Science Education in Health Ed Class: Tobacco and Addiction

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Science literacy in the US adolescent population ranks low compared to other developed nations and is declining (National Center for Education Statistics). A consequence of this deficiency has been that students do not have the tools to make informed decisions about issues concerning their health. One area in which students may lack the scientific tools to make healthy choices is in the use of tobacco products. In particular, the tobacco industry may be able to take advantage of our students' lack of scientific literacy, especially with their creative marketing of so-called safer tobacco products (i.e., light/ultralight cigarettes, reduced-exposure products, natural cigarettes, and smokeless tobacco). Research suggests that adolescents who don't smoke may be lured into using these products because of the safer implication, or they may delay quitting smoking thinking a safer alternative will be available later on. Currently, the main forum for teaching students about tobacco, smoking, and addiction is the high school health education course. Yet, health education courses do not typically provide a level of scientific understanding of these important topics. Moreover, teachers of these courses are usually physical education teachers, who do not have the background to teach the science about tobacco and nicotine addiction. Thus, we propose a partnership between university scientists and high school teachers to help teachers bring science into their health education course. Our overall goals of the project are to 1) increase science literacy of adolescents on the topic of tobacco use and nicotine addiction, 2) provide students with tools to resist the creative marketing of alternative tobacco products, and 3) help students make appropriate decisions about (not) smoking or using other tobacco products that carry implied claims of being safer than regular cigarettes. To achieve these goals, we have 5 specific aims: 1) Develop a science education- based module on tobacco products and nicotine addiction for the high school health education course; 2) Provide professional development to health education teachers to help them serve as learning facilitators of the science education module; 3) Field-test the science education module in high school health courses using a randomized, controlled design; 4) Perform a multi-modal evaluation of the effect of the science education module on several outcomes including, science content knowledge about addiction and cancer, students' risk perception of addiction and cancer, ability to resist marketing of safer tobacco products, susceptibility to smoke/use tobacco products, and self-reported use; 5) Disseminate the program nationally. We propose that our approach may serve as a model for using science education to inoculate teens against the constant barrage of information about legal and illegal substances that cause disease, including addiction. This is especially appropriate for the high school health education course. Project Narrative: This project brings science education to the Health Education class in high schools. We propose that our approach may serve as a model for using science education to inoculate teens against the constant barrage of information about legal and illegal substances that cause disease, including addiction.