Web Adventures to Teach Adolescents about Inhalant Abuse

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): To address the science education focus of NIDA to "expand the use of scientific information to educate the public about the real nature of drug abuse and addiction," a successful educational model to teach adolescents about drugs of abuse has been created. Funded by previous NIDA grants, the web adventure series on OPIOIDS and CLUB DRUGS is titled THE RECONSTRUCTORS (http://reconstructors.rice.edu). It has been field tested and proven to have significant educational impact. In addition, the series has garnered national awards, achieved international dissemination, and resulted in several science education and multimedia publications. A new web adventure to focus on INHALANTS is proposed. NIDA research indicates the prominence of inhalants as a class of substances that adolescents are increasingly abusing. Both middle school students and their science teachers want to know more about the impact of inhalants on the human body, but it is unlikely that they will devote instructional time on the impacts of inhalants, unless it can be closely aligned with current science curriculum content. Therefore, the web adventure series will serve as an effective and efficient way to teach about inhalants within the context of the prescribed middle school curriculum by incorporating the National Science Standards. This approach provides science teachers with a program to complement prevention efforts, while still covering the mandated science content. Web Adventures to Teach about Inhalants has five primary goals: 1. lncrease students' science knowledge about the biological effects of inhalants by directly incorporating the National Science Standards; 2. Compare two versions of web Adventure (Science only version and a Science plus version) against a control condition to determine short and long term impacts in motivating students not to use inhalants; 3. Model science process skills and portray a wide variety of science careers through the Web adventure; 4. Modify the web adventure based upon the results of the field tests and launch it on the web for free access. 5. Encourage widespread use of the INHALANT web adventure through aggressive dissemination and publications.