We will develop, evaluate, and disseminate a curriculum that will explore drug abuse-related issues that are relevant to high school students, while simultaneously developing their understanding of the science of epidemiology. The goals of the curriculum, called Exploring Drug Abuse through the Science of Epidemiology (EDASE), are to improve high school students':
- Knowledge of drug abuse,
- Knowledge of epidemiology,
- Fundamental abilities in Science as Inquiry,
- Fundamental abilities in Science and Technology, and
- Scientific literacy
To achieve the above goals we will complete the following activities:
A. |
Establish a multidisciplinary Advisory Board (Board). |
B. |
In partnership with the Board, develop 20 prototype lessons that use the science of epidemiology to explore specific drug abuse-related issues relevant to high school students. |
C. |
With Institutional Review Board approval, pilot-test and refine prototype lessons based on the experiences of the Board's high school teachers' pilot-testing and the Boards' critique after viewing videotapes of this experience. |
D. |
Establish a Field-Testing Team (Team) consisting of twenty science teachers from high schools that are members of the New Jersey Network for Educational Renewal. |
E. |
Train the Team's experimental high school teachers to implement EDASE. |
F. |
Field-test EDASE in the experimental teachers' high schools. |
G. |
Assess students' improvement in knowledge of drug abuse and epidemiology, the National Science Education Standards fundamental abilities in Science as Inquiry and Science and Technology, and scientific literacy. |
H. |
Finalize EDASE based on the Team's experiences, the results of student assessments, and student feedback. |
I. |
Disseminate the investigations by linking the EDASE web site with CDC's EXCITE web site (Excellence in Curriculum Integration Through Teaching Epidemiology). |
The curriculum will be created by following curriculum design principles advocated by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe in their text Understanding by Design. Their contention is that effective curricula are created by identifying enduring understandings and essential questions. Enduring understandings are the big ideas that reside at the heart of a discipline and have lasting value outside the classroom. The essential questions are the questions that, when answered, create the enduring understanding in the first place. The curriculum developer's task is to create lessons that develop students' abilities to answer the essential questions and, in doing so, develop the their own enduring understandings.
Each group of lessons will help students develop their ability to answer one of six essential questions that epidemiologists attempt to answer in their work. These questions are:
- Who uses drugs? When do they use drugs? Where do they use drugs?
- What hypotheses might explain why some people use drugs and others do not?
- Is there an association between the hypothesized cause and drug use?
- Is the association, between the hypothesized cause and drug use, causal?
- What should be done when preventable causes of drug use are identified?
- Did the drug use prevention strategy work?