Info for Parents and Teachers
The
Cool Spot was created for kids 11-13 years old by
the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
(NIAAA). The NIAAA is the lead U.S. agency supporting
research into the causes, prevention, and treatment
of alcohol problems. It is a component of the National
Institutes of Health, within the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services.
The content of The Cool Spot is based on a curriculum
for grades 6-8 developed by the University of Michigan.
The curriculum was created for the Alcohol Misuse
Prevention Study (AMPS), a large-scale project supported
by NIAAA.
One goal of AMPS was to give young teens a clearer
picture about alcohol use among their peers. Teens
tend to overestimate how much kids their age really
drink. When they learn more accurate information,
some of the pressure to drink can subside. Other goals
of AMPS were to help kids learn skills to resist pressure
to drink and to give them reasons not to drink. The Cool Spot incorporates AMPS goals in these and other features:
- Reality
Check quizzes kids about how much drinking is
really going on in the U.S. The answers, which often
surprise kids and adults alike, are based on results
of the 2002
National Survey on Drug Use and Health.
- Deep Digging is a
simple but powerful page that depicts why using
alcohol as a solution to problems, or a way of trying
to cope, is trouble.
- Peer Pressure Bag
of Tricks presents animated scenes that invite
kids to identify some common peer pressure “tricks.”
It also lets kids know that spotting these tricks
is the first step to resisting them.
- Know your No’s
is an activity that introduces kids to a variety
of ways to say no, and helps them learn which one
is the most effective.
Compliance
The Cool Spot is compliant with the requirements
outlined in the Children's Online Privacy Protection
Act of 1998 (COPPA) which limits the collection of
personal information of children under the age of
13, as well as Section 508, which requires Federal
agency web sites to be accessible to people with disabilities.
For more information on these requirements please
visit
Contact Us
The Cool Spot welcomes your suggestions,
comments and concerns about privacy issues. Please
contact us at NIAAA
Webmaster or write to:
The Cool Spot National
Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
5635 Fishers Lane, Room 3098, MSC 9304
Bethesda, MD 20892-9304
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