Rate The Risk
The goal of this exercise is to help your students learn to evaluate
the risk of partaking in activities so they can make informed, good decisions.
- As a homework assignment, have your students search for three to five
articles or ads in the local newspaper that involve people taking risks,
both good and bad, and cut them out and bring them to class.
- Collect the articles from your students and eliminate any duplicates.
- Assign students to groups and give each group one or two articles
to analyze. Their task is to rate the activity as a postive risk-taking
activity, negative risk-taking activity, or one where the type of risk
depends on the circumstances. Have them identify the positive and negative
outcomes that are associated with each activity.
- Have the groups share their findings with the rest of the class and
facilitate a brief discussion of whether they would participate in the
activity and why.
- Lead a discussion with your students about the risks of experimenting
with tobacco, alcohol and drugs. (It is likely that some of the articles
or ads they brought in will lead into this discussion naturally.) Give
them the Prevlink web site address (www.prevlink.org) to help them find
information on the possible social, mental, and physical consequences
of using these substances.
- Lead your students in a discussion of reasons youth site for using
alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs and list them on the board. Follow
up by asking your students for as least three positive activities that
could provide equivilant "benefits" as the reasons cited for
drug experimentation. Point out to your students how the activities
on this second list they created would not have the negative consequences
of using drugs.
- Reasons youth cite for experimenting with alcohol, tobacco and
drugs: to look cool or tough, to fit in with the crowd, to feel
grown-up, to feel good, to flirt with danger.
- Negative consequences of experimenting with alcohol, tobacco and
drugs include: bad judgment, a bad reputation, disapproval of parents
and friends, failure to achieve goals, addiction, and short- and
long-term risks to health.
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