Middle
school students examine a sport of their choice to learn all
they can about it and the health benefits of being involved in
that sport. Students gain the abilities to gather,
analyze, and apply information and ideas and acquire knowledge
to help them make responsible decisions for lifelong wellness.
In
this activity for health and physical education classes,
students each choose a sport or physical activity to explore.
It can be a traditional sport (basketball, volleyball), a
nontraditional one (fencing, rugby), or a lifetime wellness
activity (jogging, ballroom dancing).
Using
the Internet, students conduct research on their chosen
sport/activity. They learn about the history, equipment,
skills involved, rules, famous athletes, or important persons
related to the activity. They record their information
using a word-processing document and may download information
from the Internet and scan photographs.
Using
the software package, Dine-Healthy, they chart the caloric
information for the activity. This software also lets
them analyze the caloric expenditure of the activity.
The students use Polar Heart Rate Monitors to chart the health
benefit of activities and place their results on an electronic
spreadsheet, such as ClarisWorks, to show a heart rate
analysis.
All
of the students' information is placed in an individual
Sportsfolio collection of work that they can share with the
rest of the class.
