Implement Curriculum to Meet New State Requirements

The state of Minnesota now requires public schools to provide vaping prevention instruction to students in grades 6 through 8 and encourages this instruction to students in grades 9 through 12.¹ Schools may use materials from this toolkit.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides evidence-based recommendations to help design and implement quality school programs to prevent commercial tobacco use: E-cigarettes and Youth: What Educators and Coaches Need to Know (PDF) (CDC).

While the tobacco industry continues to engage schools and offer free commercial tobacco prevention curricula, industry-sponsored school-based programs are ineffective and may ultimately promote commercial tobacco use among youth.

Use curriculum that addresses the harms of nicotine and e-cigarette use

• HECAT: Module T (Tobacco-Use Prevention Curriculum)
• The Real Cost of Vaping (Scholastic and the FDA)
• The Tobacco Prevention Toolkit (Stanford Medicine)
• Teachers: Classroom Resources on Drug Effects (National Institute on Drug Abuse for Teachers)
• Tobacco 101 (Association for Nonsmokers – Minnesota)
• Taking Down Tobacco (Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids)
• For middle school students only: E-cigarette Prevention: Catch My breath (CATCH – Coordinated Approach to Child Health)

Other classroom activities

Escape the Vape Video Challenge

The Escape the Vape Video Challenge is a contest to engage Minnesota students and raise awareness of the dangers for using e-cigarettes, often called vaping. Contestants are asked to submit a 30-second PSA video to educate their peers, schools, families, and community on the dangers of vaping nicotine. This opportunity allows students to use their creative energy to make a difference in their community.

Learn more about the contest and how to promote it to students: Escape the Vape Video Challenge

Presentation for youth: Know the Risks – A Youth Guide to E-cigarettes

The CDC developed this presentation to educate youth on e-cigarettes, including the health risks, the factors that lead to e-cigarette use, and what youth can do to avoid all commercial tobacco products, including e-cigarettes. This resource is intended for adults who educate or serve youth ages 11-18 (teachers, youth ministers, coaches, scout leaders, etc.).

Learn more: Presentation for Youth

Youth workshop: Unpacking Myths and Facts about Vaping

Developed by the Tobacco-Free Alliance, this is an educational vaping prevention workshop for teens to curb e-cigarette initiation and use, as well as nicotine addiction, and to promote healthy adolescent development.

Learn more: Youth workshop: Unpacking Myths and Facts about Vaping

Change to Chill: Mindfulness and stress relief resources

Youth e-cigarette use has been shown to impact impulse control, especially in young adults whose brains have not fully developed yet. Some of these risks include mood disorders and permanent damage to parts of the brain responsible for memory, emotion, and critical thinking. These free mental health resources for teens are designed to help them learn how to relax, manage stress, and integrate healthy habits into their lifestyle.

Learn more: Change to Chill

smokeSCREEN: A smoking prevention videogame

smokeSCREEN addresses the range of challenges that young teens face, with a dedicated focus on youth decision-making about smoking and vaping (conventional cigarettes, electronic cigarettes, flavored commercial tobacco products), and includes strategies for both smoking prevention and cessation.

Learn more: smokeSCREEN: A smoking Prevention Videogame

1Up On Vaping™

“1Up On Vaping” is taking down teen nicotine by giving middle school students the tools they need to make healthy decisions about vaping and nicotine use. Teen e-cig use has reached epidemic proportions and the best way to stop it is to educate students in ways they’ll respect and remember. “1Up On Vaping” combines graphic novel style animation, intriguing story-telling and current game technology to explore how and why using nicotine is never a good choice.

Learn more: 1Up On Vaping™

Science Take-Out classroom activity kits

Science Take-Out kits involve students in active learning. Students use science and engineering practices such as developing and using models, planning and carrying out investigations, analyzing and interpreting data, and constructing explanations and designing solutions.

• Activity Kit: Are Flavored E-cigarettes Harmful?
• Activity Kit: Does Vaping Expose You to Toxic Chemicals?
• Activity Kit: Brain Reward Pathway and Addiction

Include information about free help to quit from My Life, My Quit™

• Resources for Educators
• Free Promotional Materials

Include information about sacred tobacco

Traditional or sacred tobacco, also known as Cansasa, Asemaa, or Kinnikinnick, are used by American Indian communities for sacred purposes. Sacred tobacco is different from commercial tobacco, which includes products produced by the tobacco industry, such as cigarettes, e-cigarettes, cigars, or chew.

It is important to understand the difference between these types of tobacco and the role commercial tobacco has played in causing death and disease within American Indian communities.

Learn more about Traditional Tobacco and American Indian Communities in Minnesota.

• Walking Toward the Sacred: Our Great Lakes Tobacco Story (Great Lakes Inter0Tribal Council, Inc.)
• Sacred Willow Book (National Native Network)
• Breath is Sacred: E Cigarettes Are Not Our Tradition video (American Indian Cancer Foundation)
• E-Cigarettes Are Not Our Tradition handout (American Indian Cancer Foundation)
• Request The Sacred Circle of Tobacco Manual (National Native Network - Keep It Sacred)
• Reclaiming Sacred Tobacco in Minnesota's Indigenous Communities Documentary (TPT)
• Change the Convo video (Indigenous Peoples Task Force)

Do not use tobacco industry-sponsored youth prevention programs

Many cigarette and e-cigarette companies have proposed their own youth commercial tobacco prevention curriculum and funding for their version of “anti-youth smoking” programs to schools. One study concluded that tobacco industry-sponsored youth smoking prevention programs are not effective and do more harm than good for commercial tobacco control and prevention.

Read more: Evidence Brief: Tobacco Industry Sponsored Youth Prevention Programs in Schools.

References

1. 2020 Minnesota Statutes. 120B.238 Vaping Awareness and Prevention. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/120B.238