Major
Biological Sciences
Advisor
Fosu, Louis
Advisor Department
Political Science
Date
4-2020
Keywords
advocacy; education; contraception; curriculum
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.
Abstract
It is imperative that children and teens receive honest and well researched information when they are being taught sex education, particularly so they learn to care about their sexual health and protect their own bodies.
In order to learn where there are gaps or insufficiencies in this sex education in the state of Rhode Island, twenty superintendents from public schools across the state were contacted by email and phone and asked to share their curriculum and resources. Of the eight that supplied their school curriculums, I found three points I felt were deficient in sex education: (1) human anatomy is rarely reviewed at the high school level; (2) schools are not providing enough class time each year for sex education; and (3) contraception is not taught until later years when children are potentially already experimenting with sex. Furthermore, the information provided to students on contraception lacks important details and is not thoroughly transparent about the harmful effects of certain birth control methods. Therefore, I sought to: (A) create resources such as PowerPoints and guides that could be distributed statewide; and (B) recommend a revised curriculum to provide students with a more comprehensive learning experience.
The first resource I decided to create is a PowerPoint on contraception where I: (i) listed the methods of birth control or contraception available; (ii) provided recommendations on the safest contraception methods; and (iii) detailed and explained when specific methods of contraception should be avoided for health reasons. For educators, I created a document that further explains these facts, provides them with the research I conducted and sources, and emphasizes teaching young girls about the safest methods of birth control for their own body’s optimal health. I then crafted a PowerPoint on human anatomy. Currently, I am creating a website which will house all of this information as well as additional resources.
Lastly, I had planned to end the semester by presenting all of these findings to Rhode Island school superintendents, the governor of Rhode Island or her chief of staff and the URI Women’s Center. While this is no longer possible this semester, I will be distributing my work widely through the internet and email connections in hopes of impacting the current curriculums in public schools.
Poster presented at the honors conference summarizing the project