Educator Guide: Fatal Fix

SYSTEM SHUTDOWN Opioids are killing tens of thousands of people in the United States every year. A look inside the body shows how the potent drugs shut down crucial systems during an overdose.
STEVE HEAP/SHUTTERSTOCK
About this guide
The article “Fatal fix” describes the harmful physiological effects associated with opioid overdoses and presents a graph showing the annual U.S. deaths from opioid drugs. Students can focus on information reported in the article, follow connections to earlier articles about opioids and pursue cross-curricular connections in biology, chemistry and engineering. In a related activity, students can work individually or in small groups to explore different parts of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website on opioids and then summarize the findings for the rest of the class.