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:
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Ask the students what they already know about caffeine (they can write their thoughts, answer in small groups, or discuss as a class):
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In what kinds of products do you see caffeine?
- What does caffeine do to the body?
- What are natural sources of caffeine?
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Introduce the short-form video and play for the students.
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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:
Caffeine Comic Strip! Have the student draw a comic strip demonstrating the origins and effects of caffeine. This can be about bugs eating the plant and/or humans consuming plants or products that contain caffeine.
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