Preventing Drug Use by Teaching the Scientific Method

Adolescent use of tobacco, alcohol, and illegal drugs has increased recently, after nearly two decaOne effective method of renewing prevention efforts is cross curriculum exposure to substance abuseinteractive video. Instruction in the scientific method using drug examples can provide a powerful mexposure. Despite the critical importance of teaching students logical thinking and the scientific mlittle instruction on either. Performance of American students, both in scientific reasoning and scilow by international standards. Research supports teaching scientific method, and the underlying logskills, by using explicit rules in small incremental steps. Within the instruction on scientific metpowerful substance abuse prevention message can be delivered. In Phase I, four lessons in logic, crimethod will be developed and evaluated. The Phase I prototype will include computer presentations anmaterials. The prototype efficacy will be evaluated with 40 middle school students. In Phase II, twoROM-based programs will be developed--and then tested for effectiveness in a randomized control tria