The Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences Education in Metcalfe County compiled a four unit curriculum in 2014/15, which has been actively in the pilot process, for fine tuning and revision; prior to submission for publication through University of Kentucky Family and Consumer Sciences Extension publication process.  The Metcalfe County FCS Agent has piloted it with freshmen and middle school eighth grade students, over the past four years.  For the 2018/19 program year, 97 Metcalfe County eighth grade students participated in the pilot.

This year the Mercer County Extension Agent for FCS Education came on to assist and piloted the curriculum, with 80 senior students in Mercer County Senior High School.  In a series of three weekly lessons, the Mercer County Extension Agent presented the curriculum through brief lecture, facilitated dialogue, and interactive practice of stress awareness and management techniques.

The main goals of this curriculum are to increase awareness of all forms of stress, its effects on the body and mind and to learn methods to build resilience, which is the ability to combat stress and recover quickly, from difficulties.

Eighth grade and senior students have been the focus of this pilot, due to the stressful  transitional nature of those grades, with eighth graders transitioning to high school and senior students transitioning to college and/or work in their adult lives.  Pre- and post-evaluations for this curriculum are conducted in Qualtrics, with students using school provided, internet enabled tablets to complete the pre-program evaluation prior to the 3 – 4 program sessions and then the post evaluation after completion.

Evaluation results consistently show increased awareness of personal stressors and how their bodies are affected by and reacting to the stressors they experience.  This result is promising as the first step to combating stress, is awareness of your personal stressors and how your body reacts to those stressful situations.  Students then learn stretching, deep breathing, meditation and ergonomics exercises that are simple and quick to practice and are designed to combat all forms of stress, physical, social and psychological. 

Evaluation results show increases in student’s awareness and use of methods, to combat symptoms of physical stress such as muscle tension and psychological stressors such as feeling hurried or pressured.  Participant awareness of the sleep requirements for their age group are also increased.  Students reporting getting four or fewer hours of sleep nightly is decreased, while students reporting seven to eight hours of sleep nightly in increased in the evaluation results.

Informal in the form of personal testimonies from Mercer students indicate transference of knowledge and skills with practical application and expressed value for the stress awareness and management experiences.