Teenagers reflected on emotional and physical changes they had been through during puberty, and how they dealt with these changes.
| Enduring Understanding | Reproduction and development are necessary for the continuation of any species |
| Level | Middle School Adaptive (12-14 years) |
| Disciplines | Biology, Language Arts, Social emotional wellbeing |
Description
It is important for both pre-pubescent students and those going through puberty to understand the changes going on in their own body. Students were engaged in observation, reflection, discussions and watching videos to learn concepts and content. These learnings were then extrapolated to human beings in general as well as the concepts of reproduction and the continuation of species.
Deliverables
Journal: Students recorded any physical and emotional changes experienced in weekly journals
Presentation: At the culmination of the unit, students reflected on their development in the past 2 months, and created a presentation on the easiest and most difficult emotional or physical changes endured and how they adapted to these changes.
Project Learning Goals
- To understand the stages of development from childhood to adulthood, with a focus on puberty
- To understand that the body goes through physical, emotional, and cognitive changes to support reproduction
- To learn coping strategies to navigate adolescent and related changes
- To learn the process of reproduction
- To understand the meaning of heredity and to identify inherited traits from their own parents
Scaffolding & Differentiation
Differentiated prompts or questions in presentation
Reader/writer accommodation and use of adaptive technology such as text-to-speech
Assessments
Bi-weekly Case Studies:
Students read case studies of teenage boys and girls describing the changes they were going through, and had to identify the biological, emotional or cognitive changes using specific terminology learned in their classes.
Journals:
Weekly completion of journals prompts with descriptive details
