Drugs, Drug Targets and You: Exploring the Molecular Mechanisms of Drug Abuse wit

描述（由申请人提供）：药物，药物靶点和你是一个多方面的项目，旨在吸引高中生积极探索药物使用的分子基础及其对身体的影响。通过使用各种创新的、以学生为中心的教学工具，该项目将吸引学生积极研究药物-具有明确3D形状的小分子-如何与目标蛋白质上的特定活性位点结合，以改变其在控制我们每一个思想和行动的神经信号传递中的正常功能。为了确保这些教学工具在高中课堂上的有用性，我们使用了一个反向设计过程，其中(i)仔细阐述的学习目标驱动每个教学工具的开发，（ii）每个学习目标都明确地与生命科学中的基本概念联系在一起。因此，使用这些材料的学生会积极地构建自己对药物使用的分子后果的知识，因为他们将这种理解分层到化学和物理的基本概念上。这个项目将补充和加强现有的教学材料，通过使用以学生为中心的教学工具，吸引学生积极探索这个主题，包括：(i)药物和它们结合的蛋白质的物理模型（通过3D打印技术创建），（ii）动手构建工具包，学生可以在其中创建突触模型或神经元中产生的动作电位，（iii）独特的细胞景观，在细胞环境中呈现这些药物靶蛋白，并将学生的思维从宏观到细胞再到分子水平。使用这些独特的视觉和触觉教学工具，然后导致使用基于交互式计算机的可视化工具，这些工具建立在用动手工具建立的初始概念之上，

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Drugs, Drug Targets and You is a multi-faceted project aimed at engaging high school students in an active exploration of the molecular basis of drug use and its consequences on their bodies. Through the use of a variety of innovative, student-centered instructional tools, the project will engage students in an active investigation o how drugs - small molecules with defined 3D shapes - bind to specific active sites on target proteins to modify their normal function in the neurotransmission of signals that control our every thought and action. To insure the usefulness of these instructional tools in high school classrooms, we use a backwards design process in which (i) carefully articulated learning goals drive the development of each instructional tool, and (ii) each learning goal is explicitly tied toa fundamental, foundational concept in the life sciences. As a result, students using these materials become actively engaged in constructing their own knowledge of the molecular consequences of drug use, as they layer this understanding onto foundational concepts of chemistry and physics. This project will complement and enhance currently existing instructional materials by drawing students into an active exploration of the topic using student-centered instructional tools, including: (i) physical models of drugs and the proteins to which they bind (created by 3D printing technologies), (ii) hands-on construction kits in which students create a model of a synapse or the action potential generated in a neuron and (iii) unique cellular landscapes that present these drug target proteins in their cellular context, and transition students' thinking from the macroscopic - to the cellular - to the molecular level. The use of these unique visual and tactile instructional tools then leads to the use of interactive computer-based visualization tools that build upon the initial concepts established with the hands-on tools, and allow for the exploration of more sophisticated concepts in the computer environment. We will study the impact of this molecular approach to drug abuse education using a quasi-experimental study design in which two matched cohorts of high school teachers are trained to use the materials in their classrooms. Finally, in the later stages of this project, we will engage 9,000 high school students in 48 states in a consideration of the molecular consequences of drug use as they participate in a Protein Modeling event as part of the national Science Olympiad competition.