DALLAS TWP. — Eighth-grader Julia Macey was surprised to learn 1,600 teenagers start abusing prescription drugs every day.
“That is just crazy to me,” the Dallas Middle School student said.
The statistic was one she uncovered while working on a cross-curriculum project called the “Health Promotion Project” for eighth-grade health and technology classes at the Dallas Middle School in Dallas Township.
The assignment required students to choose and research a topic such as tobacco, prescription drug abuse, bicycle safety, fire prevention and more, Health and Wellness Teacher Romayne Mosier said.
Then, students had to create an eye-catching flyer in Google Docs that included setting margins, text boxes, images and create a QR tag, said Wynn Nardone, a math and computer teacher.
A QR tag is a barcode that can be scanned by cell phones to access a particular website for further information on a particular topic.
Eighth-grader Ethan Shilanski said creating the QR tag for his flyer on poison prevention was not difficult.
“There is a website you go to and paste a URL link to, and it creates the QR tag,” Shilanski said. “The tag can be copied and pasted to the flyer.”
Macey said the most challenging part of her flyer on Prescription Drug Abuse was making it visually appealing.
“Images had to have a transparent background,” Macey said. “I am very picky.”
But before students could make a keystroke, they were pre-tested on the subject areas.
The pre-test grade did not count toward their grade, but did serve as a visual indicator regarding their pre-existing knowledge on the issues, Mosier said.
Out of 20 questions on the pre-test the highest amount that was correct on a test was eight, she said.
Students will be tested again, on the same questions, to see what they learned through their research and that of their classmates, Mosier said.
Macey and Shilanski agreed they each learned a lot about their chosen subject.
“I was surprised that one million calls to poison control centers are for children under 10 years old,” Shilanski said.
Macey said she learned how powerful prescription drugs are and how quickly they could destroy a life if used improperly.
Finished flyers were posted in the hall outside of the computer lab for students to read and learn about health-related risks and prevention methods.
Eighth-graders are encouraged to scan the QR tag with their phones, during authorized times, to access websites with information on the issue.
“It is very important to educate others about how dangerous these things are,” Macey said.