In this year-long course, students will engage in a wide variety of individual and team activities that promote lifelong wellness. Units include team sports, such as soccer, basketball, and racket sports, as well as lifetime wellness activities. This course also incorporates character building and problem solving activities that enhance communication skills and critical thinking. Eight weeks will be spent in the classroom covering topics including personal health and managing risk, cultural competency and ethical leadership, nutrition and healthy eating patterns, eating disorders, and the human stress response. Students will also be trained in the basics of CPR/First Aid. Students will then examine risks associated with alcohol and vaping on both a personal and societal level. The course will conclude with a discussion of human sexuality.

In this semester course, students will engage in a wide variety of individual and team activities that promote kinesthetic learning and lifelong wellness. Units include team sports, such as flag football and volleyball, racket sports, as well as lifetime wellness activities such as yoga and golf. Students will also engage in units on cultural competency and ethical leadership. Additionally students will work on cross-curricular assessments that will ask them to apply what they learn in other disciplines to sports and physical fitness. Assessments include the historical aspects of sport, the physics involved in athletics, sports commentary and writing, and statistical analysis.

In this semester course, students will be introduced to the principles of integrative health. Integrative health provides students with a holistic understanding of wellness, including mental, emotional, functional, communal, and social aspects. Students are provided with tools for understanding themselves, others, and the world, and the interdependence of the three. Through conversations, activities, and assessments,students apply and integrate concepts into their lives and develop long-term competencies.

Abnormal psychology includes unusual mental, emotional, and/or behavioral patterns. This course will introduce students to methods utilized to identify mental illness as well as modalities to treat them. There are a myriad of counseling theories and practices, and some forms are better utilized with certain types of mental illness. This course will explore how practitioners identify, diagnose, and treat individuals with mental illness.

Preference given to rising juniors who have an additional semester Wellness requirement.

This course introduces students to the systematic and scientific study of human cognition and behavior. While considering the psychologists and studies that have shaped the field, students explore and apply psychological theories, key concepts in the areas of the biological bases of behavior, sensation and perception, learning and cognition, developmental psychology, and treatments of psychological disorders. Students study psychological research methods throughout the course, including ethical considerations, as they evaluate claims and evidence and effectively communicate ideas.
This is an high-level course that will require strong reading and writing skills. Students will have the option at the end of the course to take the AP-Advanced Placement exam. Interested students will need to submit an application and interview with the course instructors prior to admission.

Through health and wellness courses during their freshman and sophomore years, students have learned how to apply health concepts to their own personal well-being. Introduction to Public Health will focus on how to apply health concepts such as chemical health, reproductive health, and mental health to a community population. We will dive into how public health programs and practices have the opportunity to create systematic change in the well-being of communities. By the end of the semester, students will create a communication plan for educating the public on a health topic and how to change their behavior to be healthier as well as a public health program on a topic of their choice.

Preference given to rising juniors who have an additional semester Wellness requirement.

This course will provide students with the tools necessary to understand nutrition as it pertains to their lives. Through study of the physiological requirements and functions of the basic nutrients, students will explore various aspects of nutrition in a project-based context. Topic areas will include the influence of nutrition and diet on health, illness and sports performance. Students will also be investigating nutritional controversies faced by consumers, generational differences in nutrition requirements, and the range of nutritional standards and practices found in other cultures.

The Peer Group at Morristown Beard is a semester course for juniors and seniors designed to teach leadership techniques as well as group facilitation and communication skills. Complementing their course work, Peer Group students lead weekly meetings for freshmen advisory groups, facilitating discussion on topics pertinent to High School transition issues.

Social Media is an enormous part of our lives. Everyone uses some sort of social media in today's cultural and technological environment. This course will look at where social media came from and how media culture evolved over time. We will look at social media in other countries, consider the similarities and differences, and examine why such similarities and differences exist. We will spend a significant amount of time looking at social media and how parts of the brain react to it. From a neurological perspective social media affects different brain functions in unique ways; hence we will dive deeper into how social media habits can turn into social media additions. We will also consider digital citizenship and the importance of establishing appropriate boundaries in the digital world.

The Science of Happiness course aims to explore the philosophical, psychological, and neurobiological markers for the elusive thing we call “happiness.” As a class, we will venture across different fields of study, uncovering answers to the following questions: Does universal happiness exist, or does the meaning of happiness vary from person to person? How do we define and maintain this subjective feeling of happiness? According to psychology, what are the key factors for achieving a purposeful, holistic, integrated, and, as a result, happy life? You may be surprised at what you learn and through the process you may become more mindful about your own “pursuit of happiness.” Engage in thoughtful discussion, view fascinating videos, analyze scientific articles, and create personalized projects to find out what “happiness” means to you.

This course is designed for juniors and seniors who want to pursue a career in sports medicine or for students who have a general interest in the field of sports medicine. Topics such as basic anatomy, physiology, etiology of athletic injuries, treatment and rehabilitation options will be studied.