| The Howard County Public School System's comprehensive Health Education
program is one component of Coordinated School Health Programs. Health
Education programs provide a setting in which teachers, parents, and
community members partner to help students focus on health prevention
concepts and to practice lifeskills in a safe and supportive environment.
The National Health Education Standards form the framework for health
education curriculum. The National Standards are used by schools to support
programs that allow students to become healthy and enable them to succeed
academically. The standards relate directly to the Howard County Public
School System’s mission to ensure excellence in teaching and learning.
There is a Howard County Essential Curriculum for Health Education in
grades K to nine. The curriculum is sequential and based on the
developmental level of the students.
At the secondary level, the curriculum is implemented in grades six to
nine by a health education teacher. At the high school level students are
required to take one semester of health education to earn a half-credit
towards graduation requirements.
GOALS
The health education curriculum supports the following state goals as
outlined by Maryland State Department of Education:
1. Health Content Concepts: Students will demonstrate an understanding of
health promotion and disease prevention concepts to establish a foundation
for leading healthy, productive lives.
2. Accessing Information: Students will demonstrate the ability to access,
analyze, and evaluated health information, products, and services in order
to become health literate consumers.
3. Health Behaviors: Students will demonstrate the ability to identify and
practice healthy- enhancing behaviors and reduce health risks to live safer,
healthier lives.
4. Communication Skills: Students will demonstrate the ability to
effectively use communication skills to enhance personal, family, and
community health.
5. Goal Setting and Decision Making: Students will demonstrate the ability
to use goal-setting and decision-making skills to address issues related to
personal, family, and community health.
BEST PRACTICES
1. Strategies for teaching thinking
2. Strategies to support reading and writing achievement
3. Strategies for integrating technology
4. Strategies for home school connections
5. Strategies for a variety of formative and summative assessment formats
Unit I: Mental Health
Objectives: The student will be able to:
a. Access school and community services for mental health issues.
b. Demonstrate skills for communicating effectively with family, peers,
and others.
c. Recognize and respond to signs of depression and potential suicide.
d. Relate stress management strategies to the reduction of disease and
improvement of health.
e. Explain influences on body image.
f. Differentiate between safe and harmful ways to deal with mental
health issues.
Unit II: Tobacco, Alcohol, and Other Drugs
Objectives: The student will be able to:
a. Apply the decision-making process to issues related to the use of
tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs.
b. Identify and access resources for treatment of tobacco, alcohol, and
other drug use.
c. Demonstrate refusal skills to avoid harmful situations involving
tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs.
d. Examine short-term and long-term consequences of use of tobacco,
alcohol, and other drugs on the individual, family, and
society.
e. Predict the effect of tobacco, alcohol, and other drug use during
pregnancy on fetal development.
f. Differentiate between safe, therapeutic drug use, drug misuse, and
drug abuse.
g. Assess risks associated with alcohol and other drug use while
operating motor vehicles.
h. Recognize the progressive nature of addiction.
i. Identify ways to successfully quit smoking and demonstrate skills
needed to help others in their efforts to quit.
Unit III: Nutrition and Fitness
Objectives: The student will be able to:
a. Access accurate information about nutrition and weight control.
b. Design, implement, and evaluate progress toward an effective personal
eating plan based on health information, personal goals, and established
exercise plan.
c. Differentiate between accurate and inaccurate information about
nutrition and weight control based on source, validity, cost, and
effectiveness.
d. Identify the impact of eating disorders on an individualís health.
e. Utilize health information in making nutritional choices.
Unit IV: Safety, First Aid, and Injury Prevention
Objectives: The student will be able to:
a. Analyze behaviors and settings that place individuals at risk for
violence, injury, and premature death.
b. Identify and apply skills to reduce the risk of and respond to
abusive relationships, sexual harassment, and date rape.
c. Access school and community services for people dealing with abusive
relationships, sexual harassment, and date rape.
d. Demonstrate skills to respond to emergency situations.
e. Identify strategies for emergency preparedness.
Unit V: Disease Prevention and Control
Objective: The student will be able to:
a. Identify and explain transmission and prevention of disease.
b. Identify and explain the symptoms, screening, and treatment of
disease.
c. Examine the impact of medical technology on the incidence and
prevalence of disease.
Unit VI: Family Life and Human Sexuality
Objectives: The student will be able to:
a. Demonstrate skills for communicating effectively with family, peers
and dating partners about sexual topics.
b. Utilize decision-making skills relating to sexual behavior.
c. Demonstrate refusal skills to deal with situations involving sexual
behavior.
d. Identify and explore issues related to dating.
e. Recognize abstinence as a healthy, safe, and responsible sexual
behavior.
f. Analyze the influence of alcohol and drug use on decisions about
sexual behavior.
g. Predict immediate and long-term impacts of decisions about sexual
behavior for the individual, family, and community to
include teen pregnancy and STIs.
h. Evaluate the different methods of contraception.
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