Sports, Exercise and Health Science (SEHS) is one of the subjects that a student might consider a bit more practical in their daily life, as it discusses topics such as workouts, first aid, healthy nutrition, and much more.
The main change in the new IB SEHS curriculum is to focus more on understanding the workings behind some concepts and getting to the core of the mechanisms behind the concepts.
The new curriculum was implemented in August 2024, with the first assessment in May 2026. Here are a few key updates about the course.
Course structure
SEHS SL has 150 teaching hours, while HL has 240 hours. The course is divided into three main themes, where each theme is broken down into a couple of specific topics:
- Exercise physiology and nutrition of the human body
1.1 Communication
1.2 Hydration and Nutrition
1.3 Response
- Biomechanics
2.1 Generating movement in the body
2.2 Forces, motion and movement
2.3 Injury
- Sports psychology and motor learning
3.1 Individual differences
3.2 Motor learning
3.3 Motivation
3.4 Stress and coping
3.5 Psychological skills
- Options (both HL and SL students have to pick two of these)
4.1 Optimizing physiological performance
4.2 Psychology of sports
4.3 Physical activity and health
4.4 Nutrition for sports, exercise and health
- Additional HL ONLY topics
5.1 Further anatomy
5.2 The endocrine system
5.3 Fatigue
5.4 Friction and drag
5.5 Skill acquisition and analysis
5.6 Genetics and athletic performance
5.7 Exercise and immunity
The main shift the IB is trying to make is to take these concepts and foster a deeper understanding for the student’s advantage. The more the students understand the processes behind these concepts, the easier it will be for them to use that knowledge in real life.
These concepts will serve as a base for connecting factual, metacognitive, and procedural knowledge as one learning experience.
Such an approach is supposed to allow students to be more well-rounded within the subject, as well as focus on one of IB’s favorite skills – critical thinking. This is the ability to actively and skillfully conceptualize, apply, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information by communication, observation, reasoning or reflection.
Skill development
The idea behind restructuring the course is also largely based on the need for students to develop and enhance various skills that are useful in both academic and real-life situations, such as the aforementioned critical thinking, which is particularly useful in real life. Here is a visual aid representing the new flow of learning:
Source: IBO
Nature of science (NOS)
Another aspect worth mentioning is the Nature Of Science (NOS), a key theme in certain Group 4 subjects, including SEHS. It focuses on exploring conceptual understanding related to the features, impact, and purpose of scientific knowledge.
It’s a key part of the curriculum as it helps develop scientific literacy and broadens perspectives on the scientific side of things.
For example, NOS might come in handy specifically when it comes to core subjects such as Chemistry; if a student knows that the principles in chemistry tend to have exceptions, they will experience way less stress when they stumble upon one.
Experimental program
Practical work is an essential part of the SEHS course. However, it is up to the teacher to structure the practical scheme of work.
The tasks should allow students to apply their theoretical knowledge to real-world settings. Such tasks should concentrate on a hands-on approach with the help of simulation, modelling, and technology. An example of a task could be working with injuries.
The collaborative science project is a part of the Group 4 curriculum as a whole. It’s a project that must include all the science subjects available at your school, hence the word “collaborative”. It should take 10-12 working hours and its main goal is that students with various interests work on interdisciplinary collaboration.
The main change to the Internal Assessment is that students can now collaborate on their IA in small groups, provided their dependent and independent variables differ, and their data is unique to them .
The assessment, in the form of a report, will continue to have a 3200-word limit and accounts for 24% of the student’s final grade. However, it will put more emphasis on the evaluation and conclusion criteria which will make up 50% of the IA marks.
Assessment Model
As a part of the external assessment, both HL and SL students will write two papers: Paper 1 will be worth 36% of the student’s grade, while Paper 2 will be worth 40%.
Paper 1 is split into two parts with SL students given 90 minutes to complete it while HL students will have 105 minutes. The first half includes multiple choice questions. The second half includes data analysis questions and provides an opportunity to assess experimental skills and techniques.
Paper 2 includes short-answer and extended-response questions of intertwining skills, concepts and understandings placed into a suitable sports, exercise, and health science context. SL students will have 90 minutes to complete it, and HL students will have 150 minutes.
The most noticeable changes to the new SEHS curriculum include getting rid of Paper 3, and in general taking a more student-friendly approach. The course aims to focus more on teaching students through understanding, which makes it easier to not forget the new knowledge and to also apply it in a real life context.
Conclusion
In summary, the new SEHS curriculum may not have changed drastically, but it did add more structure to its course.
Overall, students are encouraged to choose a bit more freely what they want to focus on and have a better structure to operate on.
For HL students, the course will focus a bit more on the biological side of the subject, hence providing a solid background for the course.
Ultimately, the most accurate way to decide if the curriculum update actually made it easier for the students to learn and understand is to hear from the students themselves.
If you’re taking SEHS this year, make sure to share your review on our social media!
Sources:
https://www.ibo.org/university-admission/latest-curriculum-updates/sports-exercise-and-health-science-updates/
https://louisville.edu/ideastoaction/about/criticalthinking/what#:~:text=Critical%20thinking%20is%20the%20intellectually,guide%20to%20belief%20and%20action.