Course Description

Course title: Beginning Kinesiology

Course description: Students will experience significant physical, intellectual, and emotional growth and development during their high school years. A high-quality physical education program will help them to manage these changes and establish a healthy lifestyle as adults.

Beginning Kinesiology is the physical education course required for graduation. It is a stand-alone course which encompasses the basic concepts of athletics and fitness, and introduces students to the basic physiological, psychological, sociological, and mechanical principles of human movement. Students will be empowered to make choices, meet challenges, and develop positive behaviors in fitness, wellness, and movement activity for a lifetime.

It is highly recommended that students take Beginning Kinesiology in Grade 9. It is the prerequisite for all physical education elective courses.

Course structure: This course is divided into 9 units covering the important concepts of the course. The units are

  1. Unit 1: Benefits of Active Lifestyle and General Fitness
  2. Unit 2: Fitness Basics
  3. Unit 3: Motor Skills and Movement
  4. Unit 4: Fitness Through Dance
  5. Unit 5: Muscular Strength versus Muscular Endurance
  6. Unit 6: Nutrition and Stress Management
  7. Unit 7: Fitness Testing and Goal Setting
  8. Unit 8: Fitness for Life – Developing a Personal Fitness Plan
  9. Unit 9: Life Choices

Each unit is subdivided into lessons. Each lesson covers one or more important concepts, skills, or content. Most lessons have four parts.

  1. an Introduction and objectives that prepare you for the lesson.
  2. a Learn section covering the content for the lesson. The Learn section may include text, links to outside texts or resources, multimedia presentations, interactivities, or videos.
  3. a Try It section where you can practice applying knowledge or skills from the lesson and get feedback without being graded.
  4. a Tasks page. This include instructions for the graded work you will complete to prove your mastery of the lesson.

All Tasks in your course will count towards your grade. You will have a variety of Tasks in the course to ensure you are evaluated appropriately on all skills. After you complete your Tasks, look over your feedback to make sure you are correctly applying the information.

This course has two components - a cognitive component consisting of lessons related to the understanding of fitness and a physical componentrequiring you to work out and apply these understandings in your own life. Both components are required to successfully complete this course and are weighted about equally. Most weeks, you will spend 1-3 hours on the cognitive components of the lessons at the computer. You will also have five 45-minute workouts to complete. Because the cognitive and physical components are related, you should not rush ahead on the cognitive lessons.

You are required to complete all physical activity components of this course. If you have trouble finding equipment for a given week's activities, contact your teacher. He or she can help suggest alternative activities. You may be required to submit video evidence in addition to your logs to prove you completed the necessary work.

In units 2 and 3 you will get a chance to explore calorie and fitness trackers and apps. You will also be able to practice the fitness assessment in unit 7 before you are required to complete it in unit 9.

Each unit also typically includes one or more quizzes and tests. Each 0.5 credit of your course includes a comprehensive Term Exam.

Course Objectives: The course objectives are based on the standards from ALSDE: Beginning Kinesiology

Evaluation

Subjective assignments will be graded using a rubric, checklist, or scoring guide. Written work will be evaluated for content and for quality of writing. The quality of writing should reflect coherent, logical, and carefully edited writing. Each assignment, product, and exam will contribute to the grade earned by a student. Point values for each assignment are listed on the unit checklist and on the assignment itself.

Review the syllabus for additional information on how you will be assessed in this course.

Image Credits

Unless otherwise noted, all images featured in this presentation are original works created by ACCESS, available by public domain, or licensed from iStock or Articulate.