Audience: Students ages 9 years and older

General program objective: Participants will demonstrate an understanding of the effects of caffeine.

Specific program objective: Participants will identify the origins and some effects of caffeine.

Behavior change strategy: Self-Efficacy

Educational activities:

• Elicit—ask the students what they know about caffeine.
• Explain—play the provided video for the students.
• Expand—have the students reflect on the information provided in the video
• Exit—have the students find a product that contains caffeine.

Length of time to complete: 10-15 minutes, depending on length and depth of conversation.

Materials Required:

• Multi-media display (e.g. computer monitor, projector, or SmartScreen)
• Access to the internet and YouTube
• Optional: paper and drawing materials

Procedure:

• Ask the students what they already know about caffeine (they can write their thoughts, answer in small groups, or discuss as a class):
  • In what kinds of products do you see caffeine?

  • What does caffeine do to the body?
  • What are natural sources of caffeine?
• Introduce the short-form video and play for the students.
• Ask the students to reflect on the video (they can write their thoughts, answer in small groups, or discuss as a class):
  • Where does caffeine come from?
  • Why do plants make caffeine?
  • How does caffeine work differently in bugs than humans?
  • What can too much caffeine do to a person?
• Have the students find products that contain caffeine. This can be through an online search, coupons pages, or as a take-home assignment. Then, each student can present their product to the class or small group:
  • Is this a natural or artificial source of caffeine?
  • How much of this do you think you should have in a day? Why?

Further enrichment: