Brain DeCoded with CodeX - Mission 3, Objective 5: Your Brain on Drugs
Mission 3 · Objective 5 Lesson Plan
Your Brain on Drugs
Students code a simulation that models what stimulants, depressants, and hallucinogens do to the brain's chemical networks, and read the results on the console.
⏱ 45-70 min
🎯 Grades 8-12+
💻 CodeSpace
🎮 CodeX
⌨️ Console Output
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Overview
The mission has covered daily activities, sunshine, and sleep. This objective covers the fourth thing that moves brain chemistry, and the one with the highest stakes. Students build drug_sim and run five scenarios that model what stimulants, depressants, and hallucinogens do to the neuromodulator levels they have been tracking all mission.
The program uses a custom module and sends most of its output to the console, so students read the full result of each scenario as text rather than watching the CodeX screen. Scenarios can be run in any order, and students record each one on the Activity Guide.
Like the sleep objective, the Hints carry substantial background on drug types. Students should read them, not skim them.
🎯 Project Goal: Students add code to a program that simulates the effects of drugs on the brain.
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Learning Targets
- I can explain how different types of drugs affect brain function.
- I can code and run a simulation on drug use and brain function.
- I can observe and record the results of a simulation on drug use.
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Key Concepts
- Some types of drugs that affect brain function are stimulants, depressants and hallucinogens.
- Some drugs impact brain function positively, and other drugs have a negative impact.
- The program for this objective uses a custom module and the console for output.
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Assessment Opportunities
- Turn in the Activity Guide.
- Complete the program drug_sim.
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Success Criteria
- Complete the CodeTrek steps
- Program runs correctly without errors
- Activity Guide is completed
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Digital Resources
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Classroom Materials
- ▸CodeX device and USB cable, one per student
- ▸Laptop/computer with Chrome browser
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Extensions & Cross-Curricular
MathGraph the data from the simulations. Make predictions. Develop equations that explain the patterns.
Lang ArtsWatch a drug campaign video, then come up with an idea for a campaign video of your own and write the script.
Visual ArtsCreate an art project that depicts a healthy brain and a brain on drugs.
Performing ArtsAct out a commercial for drug prevention.
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Vocabulary
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Stimulants:drugs that increase dopamine and serotonin levels and speed up messages traveling between the brain and body.
Depressants:drugs that lower neuromodulator levels and decrease the electrical activity of brain cells.
Hallucinogens:drugs that disrupt communication between chemical networks throughout the brain.
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Standards
▾
Health
1.1P
1.2A
5.4P
Computer Science
9-12.AP.16
9-12.AP.18
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Preparing for the Lesson- Read the Hints before class. They carry the drug-type background students are meant to learn, and you will want to know what the objective says before students ask you about it.
- Check your school or district policy on substance-use instruction. This is a health topic as much as a coding one, and some districts have required language or a counselor who wants to know when it is being taught.
- Run drug_sim yourself and work through all five scenarios so you know what the console output looks like.
- Students read results on the console for this one, not the CodeX screen. Make sure you can find the Console icon below the Toolbox before you have to point 25 students at it.
- Decide how students get the Activity Guide. You can print a copy for each student or assign it digitally. Students write the results of each scenario on it.
- Set the tone up front. Keep the discussion about what happens to brain chemistry, and steer away from personal disclosure about students or their families.
🧑🏫
Teacher Notes- The Hints include a lot of additional information about drug types that students should read and review.
- The simulation uses the console for most of the output. Students open the console by clicking the Console icon just below the Toolbox. All the results of each scenario display on the console.
- Students should follow the instructions on the Activity Guide to conduct the simulation. Five different scenarios are included, and they can be selected in any order. Students write the results of each scenario in their Activity Guide.
- This objective builds directly on the neuromodulator levels from Objectives 2 through 4. Students who can already explain what raises dopamine and serotonin will read these results much faster.
- Extensions and cross-curricular projects are included to enhance the concepts in the objective. You can use the extensions to extend students' learning.
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Lesson Outline
🗣️Warm-up / Hook
Connect this objective to the three before it.
- Ask: "We have seen exercise, sunshine and sleep move dopamine and serotonin. What else could move them, and would that be the same thing?"
- Ask: "If a drug raises dopamine the way exercise does, why would the outcome be different?"
Teaching tip: That second question is the whole objective in one line. Students who work out that the same chemical change can arrive by very different routes are ready for the simulation.
📖Drug Types & Build
Students read the Hints, then build drug_sim.
- Students read and review the Hints on drug types. Cover stimulants, depressants and hallucinogens before the code runs.
- Students work through the CodeTrek steps, adding code to drug_sim.
- Point out that this program imports a custom module, so the code students write is calling functions defined elsewhere.
- Have students open the console and confirm they can see output before they start a scenario.
Teaching tip: The custom module is a good moment to talk about why programmers split code across files. Students have been writing single programs all mission, and this is the first time the work is divided.
🔬Run & Record
Students run the five scenarios and record results on the Activity Guide.
- Students select scenarios in any order and run them.
- All results display on the console. Students write what each scenario does on their Activity Guide.
- Encourage students to compare a stimulant scenario against a depressant one directly, so the contrast is on the page.
Teaching tip: Console output scrolls. Remind students to record each scenario before running the next one, or they will lose results they meant to write down.
✏️Wrap-up & Review
Close on what the simulation shows and what it cannot.
- Compare results across the room. Which scenarios pushed levels furthest from normal?
- Ask: "What does the simulation show about a brain that gets pushed off balance repeatedly?"
- Ask: "A simulation shows numbers changing. What does it not show about a real person?"
- Collect the Activity Guides.
Teaching tip: If a student raises something personal, you do not have to run that conversation in front of the class. Acknowledge it, move the lesson on, and follow up with your counselor afterward.