Specific Topic:     Tobacco

Grade:              6

Time Frame:         One Period (90 minutes-block scheduling)
 

Goal/Purpose/Rationale:

    The students will be able to identify cancer-causing agents that are present in tobacco smoke.  The students will understand the short-term and also the long-term effects of tobacco on the body.  They will also become aware of what other people will think of them as smokers.  The students will also learn to value their current ability to breathe with healthy lungs, unlike a person who suffers from emphysema.

Measurable Objectives:

•  After having read about tobacco use, the student will list three cancer-causing agents that are present in tobacco smoke.

• After reading about tobacco use, the student will list six short-terms effects tobacco causes to the body.

• After reading about tobacco use, the student will list three long-term effects tobacco causes to the body.

• After participating in the straw activity, the student will explain what it feels like to breathe for a person who suffers from emphysema.

• After watching the video The Truth about Tobacco, the student will list four ideas other people have about smoking and its effects.

• After talking about and viewing pictures of tobacco products, the student will identify three types of tobacco products.

• After reading about emphysema, the student will explain in detail what the disease is and how it effects a person’s body.

Materials:

    The students are expected to have the book Your Health with them.  They are also expected to have their Health folder, notebook, 3X5-index card, and a black or blue pen.  The students are going to view the video The Truth about Tobacco.  The television and the VCR are located in the back corner of the classroom.  The videocassette is already in the VCR, just push play.  The TV needs to be turned to Channel 3.  A worksheet entitled “The Truth about Tobacco” which needs to be passed out to the students before they view the video.  There is also a bag of coffee stirring straws that are to be used for the emphysema breathing activity later in the period.

Cambridge Educational.  (1993). The Truth about Tobacco.  Monmouth, NJ:Cambridge Educational

Gibbons, C., Middleton, K., Ozias, J. M.& Stockton, C. A.  (1999).  Your Health (5th ed.).  Orlando, FLA:Harcourt Brace & Company.
 

Previous Lesson Review/Introduction:

    The students should have read pages 244-249 in the textbook Your Health.  These pages briefly describe what tobacco smoke contains and the short and long-term effects of using tobacco.  Discuss and ask questions about the topics covered throughout these pages. Review with the students the three harmful substances in tobacco smoke and have them describe the short and the long-term effects of tobacco use on the body.  Review the vocabulary words that are listed on page 244 in the teacher’s edition of the Your Health textbook.

Tobacco smoke contains:
 

• Over 4,000 substances and more than 60 of these are linked to the cause of cancer (which are called carcinogens)
• All forms of tobacco contains nicotine (a poison that speeds up the nervous system)
• Tobacco smoke also contains carbon monoxide (a poisonous gas that irritates people’s eyes and throats and upsets their stomachs)
• Tar is also present in tobacco smoke (tar is the sticky dark paste that is left behind when certain substances burn)

• Bad smell on person’s clothes and hair
• Bad breath
• Stained fingers and teeth
• Smoke irritates the eyes and the nose
• Contain sugar that can cause tooth decay
• Makes breathing difficult

• Irritates the nose, throat, trachea and lungs
• More likely to die of chronic bronchitis and emphysema
• More likely to get cancer of the mouth, esophagus, larynx, throat, and digestive system

• Cancer- a disease in which abnormal cells, or tumors, grow and interfere with normal cell growth.
• Carcinogens- substances that cause cancer.
• Nicotine- a poison that speeds up the nervous system.
• Carbon Monoxide- a poisonous gas contained in tobacco smoke
• Tars- the sticky, dark paste that’s left behind when certain substances burn.
• Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS)- tobacco smoke in the air.

    Ask the students to get out a piece of paper and write their name on it.  Have them turn to page 244 in their textbook Your Health and get out an index card.  The students should have already done some interviewing or asking questions about the tobacco products presented on this page.  Next, ask them these questions: (these should be answered in complete sentences and written on the index card)
 

• “Have you ever seen any of these products?”

• “Where have you seen them sold?”

• ”Where have you seen them being used?”

Content Information:

     After the review of the previous assignment, explain to the students that they will be watching a video entitled The Truth about Tobacco.  This movie contains startling interviews with people who are sick from smoking.  It also discusses what non-smoker’s views are on tobacco.
    Before starting the video, pass out the worksheets entitled “The Truth about Tobacco” to the students.  Have the students turn their desks towards the TV and press play on the VCR.  The movie will take about a half an hour.  Make sure that the students fill out the worksheet and at the end of the movie have them hand it in on my desk.
    After the movie is over, ask the children to answer some questions about it:
 

• Ask students to imagine they are taking a walk with a friend.  Suddenly their friend stops, stoops down, and picks up what looks like a handful of dried leaves and grass, and suggests that they smoke or chew this material.  Ask the students how they would respond to this.

    Once again, go over the different diseases that the use of tobacco can cause to a person.  Remind the students that these diseases include chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and lung cancer.  Discuss what emphysema is in detail:

“Emphysema destroys the small air sacs in the lungs.  After these air sacs are destroyed, it takes a long time for the lungs to exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide with the blood.  People with emphysema have a hard time breathing.  Often they can’t get enough oxygen to exercise or walk for even short periods of time”.

    Now, the students are going to do an experiment.  Ask the students to imagine what it would be like for a person to breathe if they had emphysema.

1. Pass out the coffee stirring straws to each student.
2. Have the students put the straws in their mouth and breathe through them for 60 seconds.
3. After they are finished ask them what it felt like to breathe through such a tiny hole.
4. Explain to the students that a person with emphysema feels similar to how they felt when they were trying to breathe through the straw.

Evaluation:

     The rubric for the three questions that were asked and answered on the index cards is provided.  Remind the students that there will be a quiz next class time over the material covered today.

Integration:

     This lesson can be integrated with English.  The students are to answer questions in complete sentences, which ties in with what they learned in English class.  They also need to think about what they are going to write before they put it down on paper.

Follow up/Assignment/Next Lesson:

     For the next class the students are to read pages 249-251 in the Your Health text book and answer the “Lesson Checkup” questions on the bottom of page 251.  I will be giving a quiz about the material covered in class today, so the students should review pages 244-249 in the Your Health textbook.  Remind them that they need to know three substances that are present in tobacco smoke and some of the short and long-term effects of tobacco use.  Also tell the students that they need to know the vocabulary words and their meaning listed on page 244.

Teacher’s Notes:

     Class starts when the bell rings and attendance is to be taken as soon as possible because the office aide’s come around to collect it. I have included the attendance sheet that needs to be filled out.  There is no specific seating arrangement.  There are no drinks or food allowed in the classroom.
    The students are to be quiet during the movie.  If anyone talks or disrupts the class, write the student’s name on the sheet I have provided and I will deal with them when I get back.
    The students have a limited number of hall passes that they can use a semester so if someone asks to go somewhere make sure that their pass is signed by you (the substitute).  Only one person is allowed to leave the classroom at a time because we have had problems with people asking to use the restroom in multiple numbers.