High Tech High - Project Based Learning

Drug Movie

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Activities

Timeline

Introducing the Unit:
The Drug Unit begins with an introduction to the educational digital video project. Instructors explain the educational digital video project, the project requirements, and the project timeline to the students. The project timeline, rubric, project organizer, sample story board, blank story boards, and contest entry form will be handed out at this time. After the project overview, the instructors will show sample educational anti-drug videos that students have made in the past. Instructors will also show the slides form the school wide viewing of the movies from last year. Instructors will then talk about the students that won awards and recognition for their films from last year. The project, school-wide viewing, and competitions will serve as a "hook" for the unit.

The curriculum standards are taught around these main dates and are uniquely taught at moments when students need information in order to accomplish the timeline below.

Tuesday Oct. 28th

Illicit drug choice due (5 points)
Wednesday Nov. 5th Focus for video due (organization completed line diagram) (15 points)
Friday Nov. 7th Storyboard Plan due
(research completed Facts & Images are printed as integrated into storyboard)		 (10 points)
Friday Nov. 14th Final Draft of Storyboard due
(Dialogue and picture frames are completed and pasted to a poster-board)		 (25 points)
Tuesday Nov 18th Professional Producer critiques storyboards (10 points)
Monday Nov. 24th

Students submit 3-proposed audiences
(1 competition, 1 school viewing, 1 outside professional viewing e.g. NA, AA, KPBS, Sony Entertainment, Independent Movie Theaters )

 (10 points)
Friday Dec. 5th Rough Draft of Movie in Production
(I-Movie, Final Cut, etc.)		 (10 points)
Friday Dec. 12th Final Cut Movie Due (100 points)
Wednesday Dec. 17th Drug Movie POL's with parents and "killer panelists" (6:30 to 8:30 viewing in two theaters) (100 points)

Project Narrative

The Drug Unit was taught using the following outline as a guide for content instruction.  The outline is not in order of instruction, but rather six areas of instruction that occur simultaneously throughout the day.  These areas breakout naturally into specific disciplines naturally, hence creating a nice way to divide teaching among a team of teachers or all of the areas could be taught by a single teachers depending on the scheduling of each school.

I. Chemistry of Drugs

  1. Aspirin
    1. How Aspirin Differs
    2. Aspirin Synthesis
    3. Chromatography Separation
  2. Illicit Drugs
    1. Presentation on Marijuana
    2. Presentation on Ecstasy

II. How drugs work in the body

  1. Genetics
    1. What role does genetic predisposition play in drug addition
    2. Evidence for or against genetic pre-disposition
  2. Cell biology
    1. Parts of the cell
    2. Replication for genetic component to addition
    3. Nervous System
  3. Neurons
    1. Neurotransmitters
    2. Receptors
  4. Endocrine System
    1. Hormones
    2. Negative and Positive Feedback Loop
    3. Gland activity
  5. Reproductive System
  6. Enzyme Catalyst

III. Drugs and Society

  1. Counter Culture
    1. Art
    2. Musics
    3. Literature
      1. Literature Circles, Harvey Daniels
      2. Howl, Allen Ginsberg
      3. Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh
      4. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Tennesse Williams
      5. The Basketball Diaries, Jim Carrol
      6. Go Ask Alice, Anonymous
      7. Pihkal: A chemical Love Story, Alex Shulgin
      8. Electric Koolaid Acid Test, Tom Wol
  2. Abuse
    1. Guest Speaker
  3. Rehabilitation
    1. Visit Rehabilitation Center
  4. Finance

IV. History of Drugs

  1. Opium Wars
  2. Beginning of Pharmaceuticals

V. Current Events

  1. Trafficking
  2. Production
  3. Users

VI. Drug use at High Tech High School

  1. Survey
    1. Data Collection
    2. Graphing
    3. Reporting
  2. Statistical Analysis of student created survey
  3. Statistics and Technology
    1. National Statistics on Teen Drug Use