A resource to engage students’ critical thinking skills to create change for a smoke- and vape-free future
Years 5-6
About the resource
Seeing through the haze is a resource to equip students with critical knowledge and critical thinking skills about vaping and promote health literacy. Laid out as a sequence of learning activities in three parts, the resource takes a whole-of-school approach, developing active learners with the capabilities to:
• Understand how vapes work and the health harms of vaping;
• ‘See through the haze’ of misinformation, understand social and commercial determinants of health, and investigate cessation techniques;
• Create their own campaign for smoke- and vape-free places.
The resource is funded by Cancer Council Victoria, Quit Victoria, VicHealth and the Victorian State Government, and developed by a multidisciplinary team led by the Faculty of Education from Monash University working with leading health education teachers and STEM education company Refraction Media.
Introduction
In Australia, there have been a lot of efforts over many decades to reduce the rate of smoking due to its health effects. As a result, smoking rates have decreased. Smoking, though, is still the main cause of preventable death and disease (see Cancer Council website).
Now there’s a new problem – vapes. Not only is vaping a danger to health, research tells us that people who vape but have never smoked cigarettes are five times more likely to start smoking cigarettes. This means the good results of reducing smoking in Australia could turn around and become a problem again.
The tobacco companies that sell vapes do not care that vaping is dangerous. They sell vapes to young people to make money for themselves. They do this by getting our attention and hiding the dangers of vaping. They use different media platforms to promote vaping.
There are many ways that governments and health organisations are trying to reduce vaping. Governments have created new laws about vapes. Also, schools are educating young people to learn more about vaping.
What can you do? We are so glad you asked! We need you to become a community health researcher. You’ll be asking questions such as how vaping impacts society and how it can affect your health. You'll be finding out about how and why companies target young people.
And the best part? You'll create a plan to help your community stay healthy and smoke- and vape-free.
In the next few lessons, you'll gain an understanding of the issue and use this knowledge to create a campaign.
There are four sections for you to complete:
> Introduction
> Getting the facts
> Seeing through the haze
> Making change
See page 16-17 of the teaching guide for additional information on this section.
Activity 1
The following activities will help you learn some of the facts about vaping. As you watch the videos and read the articles below, take notes in the space provided.
• What the History of Smoking Can Teach us About Vaping - Behind The News
• The Science of Vaping - Behind The News
• See through the haze - Quit Victoria
• The impact of vaping on our environment - VicHealth
1. Write one new thing you have learnt about vaping.
Write one thing that surprised you.
Write one thing you are wondering about vaping.
2. Over the next few lessons, we’ll be investigating vaping in more detail. Let’s start by looking at who is involved in the vaping discussion. Link the number to the correct letter in the boxes below. You can link to more than one box. We’ve done one for you already. 10 mins
1. Medical doctor
2. Legal vape supplier
3. Public health advocate
4. Vaping influencer
5. Community health researcher
6. Person who vapes
7. The government
A. A person who uses a vaping device every day or less often
B. Someone who can advise about the medical effects of vaping
C. A person who encourages others to vape
D. A health professional that can legally sell vapes
E. Someone who promotes health to people and communities
F. Somebody who researches community health issues such as vaping and collects data about it
G. Makes rules about health issues including vaping
3. Complete the quiz to test your knowledge 15 mins
1. From 1 July 2024 in Australia, vapes can only be sold legally through a:
a. Tobacconist / vape shop
b. Pharmacy
c. All of the above
2. Vapes work by heating a liquid to make small droplets. This liquid is harmless water vapour. True or false?
a. True, it's just water
b. False, vape liquid isn’t water, it’s a mix of chemicals. Vapes contain many known and unknown chemicals and we don’t know all of the health effects.
3. Vapes contain chemicals also used in nail polish, to kill pests, in plastics manufacturing and chemicals for car engines.
a. True
b. False
4. Nicotine can be found in vapes and is also in tobacco. Nicotine is ________.
a. Often present even if it doesn’t say so on the label
b. Very addictive
c. All of the above
5. Advertising by the companies that manufacture vapes aims to provide information that:
a. Informs people about the harmful effects
b. Makes it more popular
6. Big tobacco companies have invested billions of dollars into vape companies and making their own vapes.
a. True
b. False
7. Vapes contain a battery and heating coil as well as liquid. Which statement is most correct about the environmental impacts of disposable vapes?
a. Vapes can be be put in the recycling bin
b. Vapes contain many chemicals that pollute the environment. They contain batteries that can explode and leak flammable chemicals that start fires.
8. There’s not much information yet about vape waste in Australia, but there is in the UK. How many vapes are thrown away each week in the UK?
a. 1,000
b. 5,000
c. 500,000
d. 5 million
9. Some of the known harms of vaping are:
a. Risk of lung damage
b. Seizures
c. Anxiety from withdrawals
d. All of the above
10. Vapes that are NOT labelled as containing nicotine CAN contain nicotine.
a. True
b. False
In this section, we will spend time getting the facts about vaping. 2 See page 18-20 of
Activity 2: Healthy places
Places where we live, learn and play can impact our health. In this activity, imagine there are four enclosed rooms with one door and no windows. You have to spend half a day in one of the rooms. Which one would you choose? And why?
30 mins
As you review the different rooms, keep in mind the following... Some people think that people who vape are exhaling water vapour, but this is not true. They are exhaling an aerosol, consisting of gases plus small droplets of chemicals similar to the droplets you see when you use insect spray. Vaping ‘smoke’ is an aerosol containing poisonous chemicals. When you inhale, your lungs absorb the chemicals.
ROOM 1
• A room with no noticeable smell but with a cloud that looks like smoke
• The cloud is an aerosol (many small droplets)
• The aerosol is not very thick but you can still see it
ROOM 3
• A room where fresh mountain air is pumped in through a vent
• The air is from a place 200 km away from the nearest city
ROOM 2
An aerosol-filled room containing:
• Nicotine
• Very small heavy metals in the air like tin, nickel and lead
• A chemical that causes lung disease
• Another chemical that causes lung disease and cancer
ROOM 4
• A room that has been sprayed with a pleasant smelling aerosol
• You don’t know what the chemicals are in the aerosol but you like the smell
Class discussion:
1. Which room did you choose and why?
2. As a class, tally the first choice of room for every student.
3. Chart everyone's first choice of room and discuss.
4. After listening to other students' preferences, would you change your order? If so, why? If no, why not?
5. Were you tempted to go into Room 4 because it smelt nice? What did you consider before you made your decision?
6. A friend chooses Room 2, saying that they don't care about breathing in poisonous chemicals:
A) What would you say to discourage them?
B) Where could you go for more information to help inform them about poisonous chemicals?
7. Which room do you think someone was vaping in and why?
. Activity 3: Science of a vape
In the next few activities, we are going to spend time unpacking the science of vaping. You will also learn more about aerosols and the poisonous chemicals found in vapes.
1. In the above image, you can see the different parts that make up a vape. Let's see what is really inside a vape, how a vape works and what health effects it can have. But first, what do you already know?
Use a mind mapping diagram to write down your ideas. Include:
2. It is now time to see whether what you know about vapes is true using your own research. As you do your research, make sure the information you find is from trustworthy sources. This is important because we need to be sure that we are getting our information from truthful sources and not from people who are trying to sell us vapes.
The end of a URL usually provides a clue about where the information came from.
• .com = often commercial content, or companies that make money
• .edu = an educational institution, often universities
• .gov = government, usually federal, state, or local agencies
• .org = an organisation, often a non-profit
3. Write down one thing you learnt about what is in a vape.
4. Write down one thing you learnt about how a vape works.
5. Write down one thing you learnt about what the different parts of a vape do.
6. Write down what the evidence or reasoning is for your findings.
Activity 4: What do you know about vaping?
Share what you now know about the science of vaping and where the information you found came from.
1. Read each statement and decide whether it is true or false.
Class discussion: Statement
a. Vaping is harmless
b. Discarded disposable vapes are good for the environment because they nourish the soil and help plants grow
c. Some chemicals used in industrial cleaning products are also in vapes
d. Vapes can make you feel depressed
Now check your answers with your teacher. How many did you get correct?
Activity 5: Vaping in the community
Victorian secondary school students’ use of vapes in 2022-23, researched by the Cancer Council Victoria
WHO DID WE SURVEY?
• 2,002 Victorian secondary students aged 12 to 17 years from 12 schools.
• Victorians, as part of the 2022-23 Australian Secondary Students’ Alcohol and Drug (ASSAD) survey.
• Students (independently and anonymously) under supervision of classroom teachers, via an online survey.
HOW MANY VICTORIAN SECONDARY STUDENTS ARE VAPING?
13%
73%
27% 13% of students said they vaped in the past month.
HOW DO VICTORIAN SECONDARY STUDENTS ACCESS THEIR VAPES, WHAT DEVICE ARE THEY USING, AND IS NICOTINE PRESENT?
27% of students reported having ever vaped.
The percentage of students who ever vaped in 2022-23 was double that in 2017.
About 2 in 3 students who had ever vaped sourced their last vape from a friend.
85% of students who vaped in the past month used disposable vaping devices. 85%
The percentage of students who vaped in the past month in 2022-23 was about three times that in 2017.
HOW MANY VICTORIAN SECONDARY STUDENTS SMOKED BEFORE VAPING?
Of students who had ever vaped, 73% said they never smoked before their first vape.
Almost 1 in 5 students who had never smoked before trying a vape reported later smoking.
Find the answers in the infographic.
1 in 10 students who had ever vaped bought their last vape themselves. Of these students, 1 in 2 bought their vape from a vape shop.*
About 2 in 3 students who vaped in the past month believed that the vapes they currently use contain nicotine.
1. What % of Victorian high school students reported having ever vaped in 2022-23?
2. The percentage of Victorian high school students who vaped in the past month in 2022-23 is about the same as it was in 2017. True or false?
3. What % of Victorian high school students who vaped in the past month think that they are using vapes with highly addictive nicotine?
4. What % of Victorian high school students who had never smoked before trying a vape said that they later started smoking?
5. Who is the Cancer Council Victoria and are they a reliable source?
Reference: Scully M, Bain E, Koh I, Wakefield M, Durkin S. ASSAD 2022/2023: Victorian secondary school students’ use of tobacco and vapes. Prepared for Victoria Department of Health by Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer, Cancer Council Victoria. Melbourne, Australia. February 2024. * Prior to 1 July 2024.
Now that you know some facts about vaping, we are going to take a look at how advertising and companies try to influence our behaviour.
Activity 6: Catch you out
Not everyone wants to keep young people safe and healthy.
Promoters and advertisers use advertising techniques or tricks to catch your attention and sell you a product – even if it’s bad for your health.
Advertising vapes is banned, but it can sneak through on social media.
Identify the tactic used by linking the numbers below to the poster. More than one tactic could be linked to a poster.
1. Making you feel you are being left out
2. Focusing on the flavours and not the dangers
3. Incorrect or misleading information
4. Making it sound trendy and cool
Look around to see if you can spot ads in your community or online that use these tactics, too!
VAPING HELPS ME
Activity 7: Making choices
Let's think about how we make decisions.
• Who might we listen to?
• What might influence our decision?
• How do we know we’re making the right decision for our health?
Create a short performance based on one of these five scenarios.
30 mins
• The aim of this activity is to perform a three-minute play on what you know about vaping, based on a specific scenario shown below.
• The class is divided into five small groups. Each group is given a different scenario.
• You have 10 minutes to create and rehearse your performance.
• Your group returns to the class and the performances begin.
Scenario 1 Scenario 2 Scenario 3
On the way to school, Sam shows you a vape in their lunchbox. You are really concerned so you meet up with your friends at lunch to discuss.
Each person in your group talks about what they've learnt about vaping, and you have some questions. Is it allowed at school? Will Sam try it? Is Sam going to give it to someone else? Do you know what the teacher will do?
Together you talk about what to do next.
Scenario 4
Your older brother vapes and tells you that it’s not true that vaping is a bad thing. Your parents do not know your brother is vaping. You meet up with your best friends and explain that you are really worried about your brother. Your friends share what they know are the dangers of vaping. Your friends recall all the dangers of vaping from what they have been learning about. Together you decide what actions you could take.
You and your friend find a vape in the plastic recycling bin at school.
You talk about what action you should take. You all have different ideas but then reflect on what you have learnt about vaping to decide what to do.
Scenario 5
Pip shows you a video on her phone where a vaping influencer is boasting about how great the new vape flavours are.
One of you believes the influencer, one of you is not interested in vaping and one of you shares some of the facts about vaping you've learnt.
You listen to each other and then decide together what you would do, considering the safety of you and others.
Meg notices that Bem has an orange vape in a pencil case but Bem says it’s just a new sort of highlighter that a friend gave them so they could look ‘cool at school’. Meg is sure that it's not a highlighter, but thinks that Bem might not know it's a vape. Meg becomes worried that Bem might be being influenced by their friend. Meg remembers that flavours and taste can influence young people. At lunchtime, Meg discusses with friends whether vaping is a cool thing to do and then decides how they will talk to Bem about this.
Helping a friend
Activity 8: Create a campaign
Now it’s your turn to be a school community change leader.
Your task
Now that you have the facts, it's time to put your understanding to work.
Your task is to be a public health advocate and create a campaign for a smokeand vape-free environment for your school or local community area (for example, your local sports club or library).
You could also choose to create a general campaign that could help support stopping vaping.
What is a campaign?
A campaign is when you work together with others to raise awareness about an important topic. Campaigns are all about getting the word out and making change. For example, to encourage your school or local community to recycle you could design and display signs or flyers to encourage everyone to recycle more and reduce waste.
Get started!
There are so many ways YOU can create change to keep you and your community safe. Before beginning work on your campaign, watch this video to learn about ways we can create healthier places.
After watching the video, make a list of the different things that you noticed in the video. Now it’s your turn to create a campaign that will make places healthier.
Campaign for smoke- and vape-free environments
1. Know the facts and create a poster to share with others.
1. In Australia, vapes can only be sold in pharmacies. It is illegal for any other retailer (e.g. tobacconist, vape shop, convenience store) to sell vapes.
2. In Victoria, it is illegal to sell vapes to any person under 18 years of age.
3. Vaping causes known and unknown health risks to young people.
4. It is destructive to the environment as they are usually made of plastic (which can remain in the environment for up to 500 years) and batteries (that may explode), and they cannot be recycled.
5. It is damaging to the health of people who do not vape and we have the right to be safe
6. We have the right to live in healthy places.
2. Be an activist! Here are some suggestions.
• Develop a campaign against vaping. First choose one of the important messages above or create your own. Then design a message board with your poster and encourage other students to take part too.
• Use your creativity to make a NO to Vaping creative slogan and badge/sticker and give one to everyone in your class to wear (or even in your school).
• Make a presentation that could be presented to a class that educates others about why vape-free environments are important.
• Write a persuasive piece that your school could use to support a no vaping at school rule. This could include explaining to your school principal why they should update the school’s ‘No smoking’ signage to ‘No smoking or vaping' signage.
60 mins
Reflection
How did your campaign go?
1. Do you think your message reached your friends? Classmates? Other classes?
2. Which activities were successful? Which exceeded your expectations?
3. Which were not and why?
4. Did you get support from any adults?
5. What did you learn about vaping prevention from your campaign?
