Curated OER
Statistical Drug Abuse and Adolescents in the U.S.A.
Students examine statistics of teenagers using alcohol and marijuana. In groups, they brainstorm the reasons why they believe usage is higher than in years past. As a class, they role-play different roles in scenerios to help them...
US National Library of Medicine
Drug Use and Abuse: Past and Present
Pick your poison: tobacco, alcohol, opiates, cocaine, or marijuana. An online exhibition launches a research project that asks groups to select one of the five drugs and gather information on how the use of the drug and the regulations...
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...
Curated OER
Intoxication: In the Arms of Morpheus
A comprehensive instructional activity that takes a look at psychoactive plants with this one focusing on the opium poppy. Information about the history, culture, use, source and effects are discussed. There are weblinks to reliable...
Curated OER
A gateway to where?
Students examine how marijuana is considered a gateway drug and what that means.
PBS
Stories of Painkiller Addiction: Myth or Fact
Are opioids the most abused drug after marijuana? How hard is it for young people to obtain painkillers without a prescription? Middle and high schoolers explore the growing epidemic of opioid addiction with a lesson that prompts them to...
Curated OER
Three Factors Threaten Teens
Learners explore alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use. In this health journalism lesson, students read the USA Today article titled "Three Factors Threaten Teens", respond to discussion questions regarding the article, and complete an...
Scholastic
Analyzing Media Messages
Telling young people to just say no can be difficult in a world that inundates them with messages to just say yes. A instructional activity on media messages encourages teenagers to analyze song lyrics and advertisements that mention...
RAND Corporation
Project ALERT
Why do people use drugs? What are the consequences? The alternatives? How can young people resist the pressures to use drugs? The Project Alert drug prevention program provides middle schoolers with the information they need and the...
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...
Kenan Fellows
Unit 3: How Drugs Enter/Exit the Body
The third of a four-part series on Pharmacology teaches scholars how drugs enter and exit the body, how they act inside the body, how they affect the brain, and more. Over the course of the unit, groups complete two labs and one...
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.
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...
Curated OER
The Last Abortion Clinic: Key Constitutional Issues of the Abortion Debate
Students discuss the Constitution of the United States and its amendments, then apply this discussion by creating a "Who should Decide What?" list, based upon their ideas about whether controversial issues such as abortion and medical...
Curated OER
Identifying an Author's Purpose
Students read, "Research Shows TV PSAs Effective In Reducing Teen Marijuana Use", discuss the article with questions imbedded in the lesson and write their own PSA.
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...
PBS
Stories of Painkiller Addiction: The Cycle of Addiction
Drug addiction, including prescription drug addiction, begins with a reason that's different for every user. High schoolers learn more about the reasons people begin abusing drugs with a set of videos and worksheets that discuss four...
Curated OER
Lesson 12: What Reasonable Conclusions are Possible?
Oftentimes, we jump to conclusions when we are given a limited amount of information. Take a look at reasonable conclusions with your communications studies class. If-clauses, dichotomous thinking, and assumptions are all covered with...
Curated OER
Word for the Dazed: SAT Vocabulary
Prep those high schoolers for the S.A.T. by giving them one new word each day. There are 16 wonderful words, each with dictionary definitions and contextual example using a current pop-culture reference. Tip: Extend the daily vocabulary...
US Surgeon General
Get the Facts on E-Cigarettes
Imagine these flavors: chocolate, candy, menthol. What age group do you imagine is the target audience of an advertising campaign that features a product with these flavors? Find out the facts about vaping with a resource that provides...
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.
Curated OER
What Do Drugs Do to the Body?
Students research the effects that drugs have on the human body. Using this information, they create a poster showing some of the effects of a specific drug. They work together to summarize the information they have gathered and present...
Curated OER
Radio Program #5: Moonshining
Students interpret the conditions that surrounded the "moonshining industry" in southeastern Ohio. Interview people who may have been influenced by some experience with someone involved in this type of industry. Prohibition laws are...
Curated OER
Participles: Proposition 215
In this participles usage worksheet, students read the incomplete sentences and the verbs in parenthesis and write the correct form of the verb. Students write 15 answers.