Planet Health Book

An evidence-based approach to health education

The second edition of Planet Health: An Interdisciplinary Curriculum for Teaching Middle School Nutrition and Physical Activity offers an innovative approach to teaching health education. You can use this proven, evidence-based curriculum to teach students about nutrition and physical activity while helping them build skills and competencies in language arts, math, science, social studies, and physical education. The curriculum is designed for use by teachers in the major subjects as well as in physical education and health.

This new edition includes revised nutrition and physical activity information, ensuring that you're equipped with the most up-to-date science. The book also includes an all-new CD-ROM with plenty of reproducible worksheets, parent information and newsletters, school health resources, and other teacher resource materials. Like the popular first edition, Planet Health provides

• 35 complete, ready-to-use lesson plans and 31 microunits that promote healthy nutrition and activity;
• materials and instructions to implement Power Down, a two-week campaign to reduce television and other media viewing time, which you can launch in the classroom or school-wide; and
• FitCheck, a self-assessment tool to help students track and improve their activity levels.

In addition, the book includes access to a Web site which features a teacher training PowerPoint presentation, a Planet Heath FAQ, and more. Planet Health, Second Edition, encourages students to think holistically about how health behaviors are interrelated, and it offers a constructivist approach to teaching and learning. With this approach, you can build on your students' knowledge and experiences to create an active, inquiry-based, student-centered learning environment--one in which students learn best as they construct meaning for themselves.

Developed by educators and scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health, Planet Health, Second Edition, is aligned with the Massachusetts Department of Education Curriculum Frameworks (learning standards) for health, language arts, math, science and technology, and history and social science, and it meets the standards in many other states. Every Planet Health lesson incorporates a range of language arts learning standards and engages students through discussion ideas for small or large groups in which they cooperatively learn and solve health-related issues. Active discussions are used to encourage higher-level thinking and cognition, and peer-group work fosters social development.

This new edition of Planet Health is the perfect antidote to kids' inactivity, poor food choices, and high levels of screen-viewing time. Acquiring good habits regarding nutrition and physical activity in adolescence often carries over into adulthood. Help your students develop good habits now with Planet Health, Second Edition, and they'll have a better chance of growing into healthy adults.

A resource for middle school language arts, math, science, social studies, health and physical education teachers; health and physical education directors, supervisors, chairs and administrators; and university faculty who teach physical education or health.