Each day, America’s teenagers are bombarded with misleading messages about drugs. Glamorized by media and endorsed by peers, the consequences of drug use and experimentation are dangerously disguised, and often hidden altogether. The reality is that drug use can alter a teen’s life forever. That’s why every student should be given the tools to make a decision against using drugs - and the best place to give them those tools is your classroom.
This resource is lesson 10. To access videos and lesson materials: Project Alert.com
This resource is lesson 11. To access videos and materials: Project Alert.com
This is the Project ALERT kick-off lesson. Activities 1 and 2 establish the tone and set the foundation for an open and supportive classroom environment. In Activity 3, students are motivated to want to resist pressure to use drugs by actively participating in small groups where they list and discuss the reasons why people do and do not use drugs. Comparisons between alcohol and marijuana (Activity 4) demonstrate the great similarity between the reasons for use and nonuse of marijuana and alcohol. The class discussion of the lists and the video "Let’s Talk About Marijuana" in Activity 5 allow for myths to be corrected and for additional information to be added.
This is a long lesson, so pacing is critical. While it is not essential that students know every reason for using or not using drugs, it is essential that wrong information be corrected from the lists.
Vaping has become a health epidemic for our kids. Nearly 8,000 kids start vaping every day, but parents can play an important role in preventing their kids from using e-cigarettes. Did you know that one vape pod can contain as much nicotine as one pack of cigarettes, which can harm the attention, memory, and brain development of children? With 5.4 million American kids already vaping, it’s important that parents talk to their children about the dangers of trying e-cigarettes.“Talk About Vaping” drives parents to TalkAboutVaping.org so they can Get Their Head Out of the Cloud and learn the facts about youth vaping so they can have proactive and ongoing conversations with their children about the dangers of vaping.
This resource includes videos and printable visuals that promote conversation about this topic.
Messaging while driving—whether sending a text, commenting on a photo, or connecting with friends via an app—is dangerous. Even though 94% of Americans recognize it’s dangerous to send a text while driving, and 91% recognize it’s dangerous to read one, many people still do it.To address the disconnect between awareness and behavior, our campaign addresses the fact that people are personally engaging in a behavior that they know is dangerous. The campaign reminds drivers from 16 to 34 that no one is special enough to message while driving.
This resource is lesson 2. To access videos and lesson materials go to: https://www.projectalert.com/account
This resource is lesson 3.
This resource is lesson 4. To access videos and lesson materials: https://www.projectalert.com/account
This resource is lesson 5. To access videos and lesson materials: https://www.projectalert.com/account
This resource is lesson 6. To access videos and lesson materials: https://www.projectalert.com/account
This resource is lesson 7. To access video resources and lesson materials: https://www.projectalert.com/account
This resource is lesson 8. To access video resources and lesson resources: https://www.projectalert.com/account
This resource is lesson 9. To access video resources and lesson materials: https://www.projectalert.com/account
This article is written for teenagers to understand the dangerous effects of using ecstasy or molly. It discusses the effects on the brain and body, the prevalence of teen use, and what to do if someone needs help.
Each year, NIDA-funded researchers at the University of Michigan survey students in 8th, 10th, and 12th grades on their behaviors and attitudes about substance use. The survey results are released the same year the data are collected. These are the results.
Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) is a chronic relapsing brain disorder characterized by an impaired ability to stop or control alcohol use despite adverse social, occupational, or health consequences. AUD ranges from mild to severe. Underage drinking is drinking alcohol before a person turns age 21, which is the minimum legal drinking age in the United States. Underage drinking is a serious problem, as you may have seen from your friends or your own experiences. Alcohol is the most commonly used substance of use among young people in America, and drinking when you’re underage puts your health and safety at risk.
Methamphetamine—known as “meth”— is a laboratory-made, white, bitter-tasting powder. Sometimes it's made into a white pill or a shiny, white, or clear rock called crystal. Methamphetamine use can quickly lead to addiction. That’s when people seek out the drug over and over, even after they want to stop and even after it has caused damage to their health and other parts of their life.
A Jeopardy-style game of drug facts.
This resource is a collection of animated videos that discuss the effects on the brain and body when using specific types of drugs.
This resource is a test bank of assessment items in True/False, Multiple Choice, and Short Answer formats that are provided for each of the Project ALERT Core (Lessons 1-11). You can choose from these items to create lesson-based assessments, a Project ALERT unit test, and/or for part of a course exam that may include an assessment of the students' success using the Project ALERT curriculum.
Cigarettes aren’t good for us. That’s hardly news -- we’ve known about the dangers of smoking for decades. But how exactly do cigarettes harm us, and can our bodies recover if we stop? Krishna Sudhir details what happens when we smoke -- and when we quit.
This website is a useful resource for teachers and students. Here, users will find access to "the risks of tobacco," "tobacco triggers," and "quit vaping". This information can be useful for a teacher developing a lesson or useful to students as informational material.
Young people will gain an understanding of the harmful effects of tobacco on the body, recognize some of the poisonous chemicals found in cigarettes, and analyze advertisements for cigarettes, e-cigarettes, and smokeless tobacco to explain the influence they may have on young people.
CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health (OSH) developed this presentation to educate youth on e-cigarettes, including the health risks, the factors that lead to e-cigarette use, and what youth can do to avoid all tobacco products, including e-cigarettes. This resource is intended for adults who educate or serve youth ages 11 – 18 (teachers, youth ministers, coaches, scout leaders, etc.). Utilizing the talking points and information for users document, the presenter does not require additional information, nor permission to deliver the presentation.
Research on the impact of alcohol and the teenage brain is updated almost constantly. Rather than give the students the facts, let them find out for themselves as they dig up the latest details on the risks of underage drinking.
Listen to students at Wheeling, West Virginia Middle School discuss peer pressure they experience relating to drug use and making good or poor decisions.
You might think that only some types of people can get addicted to drugs. The truth is, it can happen to anyone, whether you're young or old, rich or poor, male or female. This video from NIDA explains addiction in simple terms and offers a hotline to help you or a loved one find treatment.
This resource is an animated video from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) which explains addiction in simple terms. Quitting drugs is hard because addiction is a brain disease. Your brain is like a control tower that sends out signals to direct your actions and choices. Addiction changes the signals in your brain and makes it hard to feel OK without the drug. Watch the video for a visualization of these concepts and for information on how to get yourself or a loved one help.
This resource challenges middle schoolers to think about and question the consequences of addiction and provides opportunities for students to make evidence-based claims about the health effects of vaping on teens.
