Welcome to the official website of the Cannabis Education 4 Kids Project. We, your team of lovely nursing and pharmacy students, are excited to share our progress with you.
Jan 7-11, 2019 – The Start of Something New (read in a high school musical type of way)
Week one of the cannabis project was a whirlwind of group meetings and planning sessions. Having just begun our placements in the SafeSHIP and SHINE programs, we were excited to meet our team members, and build cohesion and unity. We needed to discuss effective educational strategies, and come up with a framework for this project. We did a lot of brainstorming, thinking big, and we were excited by the ideas and enthusiasm that was generated by our team. We knew that having the kids contribute to the project as much as possible would be best. Research shows that youth engagement is key to learning, and strategies such as the teach back strategy have been shown to be effective in improving comprehension and actually changing behaviours. However, before we could start to discuss cannabis with the students, we needed to learn about it ourselves. Each of us was assigned a topic to research and teach back to the entire group. This allowed us to get up to speed on a number of relevant topics, including:
- Risk/harm reduction
- Developmental theory: targeting Grade 3-12 and parents
- Advocacy
- Health literacy & assessments
- Health promotion
- Social competence/peer pressure, decision making, and choice
- Learner and youth engagement
- Healthy public policy
- Social marketing
- Cannabis buy-in and credibility within the community
- The Science of Cannabis
- Community health nursing standards
- Legalities of Cannabis
Jan 14-18, 2019 – A “Joint” Effort
Cannabis experts treated us to a seminar to provide us with more background and context on this everchanging area. Kelly Kizlyk, a pharmacist with MedSask and the Continuing Professional Development for Pharmacy Professionals (CPDPP) really “wow-ed” with her knowledge about cannabis from a scientific perspective. Maryellen Gibson with Student Wellness and Student Affairs and Outreach at the University of Saskatchewan inspired us by sharing the cannabis educational materials and programming that that she has implemented on campus. These individuals illustrated the importance of collaboration, and really set the bar high for us. Throughout the rest of the week we worked on lesson planning for middle school students (7thand 8th grades at North Park Wilson and St. Luke). We had the opportunity to meet many of the teachers and to introduce ourselves and our project to the students. Building relationships with students is particularly important for creating an atmosphere of trust, and will set the state for open dialogue. A big thank you to all you parents who returned the video consent forms back to us so fast, we realize it was a quick turn around and it was much appreciated!
Jan 21-22, 2019 – Lesson 1 – Canna-bi-what??
Lesson one was captured professionally on film by Raj from Flowing Line Pictures, who we are thrilled to have working with us for the entirety of this project. We jumped right into finding out what kids already know about cannabis, and what they want to learn more about. Turns out, your kids are very smart! We were surprised by some of the creative alternative names for cannabis that we had never heard before, such as “the devil’s lettuce”. We did several fun activities, starting with a game of “Fact or Fiction”, to understand more about the student’s thoughts on subjects such as peer pressure, cannabis, and decision making. Balloon popping to reveal important information inside made the activity a bit more engaging and fun. We finished the lesson with a graffiti board, where students wrote or drew their thoughts and ideas related to cannabis. Some kids were quite comfortable talking about cannabis and others were more hesitant, which is totally okay. Our intent is to create a positive learning environment where kids feel free discussing all topics. We want to provide accurate information and help kids avoid some of the misconceptions that are out there.
Jan 23-25, 2019 – Lesson 2 – Clearing the Smoke
On Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday last week we presented lesson 2, the Science of Cannabis. The kids were really interested to learn what is actually in cannabis and how it affects your body and brain. We were impressed by their enthusiasm! Several activities such as “Search and Discover” and “Pin the Leaf on the Human” were completed. One of the goals of these activities was for the kids to scan an article from Health Canada, extract relevant information, and teach that information with their peers. Being able to discern between what information is relevant and what is not, is an important skill for their future. Our friends from the Western College of Veterinary Medicine lent us several plastinated (preserved) animal brains, hearts and lungs to show the students what actual organs look like, since cannabis affects these body systems and many others. We discussed the medical uses of cannabis, the harmful affects, and how cannabis affects the developing brain (people under the age of 25 years old) differently than the adult brain. Feel free to quiz your kids on how to say the full name for THC and CBD, they were experts at pronouncing them last week.
We also had a chance to pull a few kids aside for their 5 minutes of fame. They loved being in front of the camera and were budding stars. We enjoyed hearing about their thoughts, concerns, and ideas.
Jan 28-Feb 1, 2019 – Choices = Consequences, you better be-leaf it
This week we did two lessons. Lesson 3 touched on the social science of cannabis. Our first activity was the “chip activity”. We gave each of the kids one chip to eat and asked them to share their thoughts. Most of them wanted more. This led into a discussion about cravings and addictions. Through this activity they learned that people with addictions aren’t bad people, and cravings and addictions can take many forms. We discussed how every choice we make in life has consequences, both good or bad, so we want to be informed before we make decisions.
Lesson 4 touched on personal values, what peer pressure looks like, and thinking about how we will respond when put in tricky situations. We asked the kids to write down what their core values, hopes, and dreams were, and to think about if cannabis use could impact those future goals. Some of the values that came up were family, friends, pets, kindness, honesty, faith, sports, etc. At one school, several brave students volunteered to act out a peer pressure scenario. Although the situation was fairly realistic, the skit was quite hilarious as the kids got really into improv. I think we have several budding actors on our hands. Peer pressure can be both positive and negative, but it is definitely something that we will all face. It is good to reflect on how we will react in certain situations, and how those choices relate to our values and could affect our future goals.
Feb 4-8, 2019 – Wrapping Up with Middle Schools
We finished lesson 4 this week with several of our groups. Again, everyone showed great enthusiasm. We were also able to do more filming sessions with smaller groups of 2 or 3 students from both schools. We had lots of wonderful volunteers with insightful things to say. It will be exciting to see it all come together. They are a bright group of students and they’ve already absorbed so much information. We are very proud of them!
Our next steps will involve working with Raj (our producer) and Vicki (our animator) to put together an educational video, which will be an important part of the middle school toolkit. Thank you to our fantastic 7 and 8’s from St. Luke School and North Park Wilson, and to the teachers and parents for being so accommodating!
Mar 5-6, 2019 – Introduction with high school students: What’s up with weed?
This week marked the beginning of our collaboration with grade 9 students at BJM and Tommy Douglas high schools. We held an introductory session about the cannabis awareness project to gauge what the students already know about cannabis and what some of their misconceptions and attitudes about cannabis were. The session started with an interactive game-based computer quiz called “ Kahoot”. Next, the class split up into small groups to further explore thoughts about cannabis use. Each group was supplied with a jar of questions or statements about cannabis to discuss. (Examples: “My stereotypes about cannabis are…, Teens try cannabis because…, How does cannabis affect me physically? Cannabis was legalized because…, What does saying no look like, sound like, feel like?). This session was presented to the grade 9 Health Science Academy (HSA) classes and the functionally integrated students.
Mar 12-13, 2019 – Lesson 2: Science of Cannabis
The science of cannabis was presented to the grade 9 HSA classes, the functionally integrated students, as well as a multi-grade English extension classroom. The main focus of lesson 2 was how cannabis affects your body physically, with emphasis on the effects on the brain and the mental health risks from using cannabis. The lesson started with defining that cannabis is a plant. We then moved into talking about the two active components in cannabis (THC and CBD) and their different effects, and the different forms of cannabis. We briefly discussed the endocannabinoid system before getting into groups of 4-5 students where students completed an inquiry based activity. Each group was asked to research the effect of cannabis on an assigned body system (including the Central Nervous System, the Respiratory system, the Cardiovascular system, and the Gastrointestinal system. The students were then asked to verbally present their poster with their findings to the whole class. The students facilitated majority of the education provided about body systems. The nursing students explored the effects of cannabis on the reproductive system. The body systems lead over into discussion about the link between cannabis and mental illness. We finished off the lesson by discussing the risks of cannabis use on an adolescent body. Students were introduced to the idea of addiction and tolerance.
Mar 19-20, 2019 – Lesson 3: Social and Legal Consequences
Lesson 3 was presented to both grade 9 HSA classes, the functionally integrated students, in addition to a multi-grade English extension classroom. This lesson focused on discussions surrounding the social and legal consequences of cannabis use. The lesson began with a review of the concepts addiction and withdrawal. We explored of the physical and psychological signs and symptoms of addiction and withdrawal. Class discussion on the stigma and stereotypes of addiction and cannabis use followed. Students brainstormed ways they could personally work to reduce stigma in their school, community and city. Students were then encouraged to reflect how cannabis use could affect social aspects of their lives including their education, sports and hobbies, relationships, and future goals. To close out the lesson we examined the legal consequences of cannabis use with a focus on implications for minors, and driving under the influence of cannabis. As a class we then calculated a total estimated cost of the fines associated with driving under the influence.
Mar 26-27, 2019 Lesson 4: Harm Reduction, Decision Making, and Peer Influence/ Pressure
This week we completed Lesson 4 with both grade 9 HSA classrooms, the functionally integrated students, and a multi-grade English extension classroom. We discussed cannabis harm reduction strategies, values, peer pressure, and healthy decision making. The students used their knowledge from the previous lessons to come up with ways that they will stay safe surrounding cannabis, and how to be confident in saying no to peer pressure. We discussed the importance of having knowledge and information to backup your “no” and the value of informed decision making. This lesson was a great opportunity for reviewing all the material covered in previous lessons and getting the students to see how this knowledge will help them make healthy decisions for their futures. We also captured a few more small-group conversations with some students from both groups for the video.
Thank you to all of the students who participated in these activities, we really enjoyed working with you and we appreciated your enthusiasm! Thank you also to the teachers who fit us into their schedule and supported this endeavour!