 |
 |
Brain battle
Introduction
This learning activity acknowledges the conflict that adolescents go through as they make decisions about their sexual behavior. These suggested learning activities will help students better understand the process of “decision-making.” This lesson is designed to not only teach students about the decision making process, but to increase their knowledge of the consequences of sexual behavior.
Students should also be encouraged to share the information from this activity with their families. By sharing the information with his or her family, everyone can participate as a partner in prevention.
Peer Pressure Activity-15 minutes
Explain to students that a person’s decision is often influenced by someone else, especially if they are being pressured. Everyone has been pressured into doing something and sometimes this is called peer pressure. Ask students what they think peer pressure means. Write the definition of peer pressure on the chalkboard: Peer Pressure: Pressure that people of similar age place on others to encourage them to make certain decisions or behave in certain ways.
Explain to the students that peer pressure can result in something negative or positive. Peer pressure is not always associated with bad things like pressuring a person to drink alcohol or have sex. Friends can often help one another by pressuring each other to do something good. For example, a friend may encourage a shy person to be more outgoing by encouraging them to join a sports team together.
Ask students to describe examples of peer pressure such as when someone encourages a person to play basketball or when someone tells a person to try drugs because everyone else is.
Remind students to understand that it’s more important for them to make their own decisions than to listen to the crowd because following the crowd can lead to unwanted situations such as an addiction, teen pregnancy, getting caught, etc.