The Sex Ed Open Learning (SEOL) Project strives to advance standards-based health and sexuality education throughout the State of Oregon and to ensure that high-quality lessons are available to all educators through accessible and openly licensed materials.
Through collaboration with numerous school districts, non-profit organizations, and educators, the Sex Ed Open Learning Project consists of a collection of nearly 40 openly licensed sexuality education lesson plans. Organizations from across the state of Oregon developed these lessons provided in conjunction with local youth voice and community input. The lessons were reviewed by other sexuality education experts, including the Oregon Department of Education.
These lesson plans span from kindergarten to twelfth grade and touch on topics ranging from anatomy, consent, reproduction, and health care access. All lessons are aligned with Oregon Health Education Standards and the Human Sexuality Education Rule, OAR 581-22-2050. All the lessons included in this collection are comprehensive, age-appropriate, inclusive, and present sexuality as a positive (not fear- or shame-based) and natural part of human development. These lessons are optional and accessible to any district or school, free of cost. For more information and to get started navigating the collection, please see the Sex Ed Open Learning User Guide.
This lesson is designed to help students learn to access health care on their own.
This lesson is designed to help students learn to access health care on their own.
Students will learn about the basics of sexual and reproductive anatomy, as well as periods and menstrual care. This lesson is not intended to be divided by gender. We recommend all students learn together, as there is value in understanding all body types and functions, additionally this practice can help students de-stigmatize the natural variations in bodies and experiences.
This lesson provides a brief overview of sexual and reproductive anatomy, and explains how to complete self exams of breasts and testicles. It reviews the basics of reproduction, and introduces the many ways of becoming parents. The final activity asks students to consider the many responsibilities of becoming a parent.
Students will learn about condoms as a form of contraception and STI prevention, as well as talk about safer sex strategies, communication, and how to reserach and access healthcare services and testing.
The lesson introduces students to various contraceptive methods used for pregnancy prevention. The lesson ends with a critical thinking exercise that asks students to figure out the best type of contraception for various teens in different situations.
This lesson reviews the basics of safer sex practices and contraception. It also introduces several laws in Oregon that revolve around consent, reproductive and sexual health access, medical consent, and more.
In this lesson we explore how bullying can affect us all, even when it’s not happening directly to us we might feel confused, scared, and uncomfortable. We read a book called Beautifully Me about a young girl who is confused about the ways people are talking about bodies- specifically large, or fat bodies. We talk about how feelings and emotions can be signals to us, sometimes they’re letting us know something in our world doesn't make sense and we might need help figuring it out. The lesson ends by thinking of the people/adults at home and school that they can go to for help.
This lesson focuses on treating others with respect regarding gender expression. In the lesson students use their culminating understanding of gender and gender expression to create paper dolls. Then they use the dolls to role play a respectful, affirming and inclusive approach to the gender expression of themselves and others.
Building on the Introduction to Healthy Relationships lesson by the same authors, this lesson expands students’ understanding of healthy relationships. Students will review what healthy relationships look and feel like. Students will focus on how to assess the health of their own romantic and platonic relationships. The lesson also expands on power dynamics, boundaries, and consent as appropriate for older high school students. After an in-depth, discussion-based presentation reviewing these concepts, students will apply an evaluation process to review the health of fictional relationships in small groups.
Over the course of five sessions the teacher reads five books aloud from the list of recommended texts found in the Educator's Materials section. The teacher asks a series of discussion questions and records the answers on a process grid/anchor chart.
In this lesson, students will deepen their understanding of gender expression through the use of anchor texts and a video. They will apply their understanding through a self-portrait that reflects an iteration of their gender expression.
Students will reflect on the value of diversity in their classroom and community. We will learn about the difference between gender identity and sexual orientation, and practice strategies for treating others with respect and honoring their personal boundaries.
In this lesson, students will learn about and practice the fundamentals of healthy communication and boundary-setting in order to strengthen healthy relationship skills. Students will identify characteristics of healthy & unhealthy relationships.
In this lesson, students will research how famous families came to be. They’ll work with their peers to uncover details about fertilization, gestation, and birth, as well as other aspects of the famous family’s story. Students will then demonstrate (orally or written) their understanding of the concepts from the past two lessons. They will also reflect on the role celebrities play in shaping our thoughts, feelings and behaviors around reproduction and families.
This first lesson (of three) explains sexual and reproductive anatomy, and human reproduction via penis-in-vagina sexual intercourse (PIV sex). During this lesson, the educator will model the use of respectful, inclusive concepts and language to describe the process of human reproduction and family formation.
This second lesson enables students to apply what they know about human reproduction via PIV sex (Lesson 1 of this series) to other means of reproduction. They will not only learn the steps in how insemination and IVF work to create a pregnancy, but they will also learn that people other than parents can provide the genetic material (eggs, sperm, and embryos) and give birth to a child for someone else (surrogates). Students will be working in small groups to help one another understand the concepts and to practice using the inclusive language that the educator modeled in the first lesson.
Students will learn about respecting the gender identities, gender expressions, and sexual orientations of themselves and others through scenarios. Student groups will interpret and present the scenarios to the class.
In this series of lessons students explore the concepts of gender and gender expression through the use of mentor texts. Over the course of five sessions, you will read five texts and complete a process grid highlighting key components of each text. Students then create an illustration of how to demonstrate care for people across the gender spectrum.
Students will explore the concept of gender expression through a sorting activity. Students will discuss showing respect for others.