Students at Mount Clear College have come up with creative ways to discourage their peers from vaping, in a unique partnership with Ballarat Community Health.
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Three short videos designed, storyboarded and acted by the students premiered at the school's auditorium on Wednesday, each looking at different reasons people should ditch the vape.
Students from the school's year 10 media class began work on the project in late 2022 and filmed the videos over the Christmas break.
One video explored what students had to give up to support a vaping dependency, another explored the impact vaping had on people's physical health.
The project comes as the federal government hikes up the tobacco tax and works to shut down the retail sale of vapes in an effort to curb its popularity among children.
Mount Clear College principal Lynita Taylor said the project gave the students a "unique learning experience" through its co-design process.
"We have an authentic learning situation where they are producing a product for a client, Ballarat Community Health," she said. "On another level, we have student voice, which is so impactful on their peers and has a greater effect than their regular teacher talking to them.
"It is really important for students to have a platform for their voice and this is perfect."
Two students who worked on the project, Rebecca Osborne and Jade Trewhella said they enjoyed the process from brainstorming to filming.
"It took a long time to find something that we were all passionate about and able to fit into the video to promote this idea," Jade said.
"We had a lot of ideas in the beginning and a lot of them fell through. It was pretty interesting."
It has a big influence on young people but I don't think it is a positive influence
The pair said they had seen first hand how vaping had become normalised within high school social circles, and its negative impact on others.
"I haven't tried it myself, but I do know people around me who have tried it, and they have tried it for a myriad of different reasons, whether it is stress, or influence from older siblings," Rebecca said.
"I think it is because it trickles down through the influence of people who are older. Also because it is popular."
"It is becoming normalised these days. It has a big influence on young people but I don't think it is a positive influence," Jade said.
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Ballarat Community Health chief executive Sean Duffy said the project was a great reminder of the critical role health promotion teams play in the community health space.
"Ballarat Community Health welcomes the announcement this week from Health Minister Mark Butler around the measures proposed to tackle smoking and vaping in our communities," He said.
"This change will have significant positive impacts on the health and wellbeing of our community members, especially our young people."
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