Growth, Development, and Sexual Health Lesson Plans

Students examine the way habitats and human organ systems function. In groups, they role play the role of a government group assigned to determine if a settlement can make their home in a specific area. They must discover how humans and the environment might be effected if the area is settled.

Eighth graders research human sexuality by completing a sexual health worksheet. In this HIV lesson, 8th graders define AIDS and list the ways it can be transmitted from human to human. Students assess their own risk and complete study questions about the disease on a worksheet.

Students discover life science by identifying the reproductive process. In this pregnancy lesson, students read text which discusses the responsibility required to create a child as well as the economical and social means to raise one. Students answer study questions regarding pregnancy prevention and contraception use.

Students explore the human anatomy. For this respiratory system lesson, students conduct an experiment to simulate the capacity of human lungs. 

Students pretend the area they live in is subject to wind, waves and rain. In groups, they pretend they are a groups of meteorologists or geologists and are to report on the weather and damage that could occur there. Each group develops a news report to present their findings to the class.

Learners create a model of the digestive system. In this human anatomy activity the students examine features of the digestive system. The learners perform an experiment.

Students brainstorm as a whole class to generate a list of as many major parts of the human anatomy that either look or sound like they may be Latin as a means for developing prior and common knowledge.

Students research theories of human evolution. In this evolution lesson plan, students use the Internet to learn more about theories explaining the development of Homo sapiens. They act as anthropologists and write a two-page magazine article explaining human origins.

Nearly all students have seen pregnant women and may have questions about human development. Intended for secondary students with mild to moderate mental disabilities, this lesson defines the process of pregnancy  in a developmentally appropriate way. They define the term pregnancy, sort a collection of images depicting pregnant and not pregnant women, brainstorm differences they see, then discuss fetal development. The Miracle of Life by NOVA is suggested viewing.

Students gain an understanding of how systems and organs in the human body work. They create their own fictional account of a trip through the human body, and describe one response the body makes to stimuli.