Making More Humans follows the National Sex Education Standards (NSES 2.0). You can see exactly which lessons address which standards, and whether coverage is in the lesson, the workbook, or the teacher discussion guide, in the curriculum mapping spreadsheet. It’s a large spreadsheet. Scroll right to see the full coverage columns.
This curriculum is designed so that by the time we get to something that people have strong feelings about, students already understand the science underneath it. That way they are approaching it focusing on the science and facts. You can discuss anything further with your kids yourself.
None of what you’ll find below represents a position or an opinion. It’s science. Where science describes how something works, that’s what gets taught. Questions about values, faith, and what your family believes are yours to have. Those conversations belong at home, at your school, or in your community. This course gives you and your kids the clinical foundation.
Click any topic to see how it’s handled.
Addressed in: Lessons 3.2, 5.6. NSES standards: SH.8.CC.3
Any debate about abortion is never addressed. You do that in your way. All the lesson covers is the clinical facts of what happens and why people get abortions. Dr. Robin tells patient stories with compassion, which is the only appropriate way to talk about patients, ever.
The embryology lessons at the very beginning lay the foundation so that students understand the basics of how development works and the true, accurate information about what has and has not developed.
Because it’s always best to avoid unnecessary medical procedures, the lesson also covers what the evidence shows on how to reduce abortion rates. All three pregnancy options, parenting, adoption, and abortion, are presented. No moral position is taken. The clinical facts are taught the same way as everything else in the course.
Addressed in: Lessons 1.5, 3.5, 4.7, 5.10. NSES standards: IV.5.CC.1, IV.8.CC.1, IV.8.CC.2, CHR.8.CC.1, CHR.8.SM.1
This course treats abuse prevention from both sides. Most abuse prevention focus on the person who might be abused. This course also addresses the student who could one day become abusive.
Students learn what healthy relationships look and feel like from Module 1, so that by the time abuse is addressed directly, they already have a reference point. They learn to recognize warning signs early, including love bombing, the cycle of abuse, coercive control, and the way power differences can distort what feels like a free choice.
They also learn what to notice in themselves that could be the beginnings of attitudes or behaviors that may lead into abusive behavior in the future. The goal is prevention in both directions, because the best thing would be to never have it happen in the first place.
Here are a few specific details:
Addressed in: Lessons 4.6, 4.7, 5.10. NSES standards: CHR.8.SM.1, IV.8.AI.1, IV.8.SM.1
For students who recognize an unsafe situation, the curriculum covers how to plan a safe exit, why normal breakup rules don’t apply when a relationship is dangerous, and how to involve a trusted adult. Bystander skills are included. The workbook includes specific language students can practice. Knowing what to do in theory and being able to say something in the moment are not the same thing.
Community resources are addressed in the teacher guide.
The curriculum does not assume every student has an equally easy path to safety, and does not treat help-seeking as straightforward for everyone.
Addressed in: Lessons 3.2, 5.7. NSES standards: SH.5.CC.2
Because this course starts with embryology rather than intercourse, there is no hierarchy of how conception happens. Getting sperm and egg together is the biological requirement. Everything else is mechanics and circumstance.
Assisted reproductive technology, including IVF, IUI, embryo adoption, and surrogacy, is introduced early as one of many ways families are built. The infertility lesson covers both male and female infertility, because both contribute.
Students already understand from the embryology lessons how many things have to go right for conception to happen, so when infertility is addressed, it makes sense rather than being a surprise.
ART is not framed as a last resort or as something specific to any type of couple. It’s one way people build the families they want, and it’s treated that way throughout.
Addressed in: Lessons 3.2, 5.4. NSES standards: SH.8.CC.4, SH.8.CC.7, SH.8.CC.8
Contraception is introduced early, briefly, and categorized so it makes sense. By the time they watch the full lesson, students have already learned the biology so they understand what contraception is actually doing mechanically, not just that it exists.
The lesson covers short- and long-acting methods, methods available without a prescription, and how to use barrier methods correctly. The history of contraception is included, partly because it puts the subject in context and partly because it clarifies how many children most families would have without it. Effectiveness rates for each method are provided in a chart in the workbook.
Addressed in: Lessons 3.2, 5.3. Related to relationship dynamics and kin selection content throughout.
This course does not assume that students will become parents. Most sex ed courses assume that all students will end up in a long term relationship with kids. We do not make that assumption.
Students learn from early on that choosing not to have children is not only legitimate but biologically valuable. The kin selection content explains what researchers call the “helpful auntie” and “gay uncle” effect. In every human community, the adults who don’t have their own children are often the ones who provide mentorship, specialized skills, protection, and continuity.
The grandmother hypothesis, covered in the lifespan section, extends this further. People remain vital to their communities long past any reproductive role.
The decision-to-become-a-parent lesson specifically addresses what actually predicts good outcomes, not just finances (though those matter) but the safety and health of the relationship, emotional maturity, and the timing within a relationship. Students are explicitly warned about getting pregnant during the honeymoon phase of an abuse cycle, because as a physician Dr. Robin saw the consequences of that choice too many times.
Addressed in: Lessons 1.3, 2.2, 3.4, Bonus DSD lesson. NSES standards: AP.5.CC.1, AP.8.CC.1, GI.5.CC.1
Students learn in the embryology lessons that the process of building a human body has a very large number of steps, and that any of those steps can go a little differently. Variation is not described as an exception or an anomaly. It’s just the logical outcome of a construction project with trillions of moving parts.
DSD is introduced early in the curriculum, alongside all other developmental differences. This is intentional so that it never feels “weird” compared to cleft lip or limb differences, for example.
The bonus DSD lesson is intended for older learners or those with a particular interest and walks through a spectrum chart covering the most common presentations, from CAIS to Turner syndrome to Klinefelter’s, explaining chromosomes, hormones, anatomy, and what happens at puberty for each. The historical practice of non-consensual surgeries to normalize appearance is addressed, including why that approach was harmful and how the medical standard of care has changed.
Addressed in: Lessons 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2. NSES standards: SH.2.CC.1, SH.5.CC.1, SH.5.CC.2
Embryology is such an important foundation for the program that Dr. Robin nicknamed it “Start with Embryology.” She never starts with sex or puberty, which puts the focus in the wrong place. She starts with embryology, which is where we all started.
Students learn that for the first six weeks of development, all bodies follow the same path. They learn that the heart begins forming before many other organs in order to provide oxygen for them to develop.
By the time students encounter topics like miscarriage, DSD, or assisted reproduction, they already understand the science. For example, they aren’t surprised to learn that half or more of all pregnancies end in miscarriage when they’ve already learned how many details have to go exactly right. This was especially important to Dr. Robin because so many parents carry so much unnecessary guilt around miscarriage and are usually relieved to learn the true science. While it’s still a very sad time for a family, they don’t have to carry the extra fear and self blame.
Addressed in: Lessons 1.1, 3.4. NSES standards: GI.2.CC.1, GI.5.CC.1, GI.5.CC.2, GI.5.CC.3, GI.8.CC (full set)
During embryology, students learned that genitals begin developing around six weeks gestation and that the brain develops later, from different signals. DSDs are covered together with other developmental differences. Throughout the anatomy and puberty lessons, typical developmental patterns are described while noting clearly that not everyone follows them.
The four categories, biological sex, gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation, are taught as separate buckets, because most confusion comes from mixing them up. Social vs medical transitions are explained clinically, the same way any other medical intervention is explained in this course. The workbook includes practicing the use of correct names and pronouns as a concrete skill.
Addressed in: Lessons 1.4, 2.7, and related lessons throughout. NSES standards: PD.5.GS.1
Body care is introduced in Module 1 as part of taking care of yourself, long before puberty. It builds through the modules as the body changes and new considerations arise.
The hygiene lessons cover practical, specific information at each level.
Dr. Robin explicitly states that acne is not a hygiene issue. It’s a medical one, and treating it like a cleanliness problem causes unnecessary shame and often makes it worse.
Addressed in: Lessons 3.4, 4.5. NSES standards: SO.5.CC.1, SO.5.CC.2, SO.8.CC.1, SO.8.CC.2, GI full set
Sexual orientation and gender identity are addressed in Module 3, Lesson 4, which covers biological sex, gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation as four distinct and separate categories. Heterosexual, gay, bisexual, pansexual, and asexual identities are all defined in accordance with the National Sex Education Standards. Asexual identity is explicitly validated as a normal variation. The medical history of how these categories have been understood and treated over time is included for older students.
LGBTQIA+ students and families are included naturally throughout the course. When puberty and its social and emotional effects are covered, the curriculum notes that attraction to different people, no people, or any gender is a normal outcome of development. When assisted reproduction is covered, it’s framed as a path that works for many kinds of families for many kinds of reasons rather than just a treatment for infertility. When relationships are discussed, the lessons apply regardless of who is in them.
In alignment with the NSES, the workbook activity for this lesson asks students to design a school policy promoting dignity and respect for people of all genders and sexual orientations.
Addressed in: Lessons 2.1, 2.2, 5.7. Related to embryology sequence throughout.
Miscarriage is not introduced as a sudden hard topic. The embryology lessons explain early on that when a developing embryo doesn’t have what it needs to continue development, development stops. Students understand from the beginning that this process is common, that it reflects the genuine complexity of development, and that it is not caused by anything the pregnant person did.
By the time they reach the specific lesson on pregnancy loss, students already have a framework. They understand that an early embryo is not a suffering baby. That framing doesn’t diminish the loss for families. It does mean that when loss happens, people can grieve without carrying extra guilt.
Addressed in: Lessons 3.8, 5.11. NSES standards: SH.8.INF.2
The pornography lesson is not about whether pornography is morally acceptable. It’s about what it actually is, what it isn’t, and what the research shows about its effects on body image, relationship expectations, and sexual development.
Students learn how pornography is produced, why it is not representative of real sex or real bodies, and why its early and heavy use is associated with specific patterns in how people relate to partners and think about their own bodies. The lesson is clinical and direct. The goal is that students understand what they’re looking at if they encounter it, rather than treating it as either a secret or a normal sex education resource.
Addressed in: Lesson 4.5. NSES standards: CHR.8.CC.3, CHR.8.INF.1
Lesson 4.5 covers how power differences shape whether a relationship can be truly healthy. Age gaps, financial dependency, employment relationships, race, immigration status, and social media are all addressed.
Students learn that in a society where some groups receive more automatic benefit of the doubt than others, those imbalances can enter a relationship and distort what feels like a free decision. Someone whose immigration status or financial survival is tied to another person may not be able to say no without severe repercussions. Someone navigating a relationship across a significant racial power difference may feel pressure to stay in line to avoid conflict that could become dangerous. The lesson also covers the impact of sexism, homophobia, and transphobia.
The workbook asks students to analyze how these bigger systems influence relationship expectations. The goal is that students can see these situations clearly before they or their friends end up in them.
Addressed in: Lessons 5.2, 6.2. NSES standards: SH.8.CC.11
The preventative health and self-advocacy lessons cover the social determinants of health, the well-documented reality that two people with identical genetics can have profoundly different health outcomes based on the conditions they live in.
Students learn about the weathering hypothesis, the research behind racial disparities in pregnancy outcomes, and why those disparities persist across every income level.
Intersectionality is introduced as a clinical framework developed by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw, explaining why addressing one variable at a time doesn’t improve outcomes for people navigating overlapping disadvantages.
Reproductive Justice is introduced through the framework developed by Loretta Ross and the SisterSong collective.
The lesson on self-advocacy discusses how to navigate a medical system that has not historically listened equally to every body. Dr. Robin also shows compassion for why some people would understandably be more anxious about seeking medical care.
Addressed in: Lessons 5.1, 5.7. Related to anatomy and puberty lessons throughout.
This course covers the full clinical truth of the body, not just reproduction. That means conditions that affect the reproductive and sexual systems get addressed as medical topics.
In early lessons, Dr. Robin covers the symptoms of common infections such as yeast infections, bacterial vaginosis, rectal strep, pinworms, and balanitis as well as conditions such as lichen sclerosis and eczema.
Later lessons include a wide variety of conditions including torsion, infertility, endometriosis, PCOS, cysts, cancer, and more. Students learn what these conditions are, how they present, why they’re frequently missed or misdiagnosed, and how doctors typically manage them.
Because they already learned the anatomy, students typically find this all very logical.
Addressed in: Lesson 6.2. Related to contraception, abortion, and health disparities lessons.
Reproductive Justice is introduced as a framework with a specific origin: the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, founded in 1994 and led by activist Loretta Ross. The three rights it articulates, the right to have a child, the right not to have a child, and the right to parent in a safe and healthy environment, are taught as the framework for understanding when healthcare access becomes a justice issue rather than just a healthcare gap.
This is taught in the self-advocacy lesson, alongside intersectionality, because understanding your rights is part of being able to advocate for yourself in a medical setting.
See: LGBTQIA+ above.
SEXUAL PLEASURE AND RESPONSE
Addressed in: Lessons 3.1, 4.4, 5.9. Related to anatomy lessons throughout. NSES standards: SH.8.INF.2
In the very first embryology and anatomy lessons, students learn that the clitoris is built from the same embryonic tissue as the penis. Neither is treated as the default with the other being the afterthought.
The connection between sex and pleasure is introduced in Lesson 3.1. Intercourse and Implantation, where students learn that biology uses the same mechanics for two different goals, bonding and reproduction. The is the gentle introduction to the fact that sex is not only or primarily about making babies, and that pleasure and connection two of the main reasons for sex.
The full sexual pleasure and response lesson for older students explains the physiological response cycle and the difference between sexual response and sexual pleasure.
It’s really important for students to understand that sexual response can happen without consent, without desire, and without safety. Students learn that their body’s physical response does not mean they wanted something, which can improve their ability to make good decisions.
The lesson also covers the brake and accelerator model of sexual response, what suppresses pleasure and why, and the role of safety and connection in whether pleasure is actually possible.
The relationship module discusses openly that some people feel more emotionally bonded after sex and some people don’t. This difference is normal, but assuming your partner feels the same way you do without checking causes a lot of misunderstanding and hurt.
Addressed in: Lessons 3.7, 5.5. NSES standards: SH.5.CC.3, SH.8.CC.5, SH.8.CC.6
STIs are introduced in the same framework as any other infection. We get infections in our noses, our lungs, our urinary tracts. We also get infections in our genitals.
The curriculum includes non-sexually transmitted genital infections alongside STIs. They are often skipped in standard sex education but students need this information also. This also helps remove the moral weight that usually gets attached to STIs, which has no clinical basis and causes real harm when people avoid testing or treatment out of shame.
The lessons cover transmission, prevention, the asymptomatic nature of many STIs, treatment (including the difference between curable and manageable), HIV as a chronic condition with undetectable viral load as the goal, and the importance of testing and partner communication. Common myths are addressed directly. The HPV vaccine and PrEP/PEP are covered.
Evaluating this curriculum for a school, homeschool co-op, or organization? Sometimes a spreadsheet and an accordion menu aren’t quite enough. Reach out here and we can talk through whatever your board, committee, or community needs to know.