Research Scenario

You notice that a few of your friends have started acting differently. They are becoming distant, and seem to lack focus in class. When you ask them to hang out they are always making excuses and have started hanging out with a new group of friends. All of this leads you to wonder if they are using drugs. You read the article "Stimulant Use is Linked to Depression, Drug Abuse, and Violence," which makes you think more about drugs, their warning signs, and their effects on the body.

How can the decisions you and your peers make today concerning drug use affect your future lifestyle and health?

First, you will need to build some background knowledge about this topic.

Try taking this pre-test and see what you already know.Drug Pre-Test from curriuclum.

Read the following article to view basic information about illegal drugs and their affect on the body.

Articles:

Videos:

• BrainPop Drug Abuse
• Secret Life of the Brain: The Teenage Brain: A World of the Own Chapter 5 & Chapter 6

General Drug information:

• White House Drug Policy
• Center for Disease Control and Prevention

Task and Product

• First, you will gather some specific information about a commonly-abused drug.
• Then, you will create an interactive online poster, a pamphlet, public service announcement, or a poster in order to raise peer awareness about this drug.

Your product must include:

• your research findings
• an anti-drug slogan
• alternative activities teens can do instead of drugs
• resources teens can access for more information

Assessments

The following scoring tools may be used or adapted by your teacher to evaluate your research process and your final product and presentation.

Questions

Essential Question:

"Jump-start" Your Thinking: (MS Word document version)

• What are some drugs that you know about?
• What are some reasons why it would be harmful for a teenager to use drugs?
• What are some necessary facts a teen would need to understand about drugs in order for them to refuse using them?
• What are some long term and short term effects of drugs?
• What other questions do you have about this topic?

Gather and Sort

Discuss with your teacher which drug you will choose for your research from the list below.

Use a variety of sources from the Student Resources page to gather information about your topic.

Gather information about your topic from a variety of sources.

Note Taking Process: Use the links below about the process of taking notes

• eNotes
• 3 Column Method
• Cornell Note taking System

Sort your research findings using one of the following organization tools.

• graphic organizer
• note cards
• Mindmeister
• Note-Taking Tips
• The Big 6 - Data Chart for Note Taking
• Cornell notes
• Note cards
• Note Star
• or Inspiration software, as directed by your teacher

Electronic

• Read Write Think Note Taking Online/Printable Note cards
• Evernote
• Live Binder
• Zoho Notebook

Cite your sources to avoid plagiarism.

BrainPop:

• Outlines
• Paraphrasing,
• Organizing Your Thoughts,

Be sure to avoid plagiarism and remember to cite your sources. Paraphrase and quote information taken from sources and cite your sources in a Bibliography to avoid plagiarism. You may use an online citation generator like EasyBib or BibMe to format your sources for a Bibliography.

• Avoiding Plagiarism (Safari Montage)
• Avoiding Plagiarism (Print Document)
• MLA Bibliography (Print Document)
• EasyBib Citation Creator

BrainPop:

• Citing Sources
• Copyright
• Plagerism

Organize

Analyze your research notes to make sure you have answered all your questions and that you have gathered all the information you need.

Revise your notes adding, changing or deleting information if needed. Do you have enough information for each portion of your product about the drug you are researching? If not, go back and gather more information.

Edit to correct for selling and grammar.

Synthesize your research findings into paragraphs that can be placed in the product you chose to create. Use this site to help find picture resources that are avaiable for fair use.

• interactive online poster
• Interactive video/clips Animoto
• pamphlet template
• poster

Evaluate your finished product for accuracy, spelling & grammar, completion, visual appeal, and the criteria set forth by your teacher.

Peer Review:
With your peers share you project and complete this rubric to help you peer make changes to thier project to achieve the maximum scores. Or use this organizer to share your ideas about a peers product.

Conclusion

Presentation: Project online interactive posters and/or hang posters in order to share them with your classmates. Students could also perform a galary walk in order to share posters and pamphlets.

Reflection: As you view your classmates' products, evaluate them completing the presentation rubric. Now that you have learned about the effects of using/abusing drugs compose a text message to your friend persuading him or her to quit or seek help for their drug use. Support your argument with details from your own research and your classmates' presentations. Be sure to address any current and future health risks associated with this drug.

Now take the Post Test and Reflection and see what you learned.

Extension Activity: As a class vote on which of your classmates' had the best products and contact your school's webmaster to have those placed on the school's website or Wiki. Or send your poster to group/clubs like SADD or as a PSA (public service announcment) on your schools video system

Make a comic about how to respond to peer pressure when deing with taking illegal drugs. Use Bitstrips or Make Believe Comics to create your own.

Use Voicethread to create a Public Service
Announcement about the dangers of using illegal drugs.

*All photos from Clipart.com