Notes
What health means
- Health is a balance of physical, mental and emotional, social, intellectual and environmental well-being. These dimensions are connected.
- Wellness is the ongoing effort to make choices that support all of them.
- Influences include heredity, environment, behavior, culture, peers, media and access to health care. Behavior is the part you control most.
Risk, protection and decisions
- A risk factor raises the chance of harm; a protective factor lowers it. Prevention acts before a problem begins.
- Decision steps: state the situation, list options, weigh outcomes and values, decide, then evaluate.
Goals and information
- SMART goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.
- Evaluate health information by checking the source, author, date, evidence and purpose. Be wary of miracle claims.
Topics in this unit
Each topic has its own short notes and practice.
Practice
Social health is one of the dimensions.
Heredity is fixed; the others are behaviors.
It lowers the chance of injury.
You compare consequences before choosing.
It is specific, measurable and has a time frame.
Extreme claims and selling are red flags.
Free response
Write your answer first, then open the scoring guide.
Free-response question
Maya wants to improve her health. She sleeps about 6 hours on school nights, feels tired in class, and often argues with her sister. She found an online article saying a special drink "fixes sleep forever."
(a) Name two dimensions of health affected by Maya's lack of sleep and explain how.
Show the answer and scoring guide
Physical health is affected because she is tired in class. Social health is affected because tiredness leads to arguments with her sister (emotional health is also acceptable).
Check off the points you earned:
(b) Write one SMART goal for Maya.
Show the answer and scoring guide
Maya will go to bed by 9:30 p.m. and wake at 6:30 a.m. at least 5 school nights a week for the next 4 weeks, tracking it on a calendar.
Check off the points you earned:
(c) Describe two ways Maya can judge whether the online article is trustworthy.
Show the answer and scoring guide
She can check whether it is written by a health professional or a reliable organization, and notice that "fixes forever" is an extreme claim. She can also compare it with a source such as a health agency or ask a doctor or school nurse.
Check off the points you earned: