Key Messages
- Human development refers to the physical, social, and emotional changes that occur across the lifespan.
- Individuals develop at their own rate.
Learning Intention
Students will: Explore human development across the lifespan.
Time
60 minutes
Required Resources
- ‘Timeline of Human Growth and Development ‘cards.
- Blu-tac.
Teaching Notes
Puberty refers to the physical changes in a person's body to prepare for reproduction. Puberty can occur at any time between the ages of 8-18. Puberty usually takes a few years.
Adolescence is an umbrella term which includes social, emotional, and
cognitive changes.
When discussing death, it is important to be sensitive to individual
students who may have experienced loss in their lives
Procedure
- Draw a timeline on the board starting at ‘Birth' and ending in ‘Death'.
- As a class, students to arrange all of the different stages in a human being’s life, such as conception, birth, baby, toddler, child, tween, teenager, young adult, adult, middle age, old age, and death along the line.
- Decide as a class where puberty and adolescence occurs on the
timeline.
Extension
- Divide students into groups and allocate each group with one stage of life.
- Each group member is expected to actively participate by listing and illustrating the physical, social, and emotional changes that occur at their allocated life stage. They should record these changes on paper.
- Once complete, all work can be shared with the class. Teachers and students to provide feedback. When debriefing, emphasise that this is a guideline to life stages and the changes are predictable, but timing will vary from one person to another.
Questioning
- What are some changes that occur at each stage of the lifespan?
- Where does puberty fit in this timeline?
- What are the changes of puberty?
- How do these changes affect an individual in terms of how they think and feel about themselves?
- What are some things people look forward to or not look forward to when reaching a particular stage of the lifespan?