The Art of Health Curriculum

The Curriculum

The mission of the Art of Health curriculum is to provide education on the science behind self-care and healthy habits. 

The curriculum  consists of education in physical/mental health correlation, neuroplasticity and brain function, the impact of sleep, and self-reflection practices. There is an interactive approach to the instruction with many opportunities for students to share their inquiries as the lesson continues. Interwoven within the presentation, research and studies done prior throughout the Missoula community are provided as sources for reliability in the curriculum’s credibility. 

  • The curriculum starts with discussing the question; what does it mean to be healthy? This is then confirmed as a combined state where mental, physical, emotional, and social states are regarded as “healthy”.

    The curriculum then delves into the mental health and physical correlation and factors that influence each section. By explaining the specific factors and explaining specific behaviors, the students have been reported to exhibit self-reflective thoughts.

    We then discuss the research and data collection done prior to the creation of the curriculum. This gives the students, especially of younger ages, a more complete perspective of the importance in developing good behaviors, as well as perspectives of peoples of different demographics on the same topic.

    The next subject is the logistics of the behaviors we previously discussed in the form of brain function and neuroplasticity. This is explained briefly, but accompanied with the connection of cell phone use, and examples of neuroplasticity within seconds

    Lastly in the discussion, we discuss how to develop good habits. Especially as middle schoolers about to enter highschool, it is existentially important for the development of beneficial habits before they have the greater levels of stress given by higher education.

After the interactive lecture has finished, a self-reflective art activity is initiated. Consisting of different steps to discuss different aspects of self reflection, a personalized, multi-media artwork is developed by each student. 

  • The instructions projected and described to the class is as following;

    Step One - choose a piece of paper and on the back write your name and if I you can would allow your activity to be put on website

    Step Two - use the magazines to collage a background(house, patter, landscape, people, etc.)

    Step Three - draw with colored pencils/markers your favorite part of yourself (hairstyle, eyes, earrings, outfit, jewelry, music taste, etc)

    Step Four - Paint an object/animal that represents your vibe (cat, dog, flower, car, rainbow, etc)

    Step Five - write a compliment (“Your style is really cool”, “I like your shoes”, “You always make me smile”, etc)

Explore data about the 7th-8th grade classes and the curriculum’s impact!