Educators Help Jump Start ySTART™
Eight middle school health educators came to Realityworks last summer and received in-depth training on the new ySTART Addiction Education Program. They worked with our curriculum developers, researchers and product managers for two days to get hands-on training and ask questions. The teachers participated in the very curriculum activities they would be presenting to their students, and worked hands-on with the PreventPak Addiction Simulator.
Their experience was invaluable in helping us kick off our testing of programs in the field. Each instructor’s feedback helped us prepare ySTART for release, and their continued classroom results help us monitor the program’s success. Realityworks will follow their students for two years to assess how attitudes and behaviors are affected long-term.
Each team listens intently to the device as it gives them their "Tobacco Mission."
The mission is to identify as many potentially devastating effects of tobacco as they can and write them on their body outline.
The Red Balloon Energizer, one of many fun activities for ySTART.
Teacher Feedback
“ySTART allows students to experience first-hand how an addiction interrupts and interferes with all aspects of an individual's life, and provides an opportunity for students to rehearse how they could resist pressure to use tobacco.
“Students begin the simulation thinking that it is cool to carry around the PreventPak, and end the weekend never wanting to see it again. Their whole concept of what it means to be a smoker is forever changed.”
- Kathleen (Keenie) Bugenhagen
Springville Griffith Institute Middle School
Springville, New York
Parent Feedback
Check out these comments from parents collected by our research staff:
“As much as it annoyed her, the repetition and increasing frequency was beneficial. I think it helped her realize she needs to stand firm against repeated and annoying peer pressure.”
“Because of this experience we’re talking about this habit. I smoke and so does his father, so he’s pushing us to try to quit for our own health and some money savings, too!”
“I believe listening to someone lecture a child not to do drugs is boring. An individual learns much more by going through a simulated experience and has longer realistic effect. I was very impressed with this lesson.”
“Thanks for letting my child experience this. It has helped him in a positive way. It shows him the risks and consequences of smoking cigarettes.”
Student Feedback
“The simulation was annoying but I didn’t know what an addiction was until I did this.”
“I always would say ‘No’ even if it was my best friend who asked me.”
“I will never smoke. I now know that addictions are annoying.”
“I learned that smoking can really get you hooked and I never want to try a cigarette.”
An effectiveness study is underway in 11 locations nationwide. Read more about ySTART including a new curriculum that meets the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines for health programs to prevent tobacco use and addiction, integrated with the PreventPak interactive addiction simulator.
Behavioral conditioning, real-life refusal skills and dynamic activities organized into an easy-to-administer program—life skills for lifelong results!
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