Comparing Two Multimedia Science of Addiction Courses

描述(由申请人提供)： NIDA的长期目标之一是为儿童和青少年提供关于药物滥用的科学基础和大脑在成瘾中所起作用的准确和最新的信息。然而，目前为儿童和青少年提供的许多药物滥用教育方案并不侧重于科学教育，而是侧重于利用生活技能发展和拒绝毒品技能进行预防。此外，其中许多计划的有效性还没有得到充分的测试。 在科学教育方面，非裔美国学生在科学水平标准化考试中的成绩普遍不如他们的高加索同龄人。然而，包括视觉和口头信息、动画和交互序列的多媒体程序可能是传统教学的一个很好的补充。虽然多媒体节目的设计可能有很多不同的方式，但在叙事结构中嵌入信息可能比使用更传统的说教方法更有效。 该项目旨在为四年级、五年级和六年级的学生开发一门“成瘾科学”教育课程，这些学生将从当地的十几个非裔美国人教堂招募。我们将根据课程制作两套互动光盘和辅助练习册。其中一套材料将以相当直截了当的说教方式介绍教育目标。另一套将把课程嵌入到一个叙事性的故事情节中。然后，我们将通过一个为期三节的周末“夏令营”，向参与教会的孩子们提供课程。我们将进行测试前、测试后以及四个月和九个月的跟踪调查，以评估课程是否有能力增加学生对药物滥用的科学基础的知识。此外，我们将检查通过说教或叙事方法呈现材料的相对有效性。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): One of NIDA's long-standing goals has been to provide children and adolescents with accurate and up-to-date information about the scientific bases of substance abuse and the role the brain plays in addiction. However, many of the currently available substance abuse education programs for children and adolescents focus not on science education, but on prevention using life-skills development and drug-refusal skills. Moreover, the effectiveness of many of these programs has not been adequately tested. In terms of science education, African-American students generally do not score as well as their Caucasian peers on standardized tests of science proficiency. However, multimedia programs which include both visual and verbal information, animation, and interactive sequences may be an excellent adjunct to traditional instruction. Although multimedia programs may be designed in many different ways, embedding information within a narrative structure may be more effective than using more traditional didactic approaches. This project seeks to develop a "science of addiction" education curriculum for fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students who will be recruited from a dozen local African American churches. We will create two sets of interactive CD-ROM and supporting workbooks based on the curriculum. One set of materials will present the educational objectives in a fairly straight-forward didactic approach. The other set will embed the lessons within a narrative story-line. We will then deliver the curriculum to children at the participating churches via a three session weekend "camp." We will conduct pre-test, post-test, and four and nine-month follow-ups to evaluate the curriculum's ability to increase students' knowledge of the scientific bases for substance abuse. Additionally, we will examine the relative effectiveness of presenting the material via either a didactic or narrative approach.