Curriculum Project 1

EDL 318A Curriculum Project

Sexual Health

Miranda Couch, Jackie Jeambey, Jun Yu

Miami University

EDL 318A
Loveness Ngorosha
December 4, 2014

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Abstract:
Sexual Health: Going Beyond the Birds and the Bees.
Todays adolescents are ill-informed about their bodies, sexuality, disease, and pregnancy. To
address this disconnect between the truth and what students think, we have designed a
discussion-based curriculum that involves a multidisciplinary investigation of misconceptions
that students have. This initiative will empower students with a better knowledge of sexual
health issues.

Curriculum Rationale

Miami High School is an academic and student-focused community where administrators,

teachers, students, and the community collaborate to provide the best atmosphere for higher-level
learning and understanding. As a part of our commitment to bettering the lives of our students,
we have chosen to develop an integrated curriculum to improve their knowledge of sexual health.
We define sexual health as a comprehensive understanding and wellness of healthy relationships,
pregnancy and disease prevention, and how to make informed, healthy decisions for their futures.
A study done by the Guttmacher Institute in 2012 showed that 55% of 7th-12th graders said they

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have used online sources to look up information on sexual health issues. Of a sampling of 177
sexual health web sites examined, 46% had inaccurate information regarding contraception
(Guttmacher, 2012). These statistics help to show how much our adolescents are exposed to
inaccurate and misinforming sexual education in the United States. At Miami High school we
believe that providing our students with proper and updated research and knowledge about
sexual health, will equip and empower our students to make informed decisions about their
health and life today and for their future.
Despite the downward trend of teenage pregnancy over the last 25 years, many students are
still unaware of the risks involved with teenage pregnancy, contraceptive methods, and what
pregnancy means for their lives. According to the Office of Adolescent Health, there were 26.6
births for every 1,000 females ages 15-19 in the United States (2013), which is
disproportionately represented in impoverished places.
Sexually transmitted infections are also a health risk for adolescents. The Center for Disease
Control estimates that 1 in 4 sexually active females have a sexually transmitted disease, and that
adolescents from age 15-19 are at higher risk for acquiring an STI than adults (2012 STD
Surveillance Adolescents and Young Adults, 2012). This clearly illustrates that adolescents need
better access to knowledge and protection from these potentially life-altering diseases, which our
curriculum tries to address.
Although it is often overlooked, sexual health is an essential part of overall well-being in
adolescents and adults. The National Institute of Health acknowledges that, Love, affection, and
sexual intimacy contribute to healthy relationships and individual well-being. But along with the
positive aspects of our human sexuality, there also are illnesses, mixed emotions and unintended
consequences that can affect our sexual health. An open discussion of sexuality issues is

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important to promoting sexual health and responsibility, (NIH, n.d.). It is our goal to expose our
students to knowing how to identify unhealthy relationships and the resources that are available
to them if they or someone they know is in an unhealthy relationship. Students will have open
discussions that integrate content and community in order to better understand what teenage
pregnancy and sexual health mean to them personally. Our curriculum uses multidisciplinary
methods to provide resources for students to make responsible, healthy, and informed decisions
about their lives and futures. Unlike outdated or biased sexual education curriculum designs, our
curriculum integrates math, science, and foreign language in order to give students a holistic
view of their role in their sexual health. It is of utmost importance to the present and future of our
students overall health and well-being. Not only does it work to increase students knowledge of
healthy choices, but it also gives them examples of how the subjects covered in school directly
relate to their lives outside of school. Through the integration of coursework in different subject
areas, students can develop interdisciplinary methods of research, critical thinking, and begin to
bridge the gap between the separated subjects of academics and real world life experiences.

Course Description
As children grow older and become adolescents, they integrate different lifestyle habits into
their lives. Unfortunately, many of their questions about growing up, sexual health, and everyday
life health issues in general go unanswered everyday life. What is happening to my body? Am I
making the right choices with my body for my health and well-being? How many teens are
contracting sexually transmitted diseases or infections yearly? What about teen pregnancy? How
many girls in high school are getting pregnant yearly? All these questions need answers. We in
the Miami High School community put a strong emphasis on the health, safety, and awareness of

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our students. At the end of the six week period we have allotted for our curriculum, we hope that
our students will know more about their own bodies, the effects of sex and STI and STDs on
their bodies, teen pregnancy, and the prevalence of these in our community, and in the global
context. Student learning should be centered around inquiry-based, learning about statistics of
STI/STD, teen pregnancy, and the growth and sexual development of the human body. We
believe that the material should be real-life and relevant for the students of Miami High School,
so that they will take the information beyond their education. This curriculum will be tailored to
the needs and wants of the parents, teachers, students, and community members and values.
Although teens and sexuality can be somewhat uncomfortable for some people, we think that
giving our students the most in-depth and accurate information will benefit them as they navigate
through life.
Miami High School will run on a more traditional class schedule. Each subject will function in
its own classroom. We will create an intercurricular structure by discussing the topics of sexual
health between two or more subjects in the school. All of the school subjects should be
intertwined among these ideas of sexual health and puberty. For example, if in Science class they
are discussing anatomy of the human body, with new vocabulary of the body parts and functions
of the body, the German class will learn these same words in functions in the German language.
If in math class they discuss the statistics of teen pregnancy and STI and STD in the community,
the students will learn also how those rates are different in different communities and in
Germanys. In science, they will discuss the effects of STIs on the body, and in math they will
learn about the statistics of those infections and diseases.
By utilizing a topic that is important and relevant to all adolescent students, human growth and
development and sexual health, everyday courses become much more engaging to students. The

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goal of the curriculum is to foster a group of students that understand more about their own
bodies and the effects certain choices make on their bodies. We hope that students will gain a
clear awareness on how much unplanned and unwanted pregnancies affect lives of young adults,
high school and college students. We are aware that in this internet and technology era,
information is floating everywhere and that many students these days are getting their
information about sexuality and pregnancy from their peers, and many unreliable sources. Our
aim at Miami High School is to ensure that our students are informed about healthy sexual
choices, and that the information they receive is accurate and, is delivered through an engaging,
inquiry-based curriculum. Students will be utilizing more than just the traditional resources in the
classrooms. We will use computer programs, videos, documentaries, and news reports, to learn
more in-depth about the prominence of certain diseases, infections, and pregnancies in their age
group. Not only will this engage students by breaking them out of the desk with pencil and paper
setting, but allow for freedom in their learning, creating a better engaging learning environment
for the students.
Units
1. Disease
a. German class will learn the names for STIs and STDs, and their rates in German
b. Science class will discuss the microbiology of these diseases
c. Math will study the statistics of these diseases
2. Pregnancy
a. German will discuss rates and social implications of teen pregnancy

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b. Science will cover physiological implications
c. Math will study the statistics/rates
3. Reproductive Unit
a. German will learn terminology
b. Science will learn terminology and functions
c. Math will graph various aspects of puberty (rates/ages)
4. Statistics and Graphing
a. Science and Math will make graphs and study rates of STIs, Pregnancy, puberty
b. German will compare these rates between US and Germany
5. Sexual Education
a. Science will discuss puberty and contraceptive health
b. German will discuss Sexual education in Germany
6. Concluding Unit
a. Discuss what they learned in all of their classes combined
b. Reflection on their lives and relating their newfound knowledge to their lifestyle.

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Concept Map:

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Curriculum Example:

Life Science:
In the students science classes, they will investigate current sexual health issues using the
scientific method. They will begin by learning the anatomy of both the male and female
reproductive systems through the BBC Interactive Body website. Students can explore their own
person questions about the human body before we look into it as a class. By allowing students
the freedom to discover answers to questions they might be too shy to ask in class, students will
be able to gain background knowledge and have better, deeper discussions in class. After the
initial anatomy exploration, the science classes will look into the physiology of the reproductive
systems, and how they change during puberty. Then, students will investigate sexually
transmitted infections in teams of four and make public service announcement videos to present
the information they learned in a creative fashion to their classmates.
Then, students will look at pregnancy and the menstrual cycle, and how these affect their lives.
Students will play a Simulation game in class, where they will roll a die to determine what
choices in life they will make. Some students will become pregnant, drop out, and have a hard
time paying for their cars, daycare, food, or other real-life situations. After the activity, the
students will have a large-group discussion about how the choices they make influences their
futures, and what they want for their own futures. This will lead into a discussion of the different
contraceptive methods, including abstinence, birth control, and condoms, and healthy
relationships. This discussion will also be inclusive to LGBTQ relationships and health concerns.
Germen:

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In the German class, we will be comparing the sexual health, teenage pregnancy
statistics/implications, and German vocabulary to what they are learning in their math and
science classes. To begin, we will learn the basic vocabulary of human anatomy in German.
After that, we will learn the STIs and STDs terms in German. They will have interactive charts
similar to what they will have in science classes. Students will also learn the basic terminology
of teenage pregnancy to supplement the video about teenage pregnancy in Germany.
We will watch authentic videos from Germany describing the implications of teenage pregnancy
in Germany and interpreting the information given in the video. This will not only provide
cultural information to the students, but will also cognitively engage them and challenge them to
interpret the videos language. After we finish watching the video and supplemental worksheet,
students will discuss in first small groups, and then as a class the content of the video. They will
also compare this situation to teen pregnancy in the US (statistics, cultural taboo/implications,
and so on). These conversations and worksheets should be in 80-90% target language.

Math:
In the students math classes, we will be dealing with teen pregnancy rate and the
probability of testing HIV. At the mean time they will be doing some research about teen
pregnancy and getting to know the basics of HIV. Therefore, as they learning mathematical
materials, they are getting educated by sexual health education also. The learning process will
teach students how to collect data and analyze the data, by using statistical graph. There will be
a couple of classes to teach the students how to read and how to create the graphs, based on the

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data that they got from the articles and the movies. This parts include to teach the students how
to use graphing calculator to generate the graphs.
The calculator we are going to be using and learning is TI-nspire graphing calculator. The reason
why I chose it is that there is a navigator system that you can share your operation on the
projector so everyone can see it. It will be nice that the peers share their steps and learn how to
use it together. Also there will be a topic about how to calculate the basic probability problems
by using the probability of having a test result HIV positive or HIV negative. It gives the
students the general idea of what is the probability of getting a disease if they do not use
protection or they do not handle sex properly.

Assessment:
The curriculum that we designed is applied Miami high school and we are conceived that our
curriculum is not only teaching students the materials on textbook or on the curriculum standards,
but also the importance of the sexual health that is usually hidden. So the assessment of our
curriculum would not solely based on traditional writing assignments, solving mathematical
problems and foreign language vocabulary. We will assess the students by integrating the
knowledge that is from the textbook and the knowledge that is from the learning experience of
getting to know sex health. At the same time we will be evaluating the skill that students work
with others as well as the process of learning this particular curriculum. We believe that our
assessment goal is to make our teaching more effective and our students' learning more
productive.

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By doing what we have stated above, three of us we agreed on giving students some sexual
health related reading and movies. Each subject will be focus on different area of these articles
and movies. For math, the students will be looking at the data of teenage pregnancy rate and
analyze it, based on group discussion and group writing prompt, follows with peer evaluation. In
their writing prompt, they have to include a statistical graph and a paragraph about why statistics
is important for the data and how it helps us to see the sexual health issue. In their Germen class,
they will be assigned a Fill-in-the-blank worksheet about facts and statistics of teen sexual health
in Germany, watching and interpreting a video about Teenage pregnancy in Germany, also
information gap exercise about German vocabulary regarding sexual health. They will be
working this in group as well and the assignments are well connected with other subjects. There
will be a group presentation about life science and sexual health, especially about pregnancy and
the menstrual cycle, and how these affect their lives for life science class.
We believe that throughout our assessments, student will have a better understanding of the
course material as well as the importance of sexual health. At the same time, they will be
practicing the group work skill and making them more responsible for doing their work.

Conclusion/Reflection of this project:

When we first started working on our project, we were struggling to choose a topic that can
fit in all our subjects area. But we came up with the curriculum sexual health, which we think it
is brilliant. It is an issue that now high school students have and also it is important to them.
Once we figured out that life science and germen and math can all be perfect fit in the curriculum
and it is definitely a teachable curriculum, we went very deep into it. There is surely going to be
a lot of problems rise as we implement the curriculum, it is a curriculum that the parents and the

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students and the teachers all have to be comfortable with what the students are taking in every
day. However, we all believe that our curriculum is going to be a great one for the students.

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Recourse

The Office of Adolescent Health - Teen Pregnancy, U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services. (n.d.). Retrieved December 1, 2014, from http://www.hhs.gov/ash/oah/adolescenthealth-topics/reproductive-health/teen-pregnancy/trends.html

The Office of Adolescent Health - STDs, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d.).
Retrieved December 1, 2014, from http://www.hhs.gov/ash/oah/adolescent-healthtopics/reproductive-health/stds.html

Sexual Health. (n.d.). Retrieved December 1, 2014, from

http://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/healthy_living/hic_Steps_to_Staying_Well/hic_The_Import
nce_of_Sexual_Health

Facts on American Teens' Sources of Information About Sex. (n.d.). Retrieved December 1,
2014, from https://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/FB-Teen-Sex-Ed.html

STDs in Adolescents and Young Adults. (2014, August 19). Retrieved December 1, 2014, from
http://www.cdc.gov/std/stats12/adol.htm

Sexualkunde: "Schmutzige Gedanken" (n.d.). Retrieved December 1, 2014, from

http://www.zeit.de/2003/03/Schmutzige_Gedanken

Teenager-Schwangerschaft. (n.d.). Retrieved December 1, 2014, from

http://www.netdoktor.at/sex/pubertaet/teenagerschwangerschaft-5817