In this activity, students will be introduced to the decision-making process. While the process is described within the student activity, you can also refer to the Overview Booklet for additional information to share with your students.
Share the digital activity link below with your students. Then, ask them to think of a decision they made recently. Encourage them to choose one of some magnitude greater than, say, what color socks to wear to school that day. Using the chart in the activity, students will evaluate how they applied the decision-making process, and how they felt about the decision they finally made.
Ask students to wait until everyone has written about their decision before moving on to the “You Decide!” section of the activity. This final section is designed to be presented on an interactive whiteboard, though you may choose to have students complete it individually or in small groups.
Ask for volunteers to share their decisions with the class before you move on to the “You Decide!” section of the activity.
The final section of the activity, “You Decide!”, is designed to be presented on an interactive whiteboard. This portion of the activity is a branching “choices and consequences” type of exercise. Ask for individuals or small groups to come to the board and make decisions for each part of the activity. Students should go through the decision-making steps for this hypothetical situation. Note that in this activity, students may return to the beginning and start over. Tell students that this isn’t always the case in real life.
There are three things you want to emphasize here:
Use the supplemental “Pop Quiz” video to complement this section.
In this activity, students will demonstrate what they’ve learned about the health consequences of tobacco and nicotine use and the refusal skills presented in previous activities to create illustrations about saying “no.” This will help you reinforce the message and assess students’ understanding of the material.
Ask students to share examples about when they might have found themselves in uncomfortable situations, and how they managed to get out of them. Then, share the digital activity link below with your students. Review the suggestions for saying “no” to tobacco and nicotine, and display the poster that provides refusal tips while doing this activity. You’ll find the poster link in the “Activity Resources” section.
When students have completed the activity, have them present and explain their illustrations to the class.
For the “Draw It!” section, brainstorm topics with your students to get them thinking about other common situations they encounter to which they can apply the refusal skills they’ve learned.
Have students share their “Draw It!” illustrations and then post them on a bulletin board under the heading “When Saying ‘No” Is the Way to Go.”
Students need to be equipped with skills to refuse offers to smoke or vape or use other tobacco and nicotine products. They should also be aware of policies, rules, and laws that relate to tobacco and nicotine use and possession in your area.
Have your students work in groups to research and report back to the class on the following:
The school’s smoke-free or vape-free policy: Students should describe the policy, when it was implemented, and what the consequences are for breaking the policy. If your school does not have a policy, students can find out what can be done to implement one.
State and federal laws regarding tobacco or nicotine product possession and/or use by minors: Students should prepare oral presentations to convey their findings.
In this activity, students will apply what they have learned about themselves and the decision-making process to evaluate a series of situations they may experience. (See the Overview Booklet for additional information about decision making that you can share with your students).
Before starting the activity, review with your students the decision-making steps outlined in the activity:
Decision-Making Steps
Then, to reinforce the steps, present students with the following example before they complete the activity:
Your parents have gone out, and you have been put in charge of watching your little brother for the night. Your friends call you and want to come over to hang out with you. You aren’t supposed to have anyone over when your parents are not there. But your friends are being pushy, and you really want to hang out with them. What do you do?
Take your students through the decision-making steps, by asking them:
Next, share the digital activity link and have students complete the activity independently or in groups.
Regroup to review the answer as a class. Ask students to volunteer their lists of options, consequences, and decisions for each hypothetical situation.
To wrap up, encourage students to talk about how helpful it is to break down the decision-making steps. Ask them how some of these decisions (or other decisions they’ve made in their own lives) might have been made differently if they had thought them through.
