The Effects of Alcohol on the Developing Teen Brain

Event Description:

Introduce Brain Awareness Week through delivery of Meadowlark Academy facilitator holding class for 15-20 students with Lesson “The Adolescent Brain” from curriculum REAL Essentials Advance. This lesson teaches students about adolescent brain development by grouping youth into groups of 4 and having each group work together to research adolescent brain development. A brain model is available to help students visualize the brain in -person. Once completed, the worksheet What I Learned Through Research is distributed and each group shares what they learned. A discussion regarding implications of what they learned and how the pre-frontal cortex is still developing concludes lesson. Next students will watch online videos from the Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility, Ask, Listen, Learn:


Last, students will participate in Fatal Vision Goggle activity. Participants perform simple activities or sobriety tests without and then with the goggles. Performing the activities twice lets participants experience their performance while unimpaired and then impaired. The goggles cause the wearer to display behaviors that are typical of individuals impaired by alcohol at various BAC level. The Fatal Vision Goggles give participants a safe way to learn the important lesson that alcohol greatly impairs a person’s balance, vision, reaction time and judgement.