Content Area: Health and Physical Education

 

Index: 2.1A Grade 12 CPI 2

 

Standard: 2.1 - Wellness

 

Strand: A - Personal Health

 

Cumulative Progress Indicator: 2 -  The student will investigate the impact of health choices and behaviors on personal, family, and community wellness.

 

Grade: 12

 

Sample Activities:

 

·        LIVING A BALANCED LIFE - Brainstorm definitions of the word balance. Explain that being a balanced adult means understanding and meeting your social, emotional, and physical needs. Achieving balance with attention to self, career, and relationships is sometimes very difficult. Write “self”, “career,” and “relationships” on the board as headings for three columns. Brainstorm aspects of life that fit in each area. The completed list should look something like this:

 

 

 

      Divide the class into four groups, and give each group a large cardboard circle. Students read and discuss a description of a person’s life and decide what percentage of the person’s life is devoted to each of the three aspects of balance. If the person’s life is not balanced, the group makes suggestions
to create more balance. Each group presents their individual’s story and describes the balance or imbalance in his/her life and ways to improve it. Examples of situations might include:
·        This person spends 60 hours a week at work and travels a lot with his/her job. He/she is active in the community.
·        This person works in a bank and is very popular because he/she is very sociable. He/she never says no to a friend or family member.
·        This person works out in a gym most of the day and works on a novel the rest of the day. He/she spends little time with family or friends.
·        This person is an accountant for a large oil company. He/she plans time very carefully; attempts to spend time with his/her family, and continues to keep physically active.
·        This person works part-time and is a part-time student at a local college. He/she spends his/her free time at clubs and bars looking for the “perfect” date. He/she lives in his/her parents’ home but is only there to sleep.

 

·        DESIGN A HEALTHY COMMUNITY - Read aloud a profile of an unhealthy community (e.g., noise, pollution, crime, poor sanitation, crowded conditions, toxic waste). Explain how a healthy community contributes to the overall health of an individual. Divide the class into small groups to design a healthy community. Students include access to healthcare services and describe ways the community addresses issues such as violence and drug use. Students design a healthy community using computer simulation or models and present their community to the rest of the class.

Variation: Students survey their community for evidence of healthy and unhealthy conditions and compile a class list of the observations. Divide the class into small groups, each group addressing one unhealthy aspect of the community. Groups describe the conditions and develop action plans to remedy or improve the conditions. Groups share their plans and the class votes on the best plan. The entire class presents the plan to community officials at a town meeting. 

 

·        TURN OFF THE TUBE AND MOVE - Write five benefits of exercise on five separate index cards. Divide the class into five groups and give each group an index card. Each group identifies three television programs that adolescents watch and creates a news story that will be used to interrupt one of the identified TV programs. For the presentation, students pretend to watch a certain TV show. Students may actually use footage from the show in the presentation. While students are watching the show, announce “We interrupt this program (name the show) to bring you the latest reasons why you should turn off the tube and move.” Students use the reasons noted on their card as part of their news flash. After all groups have presented, discuss the relationship of activity to lifetime wellness. Students develop a contract to forego at least one TV show in order to exercise for thirty minutes at least three times per week.

 

·        JUST ONE LOOK - Ask students to bring to class a pair of sunglasses and a mirror. Students get just one look to determine how fashionable their sunglasses really are. Students vote which sunglasses they like best. Ask students to share the criteria they used to make the decision. Then pose this question: “What criteria should you use to purchase a pair of sunglasses?” Explain the standards for sunglasses, and discuss potential health hazards that can occur when the eyes are not protected.

Variation: Discuss the need to wear safety glasses or goggles in labs and shop. Show various forms of protective eye equipment used in vocational settings. Demonstrate first aid techniques used for eye injuries.

Variation: Compare the need for sunglasses to the need for skin protection. Discuss the use of tanning equipment, tanning products, and sunblock or sunscreen. Students create posters or develop pamphlets to be displayed and distributed prior to summer break.

 

·        CHOOSING HEALTHCARE - Students select a specialty healthcare provider (e.g., music therapist, dental hygienist, medical technician, pediatric nurse practitioner, nurse midwife, psychiatrist); research career preparation, licensing requirements, and job specifications; and develop a list of 10 criteria to consider when choosing that type of healthcare provider. Students develop a community resource guide using the information.

 

      Variation: Students research various kinds of healthcare facilities (e.g., nonprofit hospital, voluntary agencies, community clinic, college health centers) and develop a criteria list and/or a resource guide as noted above.

Variation: Provide students with a description of health services delivered by a community agency or health professional. Students match the description with the correct agency name or professional title.

Variation: Research types of life, health, and disability insurance. Develop a guide for students describing each type and the benefits and problems associated with each.

 

·        WHERE TO GO - Explain that it is important to know where to go to get appropriate healthcare, especially when students will be moving out, going to college, or joining the armed forces. Divide the class into small groups and give each group a scenario. Students analyze the problems noted in the scenario, conduct appropriate research, and make recommendations for care. Students discuss their conclusions and suggestions with the rest of the class. Scenarios might include the following:
·        S. W. missed her last period and has been nauseous the last 2 weeks.
·        J. W. has constant pain in his knee and sometimes it is swollen. He has been taking an over-the- counter medication for over 2 weeks.
·        T. W. has pain on urination and continues to have unprotected sex with several partners.
·        P. W. has had shortness of breath and feels her heart pounding whenever she takes a test.
·        Q. W. has had frequent nosebleeds, tires easily, and has bruises on his arms and legs.

 

·        LOOKING FOR HEALTH -  Students identify 5 to 10 health goals they would like to achieve, then interview family members to discover potential health conditions in their family. Taking this information into consideration, students develop a list of strengths and weaknesses (e.g., weight, diet, exercise patterns, emotional status, substance use) and revise their original goals. Students develop an action plan that includes the goals, objectives for each, possible barriers and strategies to overcome the barriers, and expected outcomes with dates. Students share their plans with a partner and meet on a regular basis to share successes. Students write brief progress reports and include in a portfolio. At the end of the school year, the partners complete a comment sheet noting progress made, modifying goals and summarizing the year’s events.      

 

      Variation: Provide each student with a case study. Students develop an action plan for the case study and share with a partner.

Variation: Invite a health educator, genetic counselor, and physician to speak to students about adolescent health behaviors and issues that may have long term implications for one’s health.

 

·        THE CONCEPT OF WELLNESS - Students define wellness and identify factors that contribute to it. Ask students to reflect on their personal health behaviors and list those that support or contribute to wellness. Next, conduct a forced choice activity. Define the dimensions of health, place signs around the room for each dimension, and then ask the group the following questions.
·        Which dimension of health is the most important to you now?
·        When thinking of a person who is significant in your life, which dimension is most important to him/her?
·        What dimension of health was stressed most in the household in which you grew up?
·        What dimension would be the hardest for you to change?

 

      Students move to the dimension sign that is the best response to the question. Ask volunteers to explain their answers and encourage all students to participate. At the end of the activity ask students how their answers might have been different five years earlier and how they might be different
five years from now.

Variation: Students predict, in writing, how their answers may change ten years from now.

Variation: Students create a wellness mobile that identifies the dimensions of wellness and activities that support each dimension.