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Brain's Response to Drugs: Mind Over Matter Teacher's Guide, Revision

NCJ Number
198070
Date Published
January 2000
Length
57 pages
Annotation
This teacher’s guide for the “Mind Over Matter” series promotes an understanding of the effects of drug use and abuse through teaching about neuroscience and brain anatomy.
Abstract
Funded by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, this teacher’s guide for the “Mind Over Matter” series discusses neuroscience and brain anatomy in order to educate individuals about the biological effects of drug abuse on the body and the brain. After presenting a discussion of brain anatomy, nerve cells, and neurotransmitters through text and a series of illustrations, this guide details the effects of drug use on the brain. Discussing a wide variety of drugs, this teacher’s guide presents background discussions and mechanisms of action for marijuana, opiates, inhalants, hallucinogens, steroids, stimulants, nicotine, and methamphetamines. Following each section highlighting a particular drug is a series of activities, objectives, puzzles, and games designed to reiterate the primary information and vocabulary associated with each type of drug. Following the in-depth presentation of teaching exercises on each of the various categories of drugs, the guide presents a unifying activity to teach students the names of the lobes, cortical areas, and structures in the brain. This teaching guide concludes with a listing of resources, readings, and a series of figures that may be photocopied and used as overhead transparencies.