|
 Blast
in the New Year with NASA's Fit Explorer
Challenge
Kim
Nygaard,
Peninsula Heritage School, Rolling Hills
Estates, California. 
Here we are once again, a brand New
Year, hopefully filled with exciting
new Physical Education Adventures. As
I reflect on not only the past year,
but of the past 28 years of teaching
PE, I ask myself as I’m sure we
all do, "How can I still be so
enthusiastic about teaching the same
subject for so many years?" In
my office hangs my favorite quote from
Allen Russell: “Of all subject
areas taught in school, Physical Education
is the only subject which by the very
nature of its content, has the potential
to affect how a person will feel every
moment of every day for the rest of
his or her life.”
Through those words I realize just
how important our job as the physical
education teacher really is, especially
to young children today. Children learn
through physical experiences how to
use self control, perseverance, respect,
cooperation, conflict resolution, and
many other important character qualities
needed to survive in today’s society.
If we think about our roles, we actually
help children develop more than just
physical skills, we help develop self
confidence, self worth, awareness of
their physical surroundings, acceptance
of winning and losing, challenging trust,
breaking through barriers, and the Whole
Child!
The big question is how we succeed
as professionals only given a few sessions
of PE a week. At my school, which includes
children in Kindergarten through 5th
grade, they are allocated three thirty
minute sessions of PE a week. We are
a small school with only one class per
grade, and the largest class has 24
children. This is a benefit for me.
With smaller class sizes I am able to
work on, and complete national standards
for each grade level. However, only
three sessions a week, class after class,
this becomes a challenge for my students
and for myself. I am always looking
for new and exciting adventures for
my classes. I have units
on Survivor, Amazing
Race, Pirate
Adventures, Iditarod
dog sled races, and more. I am happy
to bring you my latest adventure: (my
students really enjoyed this one!)
“Blast off the New Year with
Metrics Adventures!” Teaching
metrics in PE will help expand children’s
knowledge about its usage, history
(2),
and importance in the world as the international
system of measurements. As we move into
the metrics direction we have seen the
track events move from yard measurements
into meter measurements. We have also
seen the fun/competitive runs go from
miles to kilometers. In our world today,
children need to develop metric awareness.
Blast off to a new year is
a great program designed by a partnership
with NASA and Disneyland that sent Buzz
Light year into space, calling it “To
infinity and beyond.” NASA has
an excellent program for PE which I
used and would love to share with you.
The program is called “NASA
Fit Explorer Challenge!” Training
like an Astronaut brought enthusiasm
and excitement to PE. This program targets
3-5th graders, but I actually introduced
it to my Kindergarteners through 2nd
graders too.
NASA’s Fit Explorer program is
a scientific and physical approach to
human health and fitness on the Earth
and in Space. I asked my students questions
like: Why must astronauts be strong
and healthy? Do astronauts have to train
to go into space? Why is gravity so
important? Why is balance so important?
What happens to your body (muscular
& skeletal) systems in space? Just
after asking a few questions, my students
were ready to prepare and train like
astronauts, and I was ready to be their
trainer!
Are you ready? This program has all
the materials for you to explore, which
gives you a chance to decide how you
might want to run your own program.
The children can earn points towards
different reward certificates individually
or in mission groups, which is how I
set my program up. I like to combine
classes and give them opportunities
to work cooperatively in groups. This
helps maintain responsibility of children
and working on conflict resolutions.
I had seven Mission Groups with my 4th
and 5th graders and a mission leader.
Each mission group was given a 3 ring
binder notebook with all the information.
The groups were pre-selected by me and
were introduced to the materials on
the first day.
The site mentions that the children
will practice skills and be involved
in research during the time of training.
I devoted four weeks to this lesson
plan, and also encouraged the students
to work on their mission logs during
recess time to help them gain more points,
which would result in earning higher
awards by the conclusion of this program.
The children practiced walking to their
base station, coordinating muscle movement
for a space walk, strengthened their
bones with jumping exercises, participated
in strength training for stronger muscles,
developed eye-hand coordination, developed
an understanding of the importance of
balance, and developed post-mission
improvements all around.
If this is something you are interested
in I would suggest that you visit NASA
website at www.nasa.gov/sts118
and blast into the New Year with metrics
and enthusiasm!
Not only was this a fun and challenging
unit for my students, it was a successful
way to exercise, research, and learn
about how the body works, even with
astronauts. This also helped my students
see beyond “just PE” or
“the athlete.” It gave them
an extra push into thinking of the importance
of a healthy and fitful lifestyle, and
hopefully the children will realize
just how much physical fitness plays
an important role in their lives and
the lives of others around them.
Good luck, and if you would like to
contact me with questions or tell me
about how your program worked, I would
love to hear from you. Networking is
the best way to successful PE classes
and here at pelinks4u we have
it all.
It’s time to buckle up and prepare
yourself. You will have stars of all
kinds which will fill your PE lessons,
not just around the world but around
the universe! So…to infinity and
beyond!
Your Captain and trainer…Kim
Nygaard
(pelinks4u
home) |
