High School Education Day for Substance Abuse Prevention

Wright State University WSU librarians, along with faculty and graduate students from the Boonshoft School of Medicine BSOM and College of Education and Human Services CEHS, will partner with local high schools to deliver substance abuse education and health literacy instruction to the students in six area high schools. A full-day, interactive curriculum will be provided to students on the WSU campus and will use NLM resources to support students in learning how to make healthy choices and be drug free. The target audience for this educational event is students in grades 11-12 from local underrepresented high schools. Students from area high schools will be invited to the WSU main campus for a full day of active learning that will empower them to be able to advocate for healthy and drug-free choices using library research and health literacy skills. WSU librarians and staff from the BSOM and CEHS will each oversee a module of instruction that supports students in learning about aspects of addiction. In module 1, students will learn how to locate and evaluate health information for credibility and quality WSU libraries. In module 2, students will learn about the neurobiology of addiction BSOM. In module 3, students will learn about the psychosocial elements of addiction CEHS. In the culminating activity, students will work in groups of four to create a poster based on the evidence they collected and learned from the three modules. The major focus of the poster is to construct a drug-free advocacy message to share with peers. Posters will be scored using a rubric and students who create the top scoring messages will receive a prize. The education day will occur twice during the year with three schools coming to each, resulting in six schools total. We consider these two days to be part of an overall pilot project, with the intention of using our findings to expand the program to support substance abuse and health literacy education in other locations.