Active or Not, Here It Comes!

Section: Physical Activity

Investigative Question: What counts as physical activity?

Description of Content

This section is designed to broaden students' idea of what "physical activity" really means—stretching it well beyond organized sports. Playing on a football or soccer team certainly counts, but so do less competitive or personal fitness pursuits (like swimming with friends or lifting weights), lifetime activities such as golf or walking, and even everyday tasks like walking the dog, dancing to a favorite song, or mowing the lawn. As students expand their understanding, they'll realize they're already doing physical activity to some degree—and that realization should build their confidence to do even more.

Relevant Standards

The national standards below apply to this activity. Both the grades 5–8 and grades 9–12 standards are included, since some middle schools include ninth grade.

National Science Education Standards

Grades 5–8, Standard F

• Regular exercise plays a key role in maintaining and improving health. Benefits include a healthy weight, more energy and strength for daily tasks, good muscle tone, strong bones, a strong heart and lungs, and better mental health. Personal exercise—especially building cardiovascular endurance (how well your heart and lungs supply oxygen during activity)—is the foundation of physical fitness.
• People can think critically about risks and benefits using a systematic approach, such as estimating probabilities and weighing them against expected personal gains.
• Important personal and social decisions are shaped by how people perceive risks and benefits.

Grades 9–12, Standard F

• Choices about physical fitness and health depend on many factors—personal goals, peer and social pressure, ethnic and religious beliefs, and an understanding of biological consequences all shape health decisions.

Benchmarks for Science Literacy

Chapter 6, Benchmark E, Grades 6–8

• Regular exercise helps maintain a healthy heart and lungs, good muscle tone, and strong bones.

National Health Education Standards, Grades 5–8

Standard 1

• Students will be able to reduce risks tied to adolescent health problems.

Standard 3

• Students will explain why taking responsibility for personal health behaviors matters.
• Students will analyze a personal health assessment to identify strengths and risks.

Standard 6

• Students will apply strategies and skills needed to reach personal health goals.

Objectives

Students will:

• Describe the health benefits linked to physical activity.
• Connect physical activity to a wide range of events, not just organized sports.
• Keep an accurate log of their personal physical activity.

Ideas Commonly Held by Students

These ideas, drawn from research, reflect common ways adolescents think about and engage with physical activity. Keep them in mind while planning the lessons that follow.

• Mastering physical skills—being physically competent—matters a great deal to young children (Harter, 1981).
• Boys tend to see the physical domain (more than academics or social skills) as the most important area for showing competence (Eccles and Harold, 1991).
• Girls say they participate in physical activity mainly "to have fun," followed by "to stay in shape," "I like it," and "to learn new skills" (Kientzler, 1999).
• For girls, verbal encouragement alone doesn't do much to boost participation—seeing others do the activity (modeling) matters more (Kientzler, 1999).
• Girls who don't regularly participate in physical activity know much less about its benefits than girls who do participate regularly (Kientzler, 1999).
• Physically active girls rate their own athletic and academic ability higher than less active or inactive girls do (Kientzler, 1999).
• European Americans are more likely to say they could see themselves doing swimming, rowing, hockey, water skiing, and bowling, and they feel most confident in baseball/softball (Harrison, Lee, and Belcher, 1997).
• African Americans are more likely to say they could see themselves only in basketball, where they feel most confident by a ratio of four to one (Harrison, Lee, and Belcher, 1997).
• In many cases, students from minority groups show less interest in a range of organized sports and physical activities—possibly because they don't see those activities as part of their identity (Ennis, 1995).

Materials

• Construction paper strips (2" x 8")
• Markers
• A video showing physical activity
• Copies of the Scenario worksheet (page 9)
• Copies of the Physical Activity Log (pages 10–12)

Safety

Make sure there's enough space for students to move around freely.

Watch for students who are unusually sedentary (inactive)—jumping into strenuous activity too quickly could cause health problems for them. Also be aware of any pre-existing health conditions that might limit a student's ability to participate, and adjust activities as needed for students who are less active.

Remind students to warm up and stretch the muscles they'll be using before any physical activity. A warm-up is light activity that raises the temperature of the blood, muscles, tendons, and ligaments. It prepares the body for harder exercise by gently working the same muscles in a way that mirrors the coming activity, gradually increasing heart rate and warming up the joints.

Students should also cool down afterward. A cool-down is gentle activity that helps the body return to normal after exercise—it lowers the heart rate gradually and helps prevent stiffness.

Procedure

Engagement (~5–10 minutes)

1. Read students the following definitions:

Exercise is planned, structured, and made up of repeated body movements, done specifically to improve or maintain some part of physical fitness.

Physical activity is any body movement powered by skeletal muscles that burns energy and is linked to physical fitness.

Physical fitness is a set of traits related to a person's ability to perform physical activity. Its health-related components are: (1) body composition, (2) cardiovascular endurance, (3) flexibility, (4) muscular endurance, and (5) muscular strength.

1. Write a list of activities on the board (use the BAM.gov activity cards in the Physical Activity section for ideas) and have students vote on whether each one counts as "exercise" or "physical activity."

Exploration (~20–25 minutes)

1. Break students into groups of three or four. Have each group brainstorm and list everything they can think of that counts as physical activity, including activities that work different parts of the body. Remind them that one activity might work more than one body part. They can also check the BAM.gov activity cards for ideas.
2. Give each group strips of paper (2" x 8") and have them write down their activities, one per strip.

Explanation (~30 minutes)

1. Write the main body parts and systems on the board or wall (for example: heart/lungs, shoulders, arms, abdomen, legs) and have students sort their activity strips under these headings.
2. Discuss how students classified the activities and clear up any confusion. Students can check the BAM.gov activity cards for details on which body parts specific activities work.
3. Show a video of people doing physical activity. Have students figure out which body parts each action works, and encourage them to try the motions themselves to feel the effect.
4. Ask if students want to revise their groupings, and discuss how accurate their original classifications were.

Elaboration (~10–15 minutes)

1. Hand out the Scenario worksheet (page 9) for students to complete individually. Discuss the motions described—climbing, stretching, lifting, and so on.

Analysis questions:

1. Are these actions physical activity? Why or why not?
2. Which body parts do the actions work? How do you know?
3. What other things you do during a normal day might count as physical activity?

Evaluation (~10 minutes per day for 3 days, outside of class)

1. Students will keep a log (pages 10–12) of their personal physical activity for three days, calculate how much time they spent on each type of activity, and analyze their overall activity level. They will also explain the health benefits they notice from reviewing their log.

Note to teachers: The minimum recommendation is that middle schoolers get physical activity five days a week, totaling 60 minutes per day, and that they include a variety of different activities.

Analysis Questions:

1. What benefits are linked to your physical activities?
2. Which body areas should you work on to improve your activity level, and why?
3. How does your current activity level compare to what's considered an optimal level?

Students' overall performance on this activity can be scored using the descriptors below.

Performance Descriptors

Rating	Performance Descriptor
4	Students understand that physical activity includes a wide range of events beyond organized sports, can give examples of activities that work different body parts, and demonstrate an understanding of the health benefits of physical activity.
3	Students understand that phys... (source text incomplete)

Web Resources

• BAM!, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), answers kids' health questions and suggests ways to build healthier, stronger, safer bodies and minds. It also gives teachers interactive activities to support health and science lessons.
• KidsHealth offers health information covering the years from before birth through adolescence, in separate sections for kids, teens, and parents. Created by the Nemours Foundation's Center for Children's Health Media, all its content is doctor-approved. http://www.kidshealth.org
• MedlinePlus, maintained by the National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health, has an "Exercise and Physical Fitness" page with many links to information on physical activity and health. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/exerciseandphysicalfitness.html
• The CDC's physical activity and youth health fact sheet includes links to related CDC resources. http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/physicalactivity/pdf/facts.pdf
• This page offers a fact sheet on adolescents and young adults from the Surgeon General's Report on Physical Activity and Health. http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/sgr/adoles.htm
• This site provides definitions of physical activity along with information on warming up.