Red+Ribbon+Week

October 23 – 31: Red Ribbon Week [|Just think twice website] ACROSTIC NAME: Using Microsoft Publisher create a poster with your name written vertically. Now using each letter of your name, create positive words or sentences that describe yourself and/or activities that you are involved in. Example:
 * Assignment 1: **
 * T ** alented
 * O ** utstanding
 * M ** usician

Bonus: Create an acrostic poem using anti-drug words, see example:
 * D ** rugged driving
 * R ** isky behavior
 * U ** nfulfilled goals
 * G ** rades drop


 * A ** ddiction
 * B ** odily harm
 * U ** sers’ children neglected
 * S ** tudent loans lost
 * E ** nvironmental damage
 * Assignment 2: Read the following article. Follow directions in red after reading the article. **
 * || EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL ON THE DEVELOPING BRAIN

We have known for decades that exposing the developing brain to alcohol can be devastating. Alcohol use during pregnancy is the leading known cause of mental retardation in newborns the United States. That is why one of the warning labels on alcoholic beverages is directed to pregnant women. We also know that the brain does not finish developing until a person is around twenty years old. The brain of people under 21 years of age is very different from people over 21 years of age... children and adolescents are not just "little adults." Think of the brain as a computer. It comes into the world with the basic operating systems, central nervous system, circulatory system, respiratory system, reflexes, etc. However, it does not have all its software - the programs for vision, speech, emotions, memory, abstract thinking, problem solving and attention and concentration. The brain needs input from the five senses to build these capacities. The brain not only grows bigger - from one pound at birth to three pounds at adulthood - but it continues to "program" itself for 20 years, completing the development process started before birth. During this 20-year period, the brain is creating a complete human being, who is ready to function independently. The brain is on a schedule, with each stage of development allotted a specific period of time for completion. If anything prevents the brain from accomplishing a development task on its schedule, it has to skip that task. Therefore, any substance that interferes with how the brain operates during this 20-year period of development, such as a psychoactive (mind/mood-altering) drug, can change the course of a person's physical, mental, emotional and social development. Alcohol is like other psychoactive drugs in that it changes how the brain cells communicate with each other by interfering with neurotransmitters. If we think of the brain as a computer, alcohol and other psychoactive drugs act like computer viruses; they change, delete or scramble the code that our computer - the brain - uses to operate. However, alcohol is different from other psychoactive drugs; it deactivates and activates brain centers (speech, hearing, vision, fine movements, gross movements, learning, anger, fear, pain, pleasure, hunger, etc.) at a rate no other psychoactive drug can even approach, not cocaine, not heroine, not nicotine. For a brain that is on a schedule, turning off brain centers - even for a short while - can be devastating. Adult brains, which can still be harmed by use of psychoactive drugs including alcohol, do not sustain the same level of damage because their brains have completed development. Cynthia Kuhn, Ph.D., Scott Swartzwelder, Ph.D., and Wilkie Wilson, Ph.D., Buzzed: The Straight Facts Abut the Most Used and Abused Drugs (from Alcohol to Ecstasy), Duke University Medical Center, 1998. ||  || ** Assignment: Pick four questions below and copy and paste them into word. Answer the four questions. **


 * Red Ribbon Week – October **
 * Name:___ **
 * What is one of the most important reasons there is a law to prohibit the use of alcoholic beverages by persons under 21 years of age?
 * Why do adults not sustain the same level of harm from alcohol as do children and adolescents?
 * How is alcohol like other psychoactive substances?
 * How is alcohol different from other psychoactive substances?
 * What, if any, piece of information about alcohol was new to you?
 * What, if any, piece of information about alcohol surprised you?
 * What is your opinion about the use of alcohol by persons under 21?
 * Must answer: Has your opinion changed about the use of alcohol by people under 21?**