Conception and Pregnancy

Overview

This lesson focuses on learning how conception occurs, what happens during each stage of pregnancy, including childbirth, and what options teens may have if they or their partners become pregnant.

Learning Targets

  • Explain what happens during conception.
  • Identify what happens in each of the trimesters of pregnancy.
  • Analyze the options you have if you or your partner is pregnant.
  • Compare and contrast the differences between becoming a parent while in high school and becoming a parent after high school.

Preparation

For the Warm-Up Activity: Write the journal question on the board or identify (and copy as needed) the worksheets you plan to use.

For the Content Focus: Open the Conception and Pregnancy PowerPoint slides or make copies of the Note-Taking Guide.

For the Lesson Focus: Copy the Accessing Information Skill-Building Challenge Worksheet.

Warm-Up Activity

Select a warm-up activity to help get your class focused and on task.

  • Journal Question: If you were to become pregnant or get someone pregnant, list three ways you think your life may change in the next nine months and three ways your life may change over the next five years.
    • Option: Write or project the question and have students respond in their journals as they enter class.
    • Option: Have students discuss the question with a partner or in a small group.
  • Vocabulary Review: Have students work individually, in pairs, or in small groups to complete the Conception and Pregnancy Vocabulary Review Worksheet.
  • Quiz: Have students complete the Conception and Pregnancy Quiz to assess their prior knowledge.
    • Option: Collect the quiz and use it alongside a posttest to demonstrate student learning.
    • Option: Have students share their answers with a partner and then go over the answers together as a class.

Lesson Content

Review the content from the textbook lesson.

Lesson Focus: Accessing Information

  1. Provide each student with a copy of the Accessing Information Skill-Building Challenge Worksheet.
  2. If students were to become a teen parent at this time, they would be responsible for raising their child. Have them use the Internet and Accessing Information skill cues to locate valid and reliable information for their state and area to answer the questions on the worksheet.
  3. Review the assignment directions with the class and review the skill cues for accessing valid and reliable information with students.
  4. Option: Have students work individually to complete the worksheet.
    Option: Assign students to work with partners to complete the worksheet.
  5. When students have found answers to all the questions, ask them to compare and contrast their answers with a partner (if they worked individually) or with a small group (if they worked with a partner to get the information).
  6. Discuss as a class: Talk about the information students found—was the information similar between groups and partners? Was it shocking or not shocking?
  7. Optional: Have students reflect on the answers they wrote for their journal warm-up activity and share how this new information applies to what they originally wrote. (Does it change their answer?)

Challenge Activity

Have students needing additional challenge work on the following critical thinking task:

If you were to become a teen parent today, how would your life need to change to take care of your child? List the things you currently do that you would no longer be able to do with a child.

Reflection and Summary

Review the critical content from today’s lesson. Review the learning targets and ask students to answer each question posed.

Can you...

  • Explain what happens during conception?

    Conception is the union of an ovum and a sperm primarily through sexual intercourse. When ovulation occurs, an ovum is released into a fallopian tube. If sperm are also present in the fallopian tube, the ovum may be fertilized.

  • Identify what happens in each of the trimesters of pregnancy?

    First trimester: The fertilized ovum becomes an embryo. The embryo begins to develop arms, legs, and internal organs and receives oxygen and nutrients from the umbilical cord, which is attached to the placenta. Second trimester: The fetus begins to breathe amniotic fluid, and the organs continue to develop. Brain waves develop. Third trimester: The baby has a fully formed brain and nervous system and begins to build up fat for energy and warmth in preparation for birth.

  • Analyze the options you have if you or your partner is pregnant?

    You can keep the baby and become a teen parent, give the baby up for adoption, or end the pregnancy through an abortion.

  • Compare and contrast the differences between becoming a parent while in high school and becoming a parent after high school?

    If teens become parents before finishing high school, they often have difficulty finding a good-paying job, struggle to pay their bills as well as taking care of their child’s needs like diapers and formula, which can both be very expensive, and they often have to live with a family member. Some benefits of finishing high school before becoming a parent include establishing a career, being financially able to take care of the child, having less debt and being more patient with their child.

Assessment

Complete one or more of the following assessment tasks for this lesson.

Take It Home

Talk to the adults in your home about the responsibilities of having children. Ask them about the emotional, physical, and social changes they experienced after having children. Ask them what the best and the most difficult things have been about having children.