Health Exploration (Quarter)

Exploratory wheel courses help students to define current living and learning needs, as well as future school and life decisions. An elective course scheduled during one period of the school day, groups of students cycle through a series of “mini-courses” over the period of a year. The “wheel” is intended to allow students to explore various high interest topics in separate subject areas—such as art, music, drama, world languages, sports or recreation, video production, environmental education, computer applications, business, etc. The exploratory wheel provides variety and a range of courses in various disciplines, and helps to ease students’ transition into high school by introducing them to areas they may later want to explore more in depth. Course topics should be selected for their interest and relevance to students and their ability to meet students’ needs, as well as capitalize on teachers’ strengths and interests. Topics should allow for risk-taking, experimentation, and student choice. They should invite further exploration by providing either an initial overview into an area of specialty or allow students to explore a specialized area of a discipline, e.g., exploring visual art through photography. The topics making up the wheel should be electives, i.e., not from the required program. Other opportunities for students to learn essential content should be provided through other courses.