NIDA for Teens: The Science Behind Drug Abuse
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Classroom Activities

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Use the animated illustrations, quizzes, activities and games to test your students’ knowledge, clarify concepts, and make learning fun through interaction.

Quizzes

  • Test Your Knowledge
    • Description: Online, interactive quizzes about different drugs.
    • Use the quizzes as in-class activities or homework assignments.
  • National Drug IQ Challenge (links to the NIDA National Drug Facts Week Web site)
    • Description: Interactive quiz about the latest drug facts and statistics.
    • Use as an in-class activity for the entire class, small groups, or individual students to begin a discussion about drug abuse.

Classroom Activities

  • Anabolic Steroids
    • Description: Diagram where students match side effects of steroid use with affected parts of the body.
    • Use this activity as a take-home assignment, group assignment, or lesson warm-up activity.
  • Brain and Addiction
    • Description: Timed memorization activity that leads into a discussion about the brain and addiction.
    •  Use this activity as an introduction for a unit on drug abuse and addiction.
  • HIV/AIDS and Drug Abuse—the Link
    • Description: Group activity where students develop their own quiz about the connection between HIV and drugs.
    • Use this activity to encourage students to think more broadly about how drugs can affect a person’s life.
  • Inhalants
    • Description: Classroom game where students match body parts, body functions, and inhalant effects.
    • Use this activity as a tool to get students to interact and to highlight how inhalants affect the body.
  • Marijuana
    • Description: Project where students write about the facts of marijuana use.
    • Use this activity to help students shatter the myths about marijuana.
  • Prescription Drug Abuse
    • Description: Online scavenger hunt that asks questions about prescription drug abuse using articles from NIDA’s Heads Up: Real News About Drugs and Your Body curriculum.
    • Use this activity to encourage students to work together to learn about the dangers of prescription drug abuse.
  • Stimulants
    • Description: Mock doctor’s report about stimulant abuse where students fill in the missing words about stimulant effects.
    • Use this activity as a pre- or post-lesson activity to test students’ knowledge of stimulants and their effects.
  • Tobacco Addiction
    • Description: Cause-and-effect game where students match the parts of a cigarette to their health effects.
    • Use this activity as an introduction or wrap-up activity for a lesson about tobacco.

Interactive Videos and Games

  • Brain Games (links to archived NIDA Web site)
    • Description: Interactive online games about drug abuse and addiction.
    • Use these activities as classroom projects or assign them as homework.
  • PEERx: Get Involved
    • Description: Creative activities to encourage students to learn about the dangers of prescription drug abuse.
    • Use this guide to select a creative and engaging activity to help students learn about prescription drug abuse.
  • PEERx: Choose Your Path Videos
    • Description: Videos about prescription drug abuse where the viewer chooses the path the characters will take.
    • Use these short videos to let students explore the possible consequences of prescription drug abuse.
  • PEERx: Peer Into Your Path
    • Description: A step-by-step guide on how to make a Choose Your Path video about prescription drug abuse.
    • Ask students to develop their own stories that explore the possible consequences of abusing prescription drugs. Use it as an extra credit project!