NIDA and Scholastic Continue to Reach Tweens with
Information about Methamphetamine and Other Drugs
Through a continuing partnership, NIDA and SCHOLASTIC, the global children’s
publishing and media company, will distribute information on the health effects
of methamphetamine to nearly 2 million middle and high school students and their
teachers. Methamphetamine’s devastating effects on the brain and body, as well
as the environmental and social impact of its manufacture, will be covered in
an article in the fall issues for the 2005-6 school year in Scholastic Classroom
Magazines’ Junior Scholastic®, Science World®, CHOICES®, SCOPE®, ACTION®, and
UPFRONT®. Additional articles for the 2005-6 school year will cover inhalants,
prescription drugs, and drugs that may be encountered in social settings.
NIDA and SCHOLASTIC are now in the fourth year of an aggressive outreach to
middle school and early high school students and teachers with the Heads Up:
Real News About Drugs and Your Body series for use in the classroom. Through
new in-school educational materials, Heads Up teaches students about the effects
of drugs on the developing teen brain and body, decision making, and science.
“Beyond meeting teachers’ needs for engaging curricula that also fulfill national
science education objectives,” notes NIDA Director Dr. Nora Volkow, “these materials
hold the promise of sparking student interest in the biological sciences as a
possible career choice.”
An online teacher survey shows that more than 90 percent of respondents found
the Heads Up articles extremely or very valuable. Almost all (94 percent) of
teacher surveyed believe it is important to integrate substance abuse information
into their curriculum.
Most of the Heads Up materials are article-inserts included in the six magazines
above. These in-school publications provide age-appropriate news for kids and
supplemental teaching materials for teachers. The articles are written in collaboration
with NIDA program staff and researchers and feature research-based facts on the
medical consequences of drugs, examples of relevant scientific studies, and lists
of important resources for students and teachers to seek further information
or help.
“The Heads Up partnership with NIDA continues to provide millions of teachers
nationwide with relevant materials that open important discussions in the classroom,” said
Shelley White, Editorial Director of Scholastic Marketing Partners, a division
of Scholastic. “Scholastic Classroom Magazines offer teens real-life personal
stories that teach important information about drug abuse in a current, meaningful
way.”
In addition to the article-inserts for the 2005-6 school year, a popular teaching
poster produced in Heads Up’s first year featuring the medical consequences of
drugs on various parts of the body will be produced in English on one side and
Spanish on the other. This will be distributed free in December 2005 to several
thousand resource contacts in schools nationwide that have at least 25 percent
Hispanic/Latino students. In addition, multiple free copies will be available
from the National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information (NCADI) in December
2005.
Free compilations of both student and teacher inserts from Years 1 and 2 will
also be available from NCADI in December 2005, and compilations from Year 3 will
be available in late spring 2006.
For more information on these and other NIDA science education initiatives,
visit the NIDA Web site at www.backtoschool.drugabuse.gov and
www.teens.drugabuse.gov.
For more information specific to Heads Up: Real News About Drugs and Your Body,
visit www.scholastic.com/headsup.
NIDA, as part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ National
Institutes of Health, supports most of the world's research on the health aspects
of drug abuse and addiction. For more than 30 years, the Institute has carried
out a broad range of programs to ensure comprehensive research as well as quick
distribution of research findings to policymakers and education, prevention,
and treatment programs. In the areas of science education and information, NIDA
has pioneered innovative presentations of neuroscience information targeted to
middle-, high-, and also grade-schoolers. More information about NIDA can be
found at www.drugabuse.gov.
Scholastic Corporation (NASDAQ: SCHL) is the world's largest publisher and distributor
of children's books. Scholastic creates quality educational and entertaining
materials and products for use in school and at home, including children's books,
magazines, technology-based products, teacher materials, television programming,
film, videos and toys. The Company distributes its products and services through
a variety of channels, including proprietary school-based book clubs, school-based
book fairs, and school-based and direct-to-home continuity programs; retail stores,
schools, libraries, and television networks; and the Company's Internet Site,
www.scholastic.com.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The Nation's Medical Research
Agency — includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of
the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary Federal
agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical
research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common
and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov. |