Decisions

A WebQuest for 8^th Grade Health (sexuality)

With thanks to JoAnne Thaw and Mimi Zwolak

Step 1/Step 2/Step 3/Step 4/Step 5/Step 6/Step 7

Introduction

One of your friends has been going with her boyfriend for three months and is convinced they are in love. She tells you that they want to be together in every way and lately they have been talking about having sex. She believes most everybody at school already had sex and she tells you she really can't think of any good reasons to wait. She wants to show her boyfriend how much she really cares and her boyfriend brings it up more and more.

You have decided that abstinence is the best choice for someone your age. You know there are others your age that feel the same way you do and others who feel the way your friend does. You want to give your friend and others good reasons to abstain. This project will give you an opportunity to gather a significant amount of new information that will help you understand components of your sexuality and make good decisions about abstaining from sex for your own health and well being.

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The Task

Your task is to gether information on self-esteem, decision making, goal setting, andon aides and other STD's (sexually transmitted diseases). You will use this information to help you convince others why abstinence is the best choice. You will find

Physical

Social

Emotional

Moral and spiritual

reasons to persuade your peers to make the decision to practice abstinence.

You will produce:

A brochure you could leave in the town library with information about
abstinence which will include the findings on the topics of
self-esteem
decision making
goal setting
aids and other STD's
abstinence
Comment in writing to a journal daily about how you feel about the
information you find.

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The Process

You will explore this topic by looking at it from different persepctives or roles.

The school social worker will examine the social issues
The school nurse who will discuss the physical aspects
The school counselor who will research the emotional concerns
The parent who is concerned with the morality and spirituality of their children

Many of the assignments will allow you to learn as you go, but the final product, your brochure, will have components included from each of the four roles. So keep each in mind as you proceed.

Step 1 :

Go to these sites:

http://www.self-esteem-nase.org/jssurvey.shtml and

http://www.selfesteem4women.com/index.php and take the assessments to help you gain insight about yourself, your self esteem and your relationships.

Also visit other listed sites on self esteem:

http://www.kathygloverscott.com/kgs-esteemnewage.html Definition of self-esteem
http://www.self-esteem-nase.org/journal02.shtml Article on Self-Esteem and it's relationship to Alcohol and Substance Abuse Prevention in Adolescents also on decision-making and sexual activity
http://www.self-esteem-nase.org/journal01.shtml Good article on self-esteem

Written Assignment

Write a short paragraph on self-esteem and what the assessment tells you about yourself. Be sure to list your strengths. Save in your Life Decisions file.

Go to various sites on abstinence and read the material on the topic.

http://www.abstinence.net/NewsEvents_detail.cfm?WhatsNewID=45 Sex without marriage often ruins people’s health and well being
http://www.days.org/americapure.html Good essays and articles on abstinence written by students
http://www.share-program.com/teen.htm A site on abstinence for teens
http://www.worldwidegroovecorp.com/abstinence/ Steps Toward Premarital Sexual Abstinence

Written Assignment

Write a definition of abstinence and your personal views on the topic. Your paragraph on self-esteem and the definition and personal view of abstinence may be on one page to be saved in your Life Decisions file.

See Rubric

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Step 2 :

Creative Assignment:

Draw a picture that that describes you--your values, interests, and beliefs. Use all the information you have explored to clarify what you really know about what you feel and believe. We will have an opportunity to talk about your drawing later and you can tell me how the picture describes you.

See Rubric

Step 3

"In the United States, more than 65 million people are currently living with an incurable sexually transmitted disease (STD). An additional 15 million people become infected with one or more STD's each year, roughly half of whom contract lifelong infections…" (Trends in STD's in the United States –Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Using different Internet resources listed below, find information on Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD’s). These must include the following, but may include others you find:

Chlamydia
Gonorrhea
Genital Warts
Herpes (Human Papilloma Virus [HPV])
HIV/AIDS
Syphilis

Written Assignment

Make a table in MS Word with columns for the following categories.

STD
listing the symptoms
consequences
treatment for each of the STD’s

Include some statistical information about our state of New Jersey and STD’s. File you chart in you Life Decisions file when you are finished.

See Rubric

Internet Resources:

http://www.cdc.gov/nchstp/dstd/disease_info.htm#GenInfo Information and facts on STD’s from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
http://www.cdc.gov/nchstp/dstd/Stats_Trends/Trends2000.pdf Statistics on STD’s
http://www.i-std.com/ STD's and information about them
http://www.state.nj.us/health/cd/stdhome.htm Facts and general informatin as well as statistics on STD's in New Jersey

Written Assignment

Answer the following questions using any of the resources you have viewed so far, with the ones above being your primary resources.

See Rubric

How are STD’s spread? What is the best way to prevent STD’s?
What are some common symptoms of STD’s?
What happens if an STD is not treated?
Where can an adolescent go to get information about STD’s?
Where can an adolescent go to get tested and get treatment for an STD?

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Step 4

Research information on goal-setting and set goals for yourself from now until you are about 21 years old (the time you would graduate from college if that is in your goals).

Internet Resources:

http://www.about-goal-setting.com/goal-setting.htm Take the 20 minute goal setting tutorial
http://www.w-cpc.org/sexuality/teensex.html Decisions about sex
http://www.thebody.co/siecus/teentalk.html Teens talk about sexuality, relationships, decision making, and STDs

Written Assignment

List two or more goals you want to set for yourself based on your considerations of what you want to do between now and 21 years old. Keep your goals more long-range like wanting to go to college to become a vetenarian rather than short terms such as wanting to go on vacation next summer. Now consider the barriers that will keep you from reaching your goals and then write a brief summary on how being sexually active might affect your goal.

See Rubric

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Step 5:

Written Assignment

After studying several of the resources listed, come up with between three and seven reasons why abstinence is a good choice for adolescents. Now write a paragraph (more if you choose) for each of the reasons you listed from the perspective or point of view of

The “social worker” who would write the social reasons for abstinence
The “counselor” should write the emotionalreasons
The “nurse” should write the physical/medical reasons, and
The “parent” should write the moral and spiritual reasons.

See Rubric

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Step 6:

Designing your Brochure

Now you should begin planning your brochure. You should include:

the definition of abstinence
brief explanation of how self-esteem affects the decisions we make
list the STD’s , symptoms, and consequences
the reasons for abstinence from the four points of view (nurse, counselor, social worker, parent). They should be listed as social, emotional, physical, and moral and spiritual.
show your commitment to abstinence and make it convincing to others
the brochure should be creative and appealing to the eye
the brochure should persuade others to decide that abstinence is the best choice for adolescents.

See Rubric that I will use to evaluate your brochure.

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Step 7

Creative Assignment

Think of ways other than sexual intercourse to show affection and ways to say no as well as steps to take to help you stay abstinent. Create a poster that gets your point across. Your goal is to promote abstinence and convince everyone that sees it to choose abstinence. It needs to be serious and persuasive.

Good resource:http://www.worldwidegroovecorp.com/abstinence/

See Rubric

Resources

When using internet sources it is easy to lose your focus.These sites have been selected for you to save time in your research. Stay on task while you are searching these sites.You may use many other resources besides the web. Use at least five different sources for your information and at least 3 of them must be from the internet

§Keep a bibliography of your references and include it in all your assignmentsand presentations.

The following site will help you with your bibliography: http://www.noodletools.com This site allows you to create a MLA style. It is a great tool!

http://www.self-esteem-nase.org/jssurvey.shtml Self Esteem Assessment
http://www.selfesteem4women.com/index.php Gain insight about yourself, your self esteem and your relationships.
http://www.kathygloverscott.com/kgs-esteemnewage.html Definition of self-esteem
http://www.self-esteem-nase.org/journal02.shtml Article on Self-Esteem and it's relationship to Alcohol and Substance Abuse Prevention in Adolescents also on decision-making and sexual activity
http://www.self-esteem-nase.org/journal01.shtml Good article on self-esteem
http://www.abstinence.net/NewsEvents_detail.cfm?WhatsNewID=45 Sex without marriage often ruins people’s health and well being
http://www.days.org/americapure.html Good essays and articles on abstinence written by students
http://www.share-program.com/teen.htm A site on abstinence for teens
http://www.worldwidegroovecorp.com/abstinence/ Steps Toward Premarital Sexual Abstinence
http://www.cdc.gov/nchstp/dstd/disease_info.htm#GenInfo Information and facts on STD’s from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
http://www.cdc.gov/nchstp/dstd/Stats_Trends/Trends2000.pdf Statistics on STD’s
http://www.i-std.com/ STD's and information about them
http://www.state.nj.us/health/cd/stdhome.htm Facts and general informatin as well as statistics on STD's in New Jersey
http://www.about-goal-setting.com/goal-setting.htm Take the 20 minute goal setting tutorial
http://www.w-cpc.org/sexuality/teensex.html Decisions about sex
http://www.thebody.co/siecus/teentalk.html Teens talk about sexuality, relationships, decision making, and STDs
http://www.worldwidegroovecorp.com/abstinence/ Good resource

Interviews with adults knowledgeable about the subject

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Evaluation

You will do a self assessment and the teacher will do an assessment using the same rubric.

your daily journal worth 16 points
the STD table worth 32 points (Step 3)
the brochure worth 64 points (Step 6)

(total 112)

See Rubric

You will earn an individual grade for each of the individual assignments:

Paragraph on self-esteem (Step 1)
Definition and view on abstinence (Step 1)
Your picture describing your values, interests, and beliefs (Step 2)
Answers to 5 questions (Step 3)
Goal-making assignment (Step 4)
The reasons for abstaining from the perspective of the roles (Step 5)
Poster on showing affection (Step 7)

(16 points each = 112)

This Quest will be worth 224 points.

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Assignment Rubric

	Beginning 1	Developing 2	Accomplished 3		Exemplary 4	Possible points	Self-assessment	Teacher Assessment
Research & gather information	Finds little information that relates to the topic. Needs constant reminders to stay on task	Finds basic information and partially completes assignment	Utilized resources to gain new ideas.	Used resources to gain excellent information to give thoughtful insight into each part of the assignment		4
Neatness	Hand written and not always clear.	Hand written or computer generated with many misspelled words, incomplete sentences, and poor grammar.	Neatly hand written with few spelling and/or grammatical errors. Pages not torn out of a notebook	Typewritten with no spelling or grammatical errors on smooth, clean, white sheets		4
Content	Assignment turned in by due date, but lacks depth in coverage of the topic and clearly shows lack of effort and planning.	Assignment turned in with basic information, but lacks organization.	Complete coverage of the topic, assignment well planned and clear.	Assignment shows understanding of the material and how it relates to the individual. Shows critical thinking and personal experience is integrated where relevant and appropriate. Very clear and organized.		4
Final Product	Assignment is incomplete. Contains missing details. Not completely accurate. Does not show understanding of the question	Assignment is complete, but does not show complete understanding of the question	Student answers the questions in a way that reflects learning, using, some detail and accuracy.	Used the information in a meaningful way to create an original product that clearly answers the question with accuracy, detail and understanding.		4

Conclusion

When you have completed all assignments, you will have learned something about your own self-esteem, goal-setting, STD’s, and how this information affects your decision-making. You will also be able to identify multiple ways to say “no” to sexual activity. As you socialize with your peers you will be able to discuss why abstinence is the best decision for someone your age and its impact on your life from four perspectives; medical, social, ethical/spiritual, and emotional.

Credits and References

Graphics from Microsoft Gallery and Online Gallery

Special thanks to JoAnne Thaw for the structure resources of the web site and to Mimi Zwolak, Vickie Schuler, and Boonie Derisley for the original idea.

Last updated on June 2004 by Joyce Valenza