Blog Post #7: Addiction/Use


 The lesson I chose to analyze this week was about cannabis and how it impacts adolescents. The first step of the lesson is to initiate a discussion among yourself and your students about what they've noticed regarding cannabis in their community. In recent years, many dispensaries have opened up in my town after the new legalization in New York State. This conversation has been going on for years, so I am sure many students will have something to say regarding it.

The next step of the lesson is to read the article titled Cannabis: The Facts You Need to Know. The article goes into detail about what exactly cannabis is, how it is often used as prescription medicine, and how THC affects the teenage brain, both short-term and long-term. The most frightening statistic to me was that "about 11% of adolescents (ages 12–17) developed a cannabis use disorder within 12 months of their first cannabis use versus about 6% of young adults (ages 18–25)" from a 2021 study. While reading the article out loud with students, teachers can pause in between sections to discuss what they have all learned thus far. 

The following step is to explore an interactive activity on the NIDA website. This activity explores the various parts of the brain that are affected by cannabis and how this impacts the bodily functions. When playing around with this activity, students can discuss in groups some ideas for real life examples that each part of the brain has control over, and what they would lose when using THC. For example, a teen on THC might forget what they were just told because of the impact on the limbic system. This activity is shown below!


The final step of the lesson is to have students complete the worksheet where they are supposed to match the limited/failing action due to cannabis usage with the section of the brain. They are also prompted to write out some facts that they have learned about cannabis and its effects. The final idea on the worksheet is a suggestion to create some type of social media post describing the facts about the harms of cannabis on the teenage brain and body. 

Some strengths of this lesson include relevance to adolescent life and explaining the effects well. Teenagers often do not care about anything that does not pertain to their lives. However, not only is this lesson somewhat enjoyable, but it provides real life explanations and examples for how cannabis can harm the body. During high school, many students use this time to experiment with everything they haven't been allowed to use for years and anything they are told is no good for them. One weakness I found throughout this lesson is that it can entice students into trying it by hearing of the "silly" impacts. However, this would come with any lesson on drug use, which is why I do not find it to be too strong of a weakness. If I were to use this lesson in my classroom, I would make it more interactive with the students. For example, allowing them to act out examples of dangers or write interesting facts on the white boards around the room.

Cannabis: The Facts You Need to Know

References
Lesson Plan and Activity Finder. (n.d.). National Institute on Drug Abuse. https://teens.drugabuse.gov/teachers/lessonplans?sort=created%3Adesc&language=en

Scholastic and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. (2023, January 11). Cannabis: The facts you need to know. National Institutes of Health. Retrieved March 31, 2023, from https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/parents-educators/lesson-plans/cannabis-the-facts-you-need-to-know 



Comments

  1. Ashley MarieApril 13, 2023 at 6:08 AM

    Hi Colleen,

    I found your blog post to be very informative. The discussion of cannabis with teens is essential in today's society. You provided great structure throughout your blog, and I could see how the lesson could appear within a classroom. For example, having moments for the teacher to pause while reading aloud to students and prompting critical thinking questions can allow students to share their knowledge and feeling about the article. I agree with your expression of how terrifying 11% of teens develop a Canibus disorder within their first year of using Canibus. Your blog post included a great visual representation of the brain that students can use during the lesson. In your critique of the lesson, I, too, would have used more interaction of students with peers and allowed them to move around the classroom through a thinking routine that incorporated mural type structure to share the information they learned during the lesson. Again, Canibus is a topic many students should understand all the risks about, and providing a safe environment to do that, is essential within the classroom. Great Post!

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