New Perspectives in Science Education

Synthetic drugs play an increasingly important role in today's meritocracy. The market for amphetamines has been expanding worldwide for several years [1]. In Germany, too, amphetamines and amphetamine derivatives continue to gain ground. There has been a steady increase in the quantities of amphetamine, methamphetamine and ecstasy seized [2, 3]. While helpful approaches and teaching materials with regard to health education and addiction prevention are provided, for example, by the German Federal Centre for Health Education [4], the subject is inadequately addressed in German curricula and does not guarantee a deep structure of the organic substance class.
In order to present a practical-methodical implementation, especially for chemistry lessons, a learning set was constructed which is to introduce the topic to pupils within the framework of an intervention study at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena. The article presents ten innovative learning stations focusing on the illegal drugs amphetamine, methamphetamine and MDMA (3,4-Methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine, also known as ecstasy). New knowledge about the structures, historical aspects, production possibilities, modes of action and detection reactions of the substances can be acquired. The stations are didactically diverse. In addition to theory stations, games and other creative elements, experiments also take centre stage. While, for example, the effects of MDMA are explained in a learning video, experiments can be used as models to demonstrate the effects of amphetamine and methamphetamine. The materials developed are aimed particularly at pupils in grades 10 to 12 and chemistry teachers. They can also be used in interdisciplinary science lessons. The materials have already been tested and evaluated several times with students and teachers [5].

Keywords: educational transfer research, curricular learning modules, drugs.

References:

1. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report: Market Analysis of Synthetic Drugs: Amphetamine-type stimulants, 2017, Vienna.
2. Federal Criminal Police Office Germany, Rauschgiftkriminalität: Bundeslagebild 2018, 2019, Wiesbaden.
3. The Drug Commissioner of the Federal Government Germany, Drogen- und Suchtbericht, 2018, Berlin.
4. Federal Centre for Health Education Germany, Crystal Meth: Materialien für die Suchtprävention in den Klassen 8-12, 2015, Köln.
5. T. Jünger, V. Woest, in S. Habig (Ed.), Gesellschaft für Didaktik der Chemie und Physik, Jahrestagung in Wien 2019, 2020, Duisburg-Essen, 166-169.