Presenting on Intersexuality-- A Template

You raise an interesting question about when to introduce the concept of intersex in school, but I remain curious why you consider middle school, when so many children feel anxious about their sexual development, to be the appropriate time.  I agree with you that middle schools would give parents the option of exempting their children from a unit on intersex, so it was a nice touch to include a sample permission slip.

Creating a powerpoint to convey the information makes sense, especially since many teachers would not know much about intersex.  However, a powerpoint is a visual medium and needs graphics, cartoons, diagrams, etc. to complement any text.  In addition, this particular powerpoint does not seem geared toward the audience you hope to reach.  Not only is there too much text, but I suspect that some of the terms you use (primary sex characteristics, testicular tissue, progesterone) would be unfamiliar to 11-13 year olds. I think it would be helpful if you looked at some biology textbooks for 6th-8th graders--I imagine that the education program has some in their resource room--so that you could make this more accessible and engaging to middle schoolers.  Also, the web has many helpful sites to educate adolescents about puberty and they could provide guidance in how to present some basic information, which you could then challenge or extend.

What I found most promising about your presentation were the questions you posed:

Think about what makes you a boy or girl: is it only your body? Most people consider themselves boys or girls, men or women, because of what they like to do, how they like to see themselves, and how other people see them.

What do you think? Can something very unusual still be normal? And if it isn't normal, does that make it bad?

Here you're urging them to think about gender, normativity, and values.  All of which are important issues for adolescents to consider. 

I think title for your lecture mistates the issue, for it's not "biology" that comes in more than two categories.  Rather, the problem is that we try to fit sexual diversity into only two categories of male and female.  Also, your statement on slide #2 that "intersex is a term which groups together a huge number of different physical conditions" seems at odds with slide #4 when you say that this is rare, occurring 1 in 1,500 births.  However, my major concern is that your presentation would heighten the anxiety that many adolescents feel as they enter puberty earlier or later than some of their classmates.  Stating that intersex children are often diagnosed with “disorder of sex development” or that "any time these many traits don't match up in a person that person may be intersex" links differences in sexual development with pathology.

Be careful--middle school is not an easy time for most students.