidence for
    he's even testified in criminal court proceedings--often meeting the families of those killed in distracted driving crashes
Created on Mon Dec 15 12:47:58 EST 2014 (updated Mon Dec 15 14:28:09 EST 2014)

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