Overview | What is stress? How do the body and brain respond to it? Why is it important to understand the effects of stress? In this lesson, students learn about the physiological stress response, and then choose from a number of activities to explore various aspects of anxiety.
Materials | Computers with Internet access or projection equipment, several dice (optional)
Warm-Up | Tell students to close their eyes and recall a stressful event, paying close attention to their bodies’ responses as they mentally relive it. Then, ask students to open their eyes and write down the type of stressful event (like an interpersonal conflict or an upcoming test), the types of thoughts they had at the time (worst-case scenarios or self-doubt, for example), and their bodies’ responses (like a knot in the stomach or sweaty palms).