High School Health Education

The half-credit high school course is a graduation requirement. The curriculum addresses the adolescent risk behaviors cited by the Centers for Disease Control through the following content areas:

Mental Health	Tobacco, Alcohol, and Other Drugs	Personal and Community Health	Nutrition and Fitness
Consumer Health	Safety and Injury Prevention	Family Life and Human Sexuality	Disease Prevention and Control

Instruction, as in all other grade levels, is to be performance based, focusing on the development of skills and strategies essential for health and well being. The following are indicators of that development.

Students will:

• evaluate the validity, cost, accessibility and appropriateness of health information, products, and services to become health literate consumers.
• demonstrate the ability to locate and utilize valid resources to make informed decisions regarding health issues.
• assess situations which may require professional attention to determine what school and/or community health services would best meet the needs of the situation and how to access those services.
• analyze individual responsibility as a factor in enhancing the health of self and others to identify and practice behaviors for health promotion.
• evaluate the short and long term consequences of safe, risky, and harmful behaviors to determine and practice ways to avoid and reduce threatening situations and harmful relationships.
• use knowledge of stress and stressors to demonstrate, evaluate, and analyze strategies to manage stress.
• analyze factors such as personal experience, family, culture, values, and peers to determine how they influence health beliefs, perceptions, and behaviors.
• evaluate media and technology to determine their impact on personal, family, and community health.
• determine the importance of demonstrating respect for self and others to develop and practice skills for communicating effectively with family, peers, and others.
• demonstrate refusal, negotiation, collaboration skills, and conflict resolution strategies to promote health and avoid harmful situations for self and others.
• analyze the possible causes of conflict in schools, families, communities, and the world to determine ways to prevent, cope with and/or intervene in situations.
• evaluate health decisions and actions to predict their immediate and long term impact on the individual, family, and community.
• analyze personal health needs and risks to determine goals, formulate a plan, and implement strategies for lifelong health
• demonstrate the ability to influence, support, and work collaboratively with others to make positive health choices
• evaluate the effectiveness of health messages and communication techniques to adapt these concepts to the characteristics of a particular audience when advocating for positive health.

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