Vaping: Root Cause Analysis

Vaping has been all over the news and anyone working with teens knows that it’s a a serious issue. Rules and laws are constantly evolving to deal with new situations and problems. Right now law makers are working to make sure that legislation covers the loop holes that were created with e-cigarettes. Before you can solve a problem, you need to understand the underlying causes. The process of thinking deeply about a problem is called a root cause analysis and this lesson will take your students through the same process being used by legislators across the country at this very moment. The big question of course is: Why is vaping on the rise amount teens?

We can talk to teens until we’re blue in the face about the dangers of vaping, but there’s a lot of power in allowing them to discover and analyze the LAYERS of manipulation that are going into the push to get teens to use vapes.

The lesson concludes with a brainstorming session about how to address these root causes. What will help? A social media campaign to educate? Bans on types of packaging? Warning labels? Education for parents? Students brainstorm solutions but also analyze which solutions offer the most bang for their buck! What will have the biggest impact for the least amount of effort? They finish by writing an e-mail to their representative. Students are deeply impacted by this national issue and we want to ensure they have a seat at the table.

This lesson download includes:

- Teacher's Guide

- PowerPoint presentation

-Student Sheets available as Word Documents AND editable PDF

All students are compelled by their inherent sense of fairness and justice! Use that to your advantage to keep your class engaged!