This past semester, students in wellness classes have been learning about a wide variety of topics. After adapting the curriculum to better suit social distancing guidelines and COVID precautions, the wellness department continues to teach a variety of physical education subjects.

Kim Tenbrink, who is the chairperson of the physical education department, said, “Our health and wellness classes are working on mental health. Our Sports Medicine 1 classes are going to be talking about taping. Our IB class is learning about velocity when they are throwing a frisbee in different types of ways. Our APC classes and PC classes are doing their workouts. Our outdoor exploration classes are outside learning about fishing.”

Students in health and wellness education have just completed their unit on mental health. Krish Jayarapu, a junior in the class, said, “We learned about mental health and topics such as emotional intelligence, self-image, stress and mental illnesses. The most impactful topic I learned about was probably stress or depression (where) we learned different types of stress and how to cope with them, and for depression we learned about early signs, symptoms and treatments. They are the most impactful for me because I want to be there for my friends and help them when I see early signs of depression, and I can be there for my friends by helping them cope with stress too.”