The You and Me, Together Vape-Free curriculum includes a middle and high school program that are 6 lessons, approximately 50 minutes each. It also includes a two-lesson elementary school version, approximately 50 minutes each. Every lesson provides activities, online quiz games, and worksheets in addition to presentations, resources, and other materials aimed at addressing key factors associated with youth e-cigarette use, including changing adolescents’ attitudes towards and misperceptions about e-cigarettes; increasing their refusal skills to pulls of flavors, marketing, and social media; reducing stress and depression which have been linked to e-cigarette initiation and use; improving coping; and decreasing intentions and actual use of all e-cigarette products.
These 6 in-class sessions are reinforced outside of the classroom with follow-up discussion guides that provide open-ended questions and activities for youth to discuss various e-cigarette-related topics with a trusted adult and/or peer in order to open dialogue between youth and adults. The curriculum is meant to reach all youth, including those at highest risk of tobacco use, racial/ethnic minorities, students in continuation and alternative schools, and those identifying as LGBTQ+.
The goals of this curriculum are to: Increase their knowledge about e-cigarettes and the harms they can cause, gain awareness of strategies manufacturers and sellers of e-cigarettes employ to increase use among adolescents, such as deceptive and creative marketing strategies, gain skills to refuse experimentation and use of e-cigarettes, and ultimately, reduce and prevent e-cigarette use of any type, including nicotine, cannabis/THC, and/or non-nicotine products.
- Each lesson has a lesson page that provides background information, learning objectives, key takeaways the students will learn, health education and common core standards (both California and National) addressed in each lesson. Each lesson also includes direct links to the Canva slides, talking points, a Kahoot quiz, and a Discussion Guide.