Scholastic
Drugs + Your Body—It Isn’t Pretty
Drugs can affect all parts of the body including teeth, skin, heart, brain, and lungs. Use an interactive that explores topics like addiction and the brain, steroid use and skin breakouts, methamphetamine use and rotting teeth, smoking...
Foundation for a Drug-Free World
The Truth About Drugs
Teenagers hear many messages about drugs from advertisements, their peers, their teachers, and their parents. But who is lying? What is the truth? A thorough, thoughtful unit takes a purposeful look at drug education, drug culture, and...
National Institute on Drug Abuse
The Brain's Response to Drugs
Marijuana affects the brain differently than inhalants, which have a different effect than opioids. Elementary and middle school classes read about these drugs as well as nicotine, methamphetamine, hallucinogens, and steroids before...
PBS
Stories of Painkiller Addiction: Prescription Drug Abuse Awareness Campaign
The I-STOP law was designed to regulate the distribution and tracking of prescription drugs. After reading an article about its signing and implementation, middle and high schoolers work together to come up with their own ideas for an...
Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment
Drugs Awareness
The final lesson in a series of 10 focusing on Social, Physical, Emotional, Cognitive and Spiritual (SPECS) health investigates the effects of legal and illegal substances, their risks, and the consequences of their misuse.
Teaching Tolerance
The War on Drugs—Mechanisms and Effects
The war on drugs doesn't have definite results. An interesting lesson examines the social, political, and economic effect of the war on drugs. Academics learn how the war on drugs has led to mass incarcerations and negatively affected...
Nemours KidsHealth
Drugs: Grades 9-12
What do drugs do to the body and to the mind? What are the dangers of using drugs? How can teens respond to the pressure to use drugs? After reading a series of articles related to drug use and abuse, class members prepare a skit to...
Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment
Drugs Awareness
Legal and illegal. Use and misuse. Risks and consequences. Myths and facts. Class members investigate the effects on the body of various drugs, including cannabis, nicotine, and alcohol.
PBS
Opioids in Our Community—Middle School
How do opioids affect the lives of families and individuals within a community? Scholars explore the topic with a series of informative, thought-provoking videos. They also complete worksheets and discuss the effects of the opioid...
Department of Education (Ireland)
Consequences
11 lessons, designed to be used in consecutive order, ask middle and high school scholars to consider the effects of various drugs and the consequences of taking them for themselves and their families. They also develop the communication...
Missouri Department of Elementary
What Are Safe and Unsafe Drugs/Medicines/Objects?
Encourage responsible decision-making while boosting sorting skills with a instructional activity that looks at safe and unsafe situations. Scholars use two bags, one happy the other sad, to sort scenario cards. After a thorough...
PBS
Stories of Painkiller Addiction: Learning About Opioids
Feeling high is not the only side effect of abusing prescription opioids. Middle and high schoolers learn more about specific painkillers, including Fentanyl, Oxycodone, and Clonazepam, as well as their common brand names and extensive...
Kenan Fellows
Unit 4: The Brain
Drugs interact with the brain to alter moods, emotions, and behaviors by changing the brain's chemistry, perceptions, and interactions. The final lesson in the Pharmacology unit shows scholars experiments, has them complete four labs,...
Discovery Education
Our Brain and Body on Opioids
Use a presentation that explores the world of prescription opioids. Learners look at the way the brain responds to the drugs and the long terms effects opioids have on the brain and body. At the end of the lesson plan, groups create a...
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Electronic Cigarettes: What's the Bottom Line?
A five-page infographic unveils the ins and outs of e-cigarettes. Numerous bullet points and pictures detail what e-cigarettes are, the ingredients found inside, and the health effects of using them.
Florida Department of Health
Understanding the Risk of Substance Abuse Unit
Teenage brains are different! Understanding that the teenage brain is still developing and thus more impacted by substance abuse is the key concept in a three-lesson high school health unit. Participants learn about how the brain and...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Albert Sabin and Bioethics: Testing at the Chillicothe Federal Reformatory
Do the ends justify the means? Getting a drug approved in the US is a long and involved process. But at some point out, it involves testing on humans. The ethics of such testing is the focus of a resource that uses Dr. Albert Sabin's...
Nemours KidsHealth
Alcohol: Grades 9-12
Two activities ask high schoolers to consider the role of alcohol culture in their lives. First, groups analyze the types of appeals used in newspaper ads for alcoholic drinks and compare those images with what they have observed....
Learning for Life
Lesson 7: Stimulants
Make sure your class is aware and informed of the various types of stimulant drugs that exist. Here, they can learn their alternate names and some of their harmful effects. While this is a very basic direct-instructional lesson, the...
Missouri Department of Elementary
How Much Does Smoking Really Cost?
Following a brief survey about tobacco, scholars examine a fact sheet to answer questions about the substance. A practice page challenges the class to determine the cost of the habit using money math. Pupils discuss their findings...
Nemours KidsHealth
Alcohol: Grades K-2
Two lessons focus on alcohol's effects on the human body and encourage participants to make responsible choices. First, scholars identify five adults they can turn to for guidance and craft a construction paper hand that lists the...
Nemours KidsHealth
Smoking: Grades K-2
Young scholars navigate websites to discover the reasons not to smoke. In this smoking lesson plan, students research and answer questions about the bad effects of smoking.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Risks from Smoking
Discover what smoking does to one's body with a detailed reference page that points out the types of cancers and chronic diseases that can occur when using tobacco products.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
BCR-ABL: Cancer Protein Structure and Function
How do scientists discover treatments for cancer? A presentation and accompanying worksheet explain how one cancer spreads and a theory of how to stop it. It details the trials and relapses after using the medication. Scholars learn...