Enrichment Experience Mandala (Grades 9-12)
- coursework
- experiences
- projects
This course is all about you and the important decisions you make. It’s also about having the correct information before making those decisions. We’ll deal with real issues like nutrition, substance abuse, coping with stress, and what to do about sex.
How can you manage to juggle it all?! Learn how to prepare and deal with real issues that impact your everyday life, such as mental health, nutrition, disease prevention, substance abuse, personal health, and safety. This course provides you with the facts that you will need to make informed decisions that are necessary to lead a healthy lifestyle and improve your quality of life.
Note: content varies depending on course version. For currently enrolled students, please refer to the syllabus located in the course information area for curriculum specifics.
Students will demonstrate an understanding of managing physical and mental health by explaining the impact of healthy habits on overall wellness, explaining the body and mind connection and describing strategies for meeting health goals.
Students will demonstrate an understanding of avoiding and minimizing risky behaviors by summarizing factors that influence behavior, explaining the access of information and services to enhance health, and describing disease prevention.
Students will demonstrate an understanding of family and community health by describing the use of interpersonal communication skills to enhance health, explaining the elements of health care plans, and explaining advocacy for family and community health to avoid health risks.
Students will demonstrate an understanding of healthy eating by explaining the benefits of healthy eating habits, explaining tools for eating healthy, and summarizing strategies for healthy food choices.
Students will demonstrate an understanding of creating and maintaining healthy relationships by explaining the importance of treatment of others with dignity and respect, explaining the avoidance of substance abuse, and summarizing the daily practices of health-enhancing behaviors.
Besides engaging students in challenging curriculum, VLACS guides students to reflect on their learning and evaluate their progress through a variety of assessments. Assessments can be in the form of self-checks, practice lessons, multiple choice questions, writing assignments, projects, research papers, essays, labs, oral assessments, and discussions.
Projects allow students to demonstrate their understanding of concepts and skills by completing a job-related task. The assignment might be to create a mural, a package design, a speech, a film review, or a movie set – you name it! These creative projects are about applying your learning acquired through in-depth research to real-world career tasks.
Please review the competency statements to learn the major topics and concepts covered in this offering.
Students will demonstrate an understanding of managing physical and mental health by explaining the impact of healthy habits on overall wellness, explaining the body and mind connection and describing strategies for meeting health goals.
Students will demonstrate an understanding of avoiding and minimizing risky behaviors by summarizing factors that influence behavior, explaining the access of information and services to enhance health, and describing disease prevention.
Students will demonstrate an understanding of family and community health by describing the use of interpersonal communication skills to enhance health, explaining the elements of health care plans, and explaining advocacy for family and community health to avoid health risks.
Students will demonstrate an understanding of healthy eating by explaining the benefits of healthy eating habits, explaining tools for eating healthy, and summarizing strategies for healthy food choices.
Students will demonstrate an understanding of creating and maintaining healthy relationships by explaining the importance of treatment of others with dignity and respect, explaining the avoidance of substance abuse, and summarizing the daily practices of health-enhancing behaviors.
Experiences allow you to explore a career field you’re curious about while mastering competencies for school credit. Through experiential learning, you will learn skills and apply these skills to tasks you would complete as part of a career, rather than completing traditional assessments like essays or tests. During your experience, you’ll work with a professional in the field to support your learning. You’ll earn a badge for your accomplishments, which you can share on social media and higher education platforms, or with colleges, potential employers, peers, and/or colleagues to display your qualifications.
Here’s how experiences work:
Here’s an example:
Let’s say you’re curious about a career in healthcare. You decide you’d like to learn about this career area, make a professional connection, earn a badge and earn competencies for your 9th grade English requirement. While enrolled in English 1 Experiences, you conduct research to better understand language and structure in writing. Then, you work with an Occupational Therapist who helps you apply this understanding to the creation of an informational video. The video aims to advise the family members of patients regarding adaptive equipment and accommodations to help them support their family members as they go about their daily tasks. You’ve earned the Language and Structure in Writing competency! (This is just one example of the many ways experiences can bridge competencies to careers.)
*A parent/guardian permission form and background check of the outside expert are required for students to work with outside experts without parental supervision.
*Please have an idea for an outside expert in mind prior to enrollment or consult with our counseling department by emailing [email protected] prior to enrollment for support identifying one.
Students will demonstrate an understanding of managing physical and mental health by explaining the impact of healthy habits on overall wellness, explaining the body and mind connection and describing strategies for meeting health goals.
Students will demonstrate an understanding of avoiding and minimizing risky behaviors by summarizing factors that influence behavior, explaining the access of information and services to enhance health, and describing disease prevention.
Students will demonstrate an understanding of family and community health by describing the use of interpersonal communication skills to enhance health, explaining the elements of health care plans, and explaining advocacy for family and community health to avoid health risks.
Students will demonstrate an understanding of healthy eating by explaining the benefits of healthy eating habits, explaining tools for eating healthy, and summarizing strategies for healthy food choices.
Students will demonstrate an understanding of creating and maintaining healthy relationships by explaining the importance of treatment of others with dignity and respect, explaining the avoidance of substance abuse, and summarizing the daily practices of health-enhancing behaviors.
Discover how you can customize your learning based on your needs, interests, and talents.