Videos & Discussions

This week we have been watching video clips and discussing the effects of drugs on the people's physical, psychological, social and emotional health. We watched Frontline's investigation from May 2011.

We have also been watching clips from the episode of Intervention-In Depth, "Heroin Hits Home."  The Intervention episode tells the story of four high school students who started taking OxyContin and transitioned to heroin.

When we return from ski week we will start our unit on Genetics.

How does drug abuse begin?

After defining the difference between a drug and a medicine, students worked with data from an experiment on self-adminstration of drugs in rats.  Moving forward students read a case study comparing two individuals and were asked who was addicted to drugs.  We wrapped up class by watching a clip from National Geographic Explorer "A Heroin Addict Speaks."And in case you still had any notions that drugs will increase your popularity / appearance or give you any other benefits, click the picture below to link to a gallery of the faces of meth.

Drugs alter the chemistry of the brain

In our last class we talked about how drugs alter the chemistry of the brain, specifically by blocking the protein channels that would otherwise reabsorb dopamine.

The picture above shows how methamphetamine disrupts this process.  We have also talked about how different routes of administration result in different levels of chemicals in the body. 

Today we discussed the differences between drugs and medicines as well as Drug Abuse Is Voluntary; Addiction Is Compulsive.

How neurotransmission works

Today we talked about how neurotransmission works. We watched the clip below, click it to link to the animation.

For homework G period should read section 35.2 and take notes for a reading quiz. C period should should complete the worksheet and use the animation below to help you.

Starting Drugs, Brain & Behavior

Today we started drugs, brain and behavior.  Not wanting to give too much away for G period, all I'll post here is C period's homework:

Read section 35.2 and take notes for a reading quiz.

Mitosis, Cell Cycle & Cancer Quiz

Today students had a quiz on mitosis, the cell cycle and cancer.  In addition to the written part of the quiz students had a skills assessment where they needed to find anaphase in a plant cell using a light microscope.

Next week we will be starting the NIH's Drugs, Brain and Behavior unit.