DRUGS DON'T FLY

Students Incorporate Drug Prevention Activities Into Daily School Lessons

A light bulb went off in Eisenhower Elementary School Principal Karen
Heizer's mind one day as she flipped through a positive promotion magazine
for educators.

A story about how educators can teach drug, alcohol and tobacco prevention
and integrate other educational concepts caught her attention. The concept
was "Drugs Don't Fly With Us," a program in which students put together
pre-fabricated model airplanes and learn to fly them, all the while
integrating an anti-drug and alcohol message with other subjects.

"We are basically integrating science with Red Ribbon Week," Heizer said.

The aircraft, made of a light cardboard-type material, could be assembled
in three or four easy steps. Heizer liked the idea because she could mass
order them for Eisenhower fifth- and sixth-graders for almost nothing.

Heizer encouraged her teachers to continue with the usual Red Ribbon Week
activities, but to incorporate those concepts with the "Drugs Don't Fly
With Us" program.

"Teachers are just finding some really neat ways to integrate that into the
things they are doing," Heizer said. "They're trying to promote the
positive part of building their character."

Two Eisenhower teachers, Roberta Nehring and Trish Long, said the concept
went over well with students. "They loved it," Long said. "They had some
great observations."

Long's fifth-grade students incorporated math into the project. They worked
with charts and averages to find what worked best for flying the aircraft.

Students were challenged to see how far their planes could fly, trying
different launch angles and discussing different factors that might hinder
flights. They learned about metric measurements, converting measurements,
charts, recording data and averaging, Long said.

"They came up with shape and position, force, air pressure and aim," Long
said. "These are terms they generated themselves."

Nehring's class began with studying Christopher Columbus and how his mode
of transportation was different than an airplane. Nehring was combining
science and social studies into the "Drugs Don't Fly With Us" program.

She moved on to bats and how a bat's wing compared to the human hand and to
a bird's wing. Students finally compared the bat's wing to the wing of an
airplane. Students constructed helicopter rotors and learned how to make
them travel in different directions.

After several days of preparation, students got a chance to test their
aircraft Thursday in the school gymnasium.

Long's students tested distance while recording flight data and creating a
distance chart. One of the aircraft went 1,900 centimeters, she said.

Nehring's students used their aircraft to measure accuracy and attempted to
launch them over a target on the floor - a poster featuring photos of
illegal drugs.

They hit the wrong target more times than the right one, Nehring said.

"After the wildness wore off, they settled down and decided what they
needed to do to get to their target," Nehring said.

Nehring's class talked about the theme "Drugs Don't Fly With Us" and what
students could do to hit the right target when it came to drug, alcohol and
tobacco use.

"The students decided 'Drugs Don't Fly With Us' means drugs don't belong
with us," she said.