Brain+on+Drugs

Goals for this project: You will learn in-depth about one drug's impact on the brain and body. You will research and organize information until you are comfortable enough to back up your position with well-researched facts in written and verbal form. You will listen to others and evaluate their statements, asking questions and agreeing or disagreeing based upon your understanding of the brain.

@Brain on Drugs Checklist You are each medical experts or pharmaceutical reps. representing your drug. You have all been invited to a round-table conference on drug use, addiction, and what should be approved or banned by the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA has decided to clean house and is making a new list of what is approved for human use and what is banned/illegal. Through your research you should decide if you are for or against this drug being approved for human consumption. Out of the 25 or so drugs represented by your class, 5 will be banned and 5 will be made available, all decisions will be made based upon the quality of the arguments made during your class. During the discussion, you must of course back yourself up with scientifically acquired facts. You must be able to easily discuss your answers to the following 10 questions in an active debate:


 * Should this drug be approved for human use by the FDA? Why or why not?
 * What exactly does this drug do in the brain of humans? (at the neuron level what happens? what neurotransmitter/transmission is being impacted?)
 * What are the short and long term impacts of this drug on the brain and on the body?
 * Who generally takes this drug (age, gender, socio-economic status, ethnicity, etc.)?
 * What are the legitimate uses for this drug (if any)? -for some drugs you can give historical information, like how cocaine was in coca-cola and cough syrup.
 * What are the illicit uses for this drug (if any)? -including pharmaceutical drugs that are used for purposes other than what they are approved for by the FDA.
 * How does addiction work for this drug, is there psychological or physical dependence? explain how this works in detail.
 * What are the pros of the FDA approving this drug? Who will it benefit, who will be hurt?
 * What are the cons of approving this drug? Who will it benefit, who will it hurt?
 * What is the classification of the drug and why? (For example ssri, barbituate, hallicinogen, etc.)
 * What resources did you use to gather your data? A full bibliography in MLA format is required, this is not a list of urls, please make it the last page of your document. Usually in psychology classes, all citation would be in APA format, but since easybib does it only in MLA for free, we will use MLA.

This assignment will culminate in a roundtable discussion in class. You will come to the discussion prepared to participate, 50% of your 100 points will be earned through meaningful participation in the discussion. The other 50% will be earned through your creation of a print format document that answers all of the above listed relevant questions above in well written, cited, and organized answers. Please include cited images.

Participation in the discussion is 50% of the assignment, you may however participate both verbally and in written form. All students will participate verbally at least 2xs, however you canchoose to write out a response during the discussion and submit it electronically by 6pm the day of the debate instead of participating verbally all four times.

Participation Rubric: Clarity of argument: 25% Does what you are saying make sense to everyone, are you well organized, properly rehearsed, are you being clear in your content? Relevance of point: 25% Is your point relevant to the discussion, does it flow with other comments or was it just random? Quality of information: 25% Is the research you found scientifically backed, statistically significant, and accurate? Quantity of information: 25% Did you participate in the discussion at least four significant times?

First period, your project is due: Nov 9th Fifth period, your project is due: Nov ?rd Sixth period, your project is due: Nov ?th