A New Touch to the Health Program

Beginning with the 2019-2020 school year, the administration at Keystone Oaks High School decided that it was time to ditch the old health cyber program for a new one.

The old cyber program, Odysseyware, ran its time short, not only in the health class, but also in other subjects due to not meeting the common core that the state of Pennsylvania expects.

After gaining inspiration from other schools, Keystone Oaks finally decided to switch its cyber program to Edgenuity. This program is more rigorous and in depth to what is happening in the world right now. This health program is aimed to take up to 85 to 90 hours to complete.

“I feel like I would retain the information from this class much better if this course was taught in class rather than online.” States high school junior Tess Everett

This new health program entails 3 video lessons then a test that follows. Also, there are multiple open-ended questions that must be completed. A series of deadlines must be reached in this class to help students from falling behind at the last minute. The health must be completed by June for all 11th graders. After completion, they will earn a .5 credit, helping them graduate.

Junior, Harrison Flemming states that, “The videos are unskippable causing the lessons take so long.”

This sparked a mix of reactions from students who are enrolled in the class now. While some like the idea of a more in-depth health class, many other students disagree with how much time and effort this class really takes. Students are being asked to complete this 85-90-hour course, while also being able to complete school work and extracurricular activities on top of that.

High school junior Cassidy Angle said the most challenging part about completing this assignment is “the tough open-ended questions and the fact that you cannot go back to watch the videos once you start answering the questions.”

Although many feel that the new health program is meaningless, some find this course helpful in gaining new knowledge that they never knew before. Also, others feel that this course may help them in their future.

Maria Fratangelo said, “This class will benefit me in the future personally because I am planning on going into the health field for college.”