Learning Goals
Students will be able to formulate a focused research question about a chosen drug’s medical uses, effects, and safety trade-offs by narrowing or broadening an inquiry as evidence develops.
Students will be able to explain a chosen drug’s therapeutic window, schedule, mechanisms in the brain and body, and interactions with foods, supplements, or other drugs using accurate scientific evidence.
Students will be able to distinguish tolerance, physical dependence, and addiction while evaluating how each contributes to a chosen drug’s benefits, dangers, and patterns of use.
Students will be able to investigate a chosen drug’s history, therapeutic uses, counterfeit risks, and manufacturing stakeholders through safe and ethical analysis of credible sources.
Students will be able to evaluate a chosen drug’s overall benefits and risks using evidence about safety, reliability, cost, access, medical need, misuse, and counterfeit exposure.
Students will be able to synthesize and communicate findings from multiple credible sources through accurate paraphrasing, citation, visual evidence, and empathetic responses to audience questions.
Products
Chosen Drug Investigation Paper and Research Record
Each student independently develops a research question and produces a cited paper with source notes that explains the chosen drug’s mechanisms, therapeutic window, schedule, uses, history, interactions, tolerance, dependence, addiction potential, counterfeit risks, stakeholders, and evidence-based trade-offs. The student revises the work after milestone feedback and includes a final reflection on evidence quality, limitations, safety, and changes in understanding.
Know the Trade-Offs Research Exhibit and Multimedia Teach-Back
Teams transform members’ individual investigations into a public exhibit and short multimedia teach-back that compares evidence, acknowledges uncertainty or conflicting findings, and explains drug benefits, risks, and trade-offs to peers, families, and the pharmacist. Teams use partner and gallery feedback to revise their exhibit and presentation, then respond collaboratively and empathetically to audience questions.
No rubric has been generated yet.