Page 72 - The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 9-12: Health and Physical Education, 2015 - revised

THE ONTARIO CURRICULUM, GRADES 9–12 | Health and Physical Education
and environmental leadership. The first goal is to promote learning about environmental issues and solutions. The second is to engage students in practising and promoting environmental stewardship, both in the school and in the community. The third stresses the importance of having organizations and individuals within the education system provide leadership by implementing and promoting responsible environmental practices throughout the system so that staff, parents, community members, and students become dedicated to living more sustainably.
The Healthy Active Living Education courses in health and physical education offer many opportunities for accomplishing these goals. The learning environments for health and physical education include the school grounds, fields and trails in the vicinity of the school, and various other outdoor venues. Teaching students to appreciate and respect the environment is an integral part of being active in these spaces. Appreciating the value of fresh air and outdoor spaces, understanding the environmental benefits of healthy practices such as active transportation and the environmental implications of various food choices, being aware of the impact of using trails, and understanding the health risks associated with environmental factors such as sun exposure and air pollution are all components of environmental education that are integrated with learning in health and physical education. To facilitate these connections, health and physical education teachers are encouraged to take students out of the classroom and into the world beyond the school to help students observe, explore, and appreciate nature as they discover the benefits of being active outdoors.
Living skills, which are integrated throughout the HALE program of the health and physical education curriculum, are also closely tied to environmental education. As students learn more about themselves through the development of personal skills, learn to work effectively and respectfully with others through the development of interpersonal skills, and acquire the capacity for systems thinking through the development of critical and creative thinking skills, they increase their capacity to make connections with the world around them and to become environmentally responsible citizens.
A resource document – The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 9–12: Environmental Education, Scope and Sequence of Expectations, 2011 – has been prepared to assist teachers in planning lessons that integrate environmental education with other subject areas. It identifies curriculum expectations and related examples and prompts in disciplines across the Ontario curriculum that provide opportunities for student learning “in, about, and/or for” the environment. Teachers can use this document to plan lessons that relate explicitly to the environment, or they can draw on it for opportunities to use the environment as
the context for learning. The document can also be used to make curriculum connections
to school-wide environmental initiatives. This publication is available on the Ministry of
Education’s website, at www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/teachers/enviroed/publications.html. HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS AND HEALTH AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION
Every student is entitled to learn in a safe, caring environment, free from violence
and harassment. Research has shown that students learn and achieve better in such environments. A safe and supportive social environment in a school is founded on healthy relationships – the relationships between students, between students and adults, and between adults. Healthy relationships are based on respect, caring, empathy, trust,
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