Teacher Process
Teachers, Before you start this process, time each student on a mile run. If you have access to a quarter mile track, time each student on the completion of four laps. If you do not have a track you can measure out a one mile course. Use this same course for progress runs. Next, help each student access the website given in the process and determine if the mile they ran was within the Healthy Fitness range for their gender and age. The next step is to help the students understand how to get into the healthy fitness range or how to stay in the healthy fitness range by setting up a personal fitness program. It will be helpful for you to go through the F.I.T.T. principle with them, so that they will understand the basics of setting up a weekly exercise routine that they can stick too and one that will help them acheive their fitness goals. For some students it may require that they lose weight while improving their cardiovascular endurance and for others it may require improving cardiovascular endurance so they are ready to compete in sports programs such as soccer, football, basketball, tennis, baseball, softball and so on. Understanding what constitutes an areobic exercise versus an anerobic activity is key for setting and reaching fitness goals. Examples of aerobic activities include: bike riding, walking, jogging, running, swimming, rollerblading, elipitical machines and various other types of exercise machines found in workout facilities like 24 Hour Fitness. The activity should be continous and rythmic in nature and one that can be preformed for a minimum of 20 minutes. It is not until approximately twenty minutes of activity within ones target heart rate range that the training effect begins to take place. Some research has indicated that shorter more frequent bouts of exercise, such as three 10 minute exercise periods within target heart rate can have an effect that is equal to 30 minutes of sustained activity. Have students search the internet for articles and evaluate the articles for accuracy and creditably. It is important to note that most sport activities such as basketball, soccer, baseball, football, tennis are not aerobic activities. This means that in order to be fit as an athlete and perform well that you must be cardiovascularly fit. Most athletes that participate in these sports are very fit and they improve their fitness through aerobic activities. The next section of this web based activity has students download an activity log that is to be used to record one's daily fitness activies as well as one's eating habits. As the teacher you may decide the period of time in which you will require them to keep the activity logs. Some teachers will want to use them for a six week grading period and others may use them for the entire semester. It is highly recommended that you perform regular checks of the student's progress on their logs and also perform periodic mile test to establish if progress is being made. The main point of this activity is to place the responsibility of health and fitness on the high school student. This is a 'road map' for the students to follow and begin taking responsibility for their own health and fitness now and for the rest of their lives!