Young people need to make informed choices about smoking based on facts.
Children and teenagers often dismiss the long-term health dangers of smoking. When you are 13 it is difficult to imagine developing cancer or lung disease in your 50s. Short-term scare tactics rarely work with children. The best way of teaching the effects of smoking is for children to research the facts themselves. Teachers need to show that smoking is not cool. Lectures rarely hit the mark. Learning about the links between smoking and disease is a better approach.
Instructions
1. Instruct children to go on a fact-finding mission on smoking. Divide the class into groups and get them to research topics such as "what is in a cigarette?," "the main diseases and illnesses caused by smoking" and "the dangers of second-hand smoke." Ask each group to make a presentation to the entire class about their findings.
2. Show the class some video footage about the health effects of smoking. For instance, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has one video about a young woman with two children who has emphysema.
3. Present an article on smoking and mortality or ask the children to research the figures. Use this information to make graphs and charts about the growing rates of mortality in different countries and smoking levels.
4. Use diagrams of the human body to highlight the areas that smoking can damage. Point the children to fact sheets or websites to remind them that smoking can affect hearing, vision and circulation as well as the heart and lungs.
5. Invite a health practitioner, such as a nurse, into the classroom to give a talk about her personal experience in dealing with the effects of smoking. The nurse could describe the types of health problem that she has encountered and the effect on her patients' lives.
6. Arrange for a drama group to come in and act out a short play about the effects of smoking. The drama could center on a teenager who takes up smoking at the age of 14 and then develops a health condition later in life. The play could reflect the impact of smoking on the lives of the character's wife, children and wider family
Related posts
There can be many dangerous effects of second-hand smoke to children.Passive smoke, also known as second-hand smoke, can be a danger to children. There have been numerous studies conducted as to t...
The Effects on the Brain After SmokingNothing NewSmoking was first identified as a risky behavior in the 1964 study, "Smoking and Health: Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon Gener...
Effects of Smoking on RespirationThe respiratory system is literally the lifeblood of the human body. It supplies the blood with oxygen, one of the basic elements of life.The effects of smoking on...
Cessation of smoking is a subject that nurses can end up teaching as a result of their dealings with patients. Patients who are trying to quit smoking need someone to teach them quit and stay off...
There is a prevalent--if unfortunate--belief out there that smoking cigars is somewhat less harmful than smoking cigarettes. This belief is probably due to the fact that cigar smokers usually don'...
