WHS Grade 9 Health Curriculum Guide
This required course is an introduction to health and wellness. This is a semester based course that will be paired with Freshman Personal Fitness and Wellness. Topics include 1. Health and Wellness (including stress management, decision making, goal setting), 2. The Human Body Systems as they relate to health and fitness 3. Nutrition and the Digestive System 4. Disease Prevention 5. Refusal Skills/Addiction, 6. Substance Abuse Prevention (including tobacco, e-cigarettes, vape, opiates, marijuana, prescription drugs, alcohol), 7. Healthy Relationships/Violence Prevention 8. Reproductive and Sexual Health, 9. Mental and Emotional Health (including stress, anxiety, depression and suicide). The following SEL core competancies will be weaved into the learning throughout this semester course: Self-awareness: The ability to accurately recognize one's emotions and thoughts and their influence on behavior. This includes accurately assessing one's strengths and limitations and possessing a well-grounded sense of confidence and optimism. Self-management: The ability to regulate one's emotions, thoughts, and behaviors effectively in different situations. This includes managing stress, controlling impulses, motivating oneself, and setting and working toward achieving personal and academic goals. Responsible decision making: The ability to make constructive and respectful choices about personal behavior and social interactions based on consideration of ethical standards, safety concerns, social norms, the realistic evaluation of consequences of various actions, and the wellbeing of self and others. Relationship skills: The ability to establish and maintain healthy and rewarding relationships with diverse individuals and groups. This includes communicating clearly, listening actively, cooperating, resisting inappropriate social pressure, negotiating conflict constructively, and seeking and offering help when needed. Social awareness: The ability to take the perspective of and empathize with others from diverse backgrounds and cultures, to understand social and ethical norms for behavior, and to recognize family, school, and community resources and supports.
Unit | Timeframe | Big Ideas (Statements or Essential Questions) | Major Learning Experiences from Unit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Health and Wellness | 2 lessons | 5 dimensions of health and wellness | Students will be able to identify and understand what wellness is, how to make an informed decision and how to set goals. Students will be able to appy stress management techniques to reduce stress. | |
Human Body Systems | 6-10 lessons | Structure, function and homeostasis of: Skeletal, muscular, nervous,cardiopulmonary, integumentary | students will be able to describe how our human body systems work together to maintain homeostasis | |
Nutrition and Fitness | 4-6 lessons | Nutrition/Fitness and the Digestive System | Students will be able to utilize their learning to form a nutrition and fitness plan that is designed for their lives | |
Refusal skills/addiction | 4-6 lessons |
| Students will practice refusal skills in order to be able to transfer these skills to their daily lives | |
Substance Abuse Prevention | 4-6 lessons | Tobacco, e-cigarettes, vape, opiates, marijuana, prescription drugs | Students will be able to identify risk factors of using substances and know how to get help for themselves and others | |
Healthy vs Unhealthy Relationships | 4-6 lessons | Healthy Relationships/Violence Prevention (including bullying, harassment and dating violence), | Students will be able to identify what a healthy relationship is and how to get help if a relationship becomes unhealthy. Students will be able to identify the types of abuse in abusive relationships. Students will able to demonstrate how to support students who are victims of abusive relationships. Students will be ablet to compare/contrast unhealthy and healthy relationships. Students will able to effectively communicate consent, and physical boundaries. Students will be able to create a plan to get out of an unhealthy relationship. | |
Reproductive and Sexual Health | 6 lessons | Male,Female Intersex Reproductive Systems | Students will be able to use gender inclusive langugage and understand gender identity, gender expression. Students will be able to understand how to take care of their sexual health. Students will recognize the signs of puberty and the cognitive, social, physical and emotional changes associated with signs of puberty. Analyze how peers, medial, self-esteem, and family can influence self-esteem. | |
Disease Prevention | 6 lessons | Overview of the immune system, diseases, disorders, lifestyle diseases, infectious diseases, risk taking and prevention | Students will be able to identify risk factors and understand the steps needed to prevent STI's HIV, pregnancy, lifestyle and infections diseases. Students will Students will know how and when to seek help for infectious diseases. Students will be able to compare and contrast the different contraceptives available. Students will be able to understand the milestones and strides made in treatments available to those with an STI. Identify risk factors associated with an unplanned pregnancy. | |
Mental Health | 6-10 lessons | Mental and Emotional Health (including stress, anxiety, depression and suicide). | Students will be able to recognize the signs and symptoms of suicide, depression, anxiety and get appropriate help for themselves or a loved one. | |