Essential Health Skills for High School, 5th Edition
By: Catherine Sanderson, Mark Zelman, Diane Farthing, Melanie Lynch, and Melissa MunsellCopyright: 2025
Subject: Health: High School
Grade Level: 9-12
- Essential Health Skills for High School provides the skills and information students need to make responsible decisions and promote a lifetime of health and wellness. This fifth edition features cutting-edge, contemporary health topics, such as public health, social justice, opioids, social media, mindfulness, empathy and resilience, health disparities, and much more. Two companion texts that include information about human development, relationships, and sexual health are also available. Content and skills align to the National Health Education Standards.
- Each module contains skills-based activities that align to each health skill area in the National Health Education Standards. These activities were created by award-winning health instructors. Each health and wellness topic focuses on the skills students can use to make healthy decisions and promote health.
- Up-to-date terminology and new topics make Essential Health Skills for High School the most current text available. Extensive supplements include customizable lesson plans, skills-based activities, parent/other trusted adult engagement assignments in English and Spanish, performance assessments for differentiation with rubrics, workbook activities in English and Spanish, videos, audio summaries, and content updates. All handouts are editable Word DOCX files that provide greater flexibility in their use.
- High-interest special features encourage deeper thinking about health topics. Features such as Health in the Media connect concepts to experiences with media, including social media. Local and Global Health features help students analyze social determinants of health and apply skills in their own communities and globally. Skills for Health and Wellness features demonstrate how health skills can be used in real-life situations.
- Products & Prices 6-12 Education
- Table of Contents
- Essential Health Skills for High SchoolModule 1: Health Fundamentals and Skills
- Lesson 1.1: What Are Health and Wellness?
- Lesson 1.2: Individual Factors Affecting Health and Wellness
- Lesson 1.3: Environmental Factors Affecting Health and Wellness
- Lesson 1.4: Making Decisions and Setting Goals
- Lesson 1.5: Using Health Information
- Lesson 1.6: Accessing Health Services
- Lesson 1.7: Advocating for Community and Public Health
- Lesson 1.8: Communicating Effectively
- Lesson 1.9: Resolving Conflicts
- Lesson 1.10: Resisting Pressure
- Lesson 2.1: Mental and Emotional Health and Well-Being
- Lesson 2.2: Embracing Your Identity
- Lesson 2.3: Building Your Self-Esteem
- Lesson 2.4: Improving Your Body Image
- Lesson 2.5: Expressing Your Emotions
- Lesson 2.6: Establishing a Positive Mind-Set
- Lesson 2.7: Developing Empathy and Resilience
- Lesson 3.1: Understanding Stress and Other Adverse Events
- Lesson 3.2: Coping Strategies for Stress and Other Events
- Lesson 3.3: What Are Mental Illnesses?
- Lesson 3.4: Disordered Eating and Eating Disorders
- Lesson 3.5: Getting Help for Mental Illnesses
- Lesson 3.6: Preventing Suicide and Coping with Grief
- Lesson 4.1: What Is Nutrition?
- Lesson 4.2: Having a Healthy Eating Pattern
- Lesson 4.3: Choosing and Preparing Healthy Foods
- Lesson 4.4: Understanding Physical Activity and Fitness
- Lesson 4.5: Getting Enough Physical Activity
- Lesson 5.1: Safe Medication Use
- Lesson 5.2: Medication Misuse and Abuse
- Lesson 5.3: Health Effects of Vaping and Tobacco
- Lesson 5.4: Health Effects of Alcohol
- Lesson 5.5: Other Drug Misuse
- Lesson 5.6: Preventing and Treating Substance Use, Misuse, and Abuse
- Lesson 6.1: Preventing Accidents and Injuries
- Lesson 6.2: Performing First Aid
- Lesson 6.3: Handling Dangerous Situations
- Lesson 6.4: Being Safe on the Internet
- Lesson 6.5: Understanding the Environment
- Lesson 6.6: Protecting Your Environment
- Lesson 7.1: Personal Hygiene
- Lesson 7.2: Sleep
- Lesson 7.3: What Causes Diseases?
- Lesson 7.4: Recognizing Communicable Diseases
- Lesson 7.5: Preventing and Treating Communicable Diseases
- Lesson 7.6: Cardiovascular Diseases
- Lesson 7.7: Cancer
- Lesson 7.8: Other Noncommunicable Diseases
- Lesson 8.1: Qualities of a Healthy Relationship
- Lesson 8.2: Supporting Family and Community Relationships
- Lesson 8.3: Developing Peer Relationships
Human Development and Relationships Companion TextModule 9: Development, the Human Life Cycle, and Relationships- Lesson 9.1: The Male Reproductive System
- Lesson 9.2: The Female Reproductive System
- Lesson 9.3: Conception, Pregnancy, and Birth
- Lesson 9.4: Understanding Development
- Lesson 9.5: Adolescence and Puberty
- Lesson 9.6: Understanding Romantic Relationships
- Lesson 9.7: Practicing Sexual Abstinence
- Lesson 10.1: Bullying and Cyberbullying
- Lesson 10.2: Sexual Harassment and Assault
- Lesson 10.3: Abuse and Neglect
- Lesson 10.4: Violence in the Community
- Lesson 11.1: Common STIs
- Lesson 11.2: HIV/AIDS
- Lesson 11.3: Preventing and Treating STIs
- Lesson 11.4: Teen Pregnancy and Parenthood
Human Development, Relationships, and Sexual Health Companion TextModule 9: Development, the Human Life Cycle, and Relationships- Lesson 9.1: The Male Reproductive System
- Lesson 9.2: The Female Reproductive System
- Lesson 9.3: Conception, Pregnancy, and Birth
- Lesson 9.4 Understanding Development
- Lesson 9.5: Adolescence and Puberty
- Lesson 9.6: Understanding Romantic Relationships
- Lesson 9.7: Practicing Sexual Abstinence
- Lesson 10.1: Bullying and Cyberbullying
- Lesson 10.2: Sexual Harassment and Assault
- Lesson 10.3: Abuse and Neglect
- Lesson 10.4: Violence in the Community
- Lesson 11.1: Common STIs
- Lesson 11.2: HIV/AIDS
- Lesson 11.3: Preventing and Treating STIs
- Lesson 11.4: Teen Pregnancy and Parenthood
- Lesson 12.1: Aspects of Sexuality
- Lesson 12.2: What Is Contraception?
- Lesson 12.3: Barrier Methods
- Lesson 12.4: Hormonal Methods
- Lesson 12.5: Natural Methods and Sterilization
- The Look Inside images are for preview purposes only. The format of the actual product may vary from the images shown.
- Correlations
- HECATIndianaHealth and Wellness - Grades 9 – 12 (PDF, 634.51 KB)National StandardsEssential Companion Text: Human Development and Relationships (PDF, 240.24 KB)Essential Health Skills for High School (PDF, 201.34 KB)
- About the Author(s)