Rx For Understanding

Stats on prescription drug misuse and abuse:

• According to Monitoring the Future, 7.4% of teens have reported the non-medical use of a prescription drug. 
• Every day for the first time, an average of 2,000 teenagers use prescription drugs without a doctor’s guidance.
• 1 in 4 teenagers report that they have taken a prescription drug not prescribed to them by a doctor at least once in their lives.
• 20 percent of high school students have reported that they have taken a prescription drug without a doctor’s prescription.

Rx for Understanding. is a set of standards-based teaching materials (lesson plans and accompanying resources) for use with students in grades 5-8 that are aligned to the National Health Education Standards and the Common Core Standards.

Rx for Understanding

This guide contains five sequenced lessons geared for grades 5 – 6 and five sequenced lessons geared for grades 7– 8.

Each set of sequenced lessons acts as a mini-unit. Each grade level based mini-unit focuses on the same five lesson themes:

1. Relating the issue of prescription drug safety to overall health
2. Understanding proper use
3. Understanding misuse
4. Understanding abuse
5. Conducting an application-based culminating project

The lessons in this guide represent a cross-curricular approach to teaching with a concentrated emphasis on national education standards, including the National Health Education Standards and the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Mathematics.

How to Use This Resource Guide

1. Explore the Issue
2. Know the Resource Guide
3. Prepare the Lessons
4. Take Action and Spread the Word

Click here to begin using Rx for Understanding.