Explore
Explore class investigates sensitive issues that are important to young adolescent students. These topics include self-esteem, relationships, substance abuse and reproductive health. Students take Explore class for one semester in seventh grade and one semester in eighth grade.
Seventh Grade Exploring Adolescence Curriculum
- Build self-esteem as an individual person and a group member
- Enhance both verbal and non-verbal communication skills
- Learn to appreciate and value each other’s differences and capabilities
- Explore the importance of healthy peer and family relationships
- Understand and manage emotional changes and strategies dealing with stress
- Define and recognize negative behaviors such as sexual harassment and bullying
- Study reproductive health
- Identify causes and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases/infections
- Increase awareness of the consequences of drug use
- Study career paths
Eighth Grade Exploring Adolescence Curriculum
- Develop self-awareness of the individual and relating that to the importance of self-esteem
- Identify effective communication and listening skills
- Explore health concerns including nutrition, eating disorders, and sexual harassment
- Study the importance of healthy relationships with peers and family (an example would be dating)
- Practice decision-making skills: abstinence, drugs, and consequences of their decisions
- Understand the impact that drugs have on the brain
- Study fetal development
- Examine teen pregnancy and its consequences, and study the responsibilities of the male and female
- Identify types of sexually transmitted infections and their consequences
- Create a personal portfolio (study career pathways)
- Examine the influence of media on one’s life (TV, movies, video games, advertising, etc.)