1. Read the assigned readings below. Use Section 3.2 of your Personal Health Journal to record your observations and reactions to these articles. Each student will be required to submit their notes. Also, students will be required to answer these assigned questions prepared for this webquest. Answer the questions together if there is more than one student working on this webquest.
   
   
   • Quitting (Health Canada)
   • Benefits of Quitting (Health Canada)
   • What Makes Tobacco So Addictive? (Health Canada)
   • Quick Tips for Quitting (Health Canada)
   • Methods of Quitting (Health Canada)
   • Taking Medication (Health Canada)
   • Nicotine Replacement (Health Canada)
      
2. After you have read, understood and summarized the general information about quitting, you are then ready to read and think about what this means to you, as a smoker or non-smoker who wants to help a friend.
   
   In this activity, students who smoke will go to these web pages:
    
   • Why Do You Smoke? (Print the questionnaire and answer the questions.)
     If you are doing this webquest with a non-smoking friend, share your answers with them and discuss the strategies suggested at the end. Otherwise, record your answers in Section 4.3 of your Personal Health Journal. (This is to be kept private.) Go to the smoker's profile on the Health Canada website and answer the questions.
   • Why Should I Stop Smoking? (Read this fact sheet, determine if you are addicted (or getting close to it) and review the different ways to quit smoking.)
     If you are doing this webquest with a non-smoking friend, discuss your answers. If not, record your answers in Section 4.3 of your Personal Health Journal.
   • How Can I Quit Smoking? Read this fact sheet and either discuss your answers with your webquest partner or record your answers in your Personal Health Journal. Key points to remember are:
     -Why do I smoke?
     -What help do I need?
     -What is the best strategy for me?

   Now, the non-smoking student will visit some selected web pages and, if they are doing this webquest with a friend who smokes, share their answers and reactions to the advice on these web pages.
   
   

   • Help Someone Else Quit. Read the advice on the following web pages:
     -Are You Concerned About Someone Who Smokes? Do You Know What To Do?
     -Help Someone to Quit
     -I'm a Friend of a Smokers
     -Help Someone Give up Smoking
     
     and list the ways and times that you can use these strategies. Here are some examples
     -Be understanding about mood changes/withdrawal symptoms.
     -Give lots of praise.
     -Help to avoid situations where they might be tempted to smoke.
     -Celebrate each week or month by sending an e-card
     -give up something you really like
     -etc.
      

   If you are doing this webquest with a friend who smokes, then show your list to him/her and discuss which things would be best for them. Otherwise, keep this written list for your plan to help a smoker.
   
   To conclude this section how and why to quit, go to the Quit 4 Life website and visit all of the pages on the website. If you are doing this webquest with a friend, do this together. Print the pages from this website and make notes on these pages on whether this is relevant to you as a smoker, or if this would be effective with smokers you know. (Your notes will be part of the your evaluation on this webquest.)
     

3. You will now meet some virtual people. In this activity, you will visit web pages that describe people who have or who are trying to quit smoking. Your task is to determine if these fictitious people are realistic.
    
   • Bob (Health Canada's smoker). Visit the web page on Bob and read the transcripts of the TV ads using Bob's reasons for not quitting. Do any of these reasons apply to you or your friend who smokes?
   • Quit 4 Life teens. Read the descriptions of these four young people who did quit smoking? Do any of them seem similar to you or your smoking friend?

   Use your Personal Health Journal to keep notes on your reactions to the descriptions of these people who are trying to quit smoking.
    

4. Next, you will set a goal for your Personal Health Action Plan.
   
   Return to your notes on the strategies that smokers use to quit. Choose one of the strategies listed below as your goal.
   
   
   • cut back on your smoking and then set a date for quitting
   • quit cold turkey
   • use nicotine replacement (available without prescriptions
   • see a doctor about prescription medicine
      

   Write down your goal in your Personal Action Plan (See the chart in Section 4.1 Personal Health Journal.
   
   Next, plan how you will reward yourself for the benefits you will receive immediately for quitting. Treat yourself to a movie, going to a sports event, eating your favourite food, etc. for each of the times listed on the web page, Benefits of Quitting.
   
   

   • 8 hours
   • 2 days
   • 4 days
   • 2 weeks
   • 3 months
   • 6 months
   • 1 year

   
   If you are doing this webquest with a friend, plan your celebration activities together. The non-smoking friend can help to implement this part of the plan by organizing events, sending congratulations by email, buying a treat, etc.
   
   As part of your plan, you need to anticipate the barriers that you will face. Return to the analysis of why you smoke and see which are the most powerful triggers. Write them down in a list and also include how you plan to avoid them. If you are doing this with a friend who does not smoke, they should put items on a related list describing how they will help you. See the example below. Be as specific as possible.
   
    

   Smoking Triggers	How I will deal with them	How I will help
   I like to smoke at parties because I am nervous.	Instead, I will help the host serve food, etc.	I will make sure my friend is occupied when we are at the party.

   A barrier for many smokers who try to quit is withdrawal. Read about withdrawal and develop a plan to deal with it.
   
   Now, build another type of support into your plan that can keep you on track.

   • Sign up for Health Canada's E-quit email list. (The non-smoking person can also sign up for the list and send their friend comments on the messages they both receive.
   • Go to the list of telephone quit lines and select the one nearest or most relevant to you or your friend.

   
   Write up your plan to quit smoking. If two people are doing this webquest you can do this together.
    

5. As the students who smokes implements his/her plan, your task is to help your friend by reminding other people about how they can help. Read the following web pages to get more information. You may also wish to refer them to these web pages.
    
   • Adolescents: Smoking and quitting. How the professional can help
   • Cessation Resources for Professionals
    
   • Physicians and Clinical Tobacco Intervention: A Guide
      
6. Write a letter about quitting smoking to a professional/editor/friend. Use our guide on How to Write a Friendly Request Letter and review the Evaluation Criteria for a Request Letter before you write them.
   
   
   • Write to a Physician.
     Read the webpages above and then ask a doctor how they can make it easier for youth to quit smoking
   • Write to the Editor of your local newspaper.
     Read about the quitters' campaign in Algoma, Ontario that featured local people who had quit smoking. Write to the editor to ask if they could run a similar series of stories in your community.
   • Write to Parents
     Read these two articles Talking with Their Teens About Smoking and How to Help Your Family Clear the Air. Ask the parents to consider the ideas you found in your reading on how to help teens quit smoking.

How Your Work will be Evaluated

Each student doing this webquest will have to submit their notes (using Section 3.2 of their  Personal Health Journal) on the assigned readings in Step One.

In Step Two, students who smoke are required to record their thoughts and observations (using Section 4.3 of their Personal Health Journal). This is a private section and notes will not have to be submitted.

Non-smoking students and students who smoke do need to create a lists of ways to help someone quit. Students are also expected to submit their notes on the printed pages from the Quit 4 Life website. As well, all students doing this webquest are to submit their notes (Using Section 3.2 of their Personal Health Journal) on their reactions to Bob and the four youth in Quit 4 Life teens.

In Step Four, all students taking this webquest are required to submit a Health Action Plan that will be evaluated by these criteria. There are also several specific requirements listed in Step Four. A joint plan (for smokers and non-smokers) or a separate plan can be submitted.

Non-smoking students are also required to write one letter to a physician, local newspaper editor or parent that will be evaluated using these criteria.

To extend this webquest, students can link up to national and provincial/territorial non-smoking youth organizations listed on this Health Canada web page.