How to Be Successful in... Human Reproductive Biology

Alfred Hoak

Human Reproductive Biology is a semester course that has been o ered for three years at Greenhill. It is only o ered to seniors who have at least a corequisite of biology.

e course was rst started to give students another opportunity to learn more about human development as well as sexual activity and reproduction.

“It was formed a er repeated feedback from students about how they had questions that went unanswered about sex and sexuality,” said Upper School science teacher Barry Ide. e class is broken up into several units, with the overarching goal of increasing students’ comfort and knowledge on topics related to sexual reproduction and activity.

“We start the semester o with identities and identi ers,” said Ide. “We then move to the evolution of both asexual and sexual reproduction. We talk about how multi-cellular bodies regulate themselves with hormones. is sets the stage for talking about puberty and typical human reproductive anatomy, how bodies generally develop, but also ways in which a body might develop in a way that is not o en seen. is then leads to relationships and people, sexual activity, and childbirth.”

We asked some students in Human Reproductive Biology – commonly known as HRB – about the class. Here is what they said:

“I was looking for a class to ll the spot of Econ, and I did some research in the course catalog and found HRB.

I read more about it and thought back to my unanswered questions about sex and thought this class would be a huge help to me. I can now make more informed decisions about my body and its health.” – senior Kailash Lele

“ e homework is mainly writing about our feelings about the content, rather than taking notes on the subject. is helps us apply the information and make deeper connections to our personal lives so that we can revisit what we learned if needed.” – senior Izabella Faber

“ e work we do in class is quite fun and interactive. It is super engaging and relevant. e work we do in class can actually relate to the real world, which I do not always feel applies to every class.” – senior Kailash Lele

“I would 100% recommend this class to others. e class teaches so much about reproductive health and maintaining healthy, consensual relationships. e course material is informative and taking it in the senior year is extremely bene cial because much of this knowledge will be useful in college and throughout our lives. e coursework isn’t necessarily light, but it’s not overwhelmingly di cult because you lead the re ections with your personal experience.”

– senior Izabella Faber

“Yeah, de nitely. is is one of my favorite classes this year. I look forward to every meeting. Not only is it informative, but it is engaging. I feel like not many teachers are able to [make] every class entertaining and productive.” – senior Kailash Lele

“Mr. Ide does a good job of keeping us accountable and making sure we are mature with the material. I know that some of the things we talk about could be found funny to many high schoolers, but he keeps us in line because the topics are far from funny and actually quite serious.” – senior Kailash

Lele

“I am de nitely embarrassed on some level to ask my questions, but I force myself to ask them because I know that they are important. ere is also a good chance that someone in the class has that very same question, as well. Even if no one thought of my question, it is still helpful to ask because we are better o knowing than being ignorant.”

– senior Aakash Vattikuti

“ is class will help me in college because it is teaching me the necessary skills with relationships and knowledge of sexual health, as well as helping me understand other individuals with their personal experiences and sexualities.”

– senior Izabella Faber