Questions about drugs--answers from scientists.

• Position: TEACHER'S GUIDE

As a teacher, you know your students have questions about drugs. While the Internet and their peers may provide answers (accurate--or not), it is crucial that teens learn the facts about drugs from a reliable scientific source. Drug and Alcohol Chat Day, an annual live online chat between students and scientists at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), helps serve this need. This article and lesson on some of Chat Day's most popular Q&As can help students find unbiased, scientific answers to their questions about drugs and health.

COMMON NEXT GENERATION CORE STATE SCIENCE SUBJECT STANDARDS STANDARDS * Science Literacy * RI.1 Cite textual * LS1.A Structure * English Language evidence and Function Arts * RI.2 Central idea * LS1.D Information * Health/Life Skills and details Processing * Current Events * W.1 Write arguments NATIONAL SCIENCE NATIONAL EDUCATION COUNCIL FOR THE SUBJECT STANDARDS SOCIAL STUDIES * Science Literacy * Structure and * Individual * English Language Function in Living Development and Arts Things Identity * Health/Life Skills * Personal and * Current Events Community Health Critical-Thinking Questions:

1. Why can drugs be described as having hidden dangers? Cite examples from the article. (People who make drugs often mix in other drugs and chemicals, so users don't actually know what drug[s] they are really taking.)

2. How are drugs marketed through their names, and why might that be dangerous? Cite examples from the article. (Nicknames like Ecstasy and Molly [for MDMA] make the drugs sound fun and also distract from the fact that they are mind-altering chemicals that pose real dangers.)

3. Why is it important that information about drugs comes from a scientific and trustworthy source? (There are many inaccurate sources of information about drugs--trusting these sources can lead someone to make deadly choices. Scientific sources like NIDA provide current and accurate information. Paying attention to this information can save your life.)

Additional Tools for Lesson:

Visit scholastic.com/headsup/chat-day-tools for grade-tiered resources that support teaching this lesson and article:

* Expanded Answer Key for Critical-Thinking Questions and Work Sheet

* Tiered Adaptations of Critical-Thinking Questions

* Academic and Domain-Specific Vocabulary Lists

* Additional Writing Prompts

* Expanded Paired-Text Reading Suggestions

* Expanded Standards Charts for Grades 6-12

Resources and Support:

* Teaching...