At Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School Wednesday, chocolate, yoga, and Tae Kwon Do were on the syllabus.

It was the school’s annual Wellness Day, where students had the chance to choose from nearly 40 different workshops dealing with health and well-being, food, exercise, emotional health and career guidance. Around the school, teachers and volunteers from the community led classes in specialized fields.

Amy Lilavois, the school’s adjustment counselor, was one of the organizers of the third annual Wellness Day, and she said the event has abundant community volunteers. “We have people who were calling this year who wanted to take part in it,” she said.

The volunteers were fanned out around the school, sharing skills and wisdom with students. Teacher Debbie Brew taught students longsword dance, a style common in late medieval England. With the high school’s string orchestra, “String Beans,” on hand to provide music, students stood in a circle holding the hilt of (not very sharp) swords, arranging them into a star shape.

In the gym, a group of girls practiced Zumba! with an instructor from the YMCA, while art teacher Brendan Coogan guided a group through creating art out of balls of clay. Natalie Munn, a science teacher and belt-buckle designer, talked to a small but engaged group about how to develop an online shop to sell one’s creative work, and teacher Justine DeOliveira led a class about study abroad.

In a class room filled with life vests and other equipment, Chris Scott, who is with the Coast Guard auxiliary, talked to students about boating safety and safety equipment, and nearby, principal Steve Nixon strummed on his guitar as part of “Songwriting for Stress Reduction.” Across the hall, a group of students were seated on the floor as Island yoga instructor Arlene Stark Prisco led a yoga session. In a workshop called “What to Eat?” chef Jan Burhman made quesadillas with black beans, avocado, caramelized onions and sweet potatoes. “Go ahead and help yourself,” she urged the students.

Among the most popular workshops was “The Sweet Truth,” a student’s dream: 45 minutes devoted to chocolate. Students sampled from plates of white, milk, and dark chocolate—and two different kinds of hot cocoa--while English teacher Cynthia Cowan told students about the nutritional benefits of the treat.

“Let it melt just a little bit--breathe through your nose,” she told the students, explaining the difference between Belgian and Swiss chocolates. “It’s quite bitter,” one student said of the dark chocolate, which was not a favorite with the group.

Each student attended two workshops, and the entire student body attended a presentation by the event’s keynote speaker, Dr. Traci Brooks, who unmasked the science behind “The Adolescent Brain” and how using drugs and alcohol affects teenagers. Dr. Brooks, the director of adolescent medical services at the Cambridge Health Alliance, detailed how teenage brains are still developing, and how using addictive substances during adolescence can make it much harder to quit using drugs in the future. Using marijuana can also lead to chronic attention deficit disorder and impulsivity, she said, and can make it hard to create memories.

Beyond substance abuse, she said, teenagers also need more sleep than do adults: about nine hours a night. Lack of sleep can affect mood, thinking, and performance, and a lack of sleep is “cheating your brain out of developing,” she told the group, some of whom did look a bit sleepy.

At the end of the workshops, Freshman Andrew Ruimerman summed up his first Wellness Day experience positively: : “It was great,” he said. But he said he’d have a hard time choosing a favorite between his two workshops: the chocolate class and Tae Kwon Do.