 is scientifically accurate.
Screenshot of PCFSN website – Physical Activity Initiative
- 5. Comprehensive School Physical Activity Program (CSPAP)
The CSPAP is the result of a collaboration between the CDC and SHAPE America, and is designed as a way to help develop new physical activity programs for schools, or improve those currently in place.
CSPAP works on the target of providing students with 60 minutes of physical activity each day, and should be considered an outline of how many different groups of people can work together to create more opportunities for children to be involved in physical activity.
This also includes a step-by-step process for developing, implementing, and evaluating a comprehensive school physical activity program.
- 6. CDC Physical Activity Facts
A collection of interesting facts related to the participation in physical activity by young people, as revealed by national surveys. Also includes some useful resources that detail the important role schools, families, and communities play in promoting youth physical activity.
Assessing physical fitness level and improvements
An important part of any teaching plan, whether it’s for math, geography, or PE, is to be able to plan and create assessments that are capable of distinguishing which level the children are at academically.
The difficulty is that a child’s ability in PE can be influenced by a whole range of factors that can’t necessarily be compared to any pre-defined list of grades.
Judging the effectiveness of a particular lesson plan can also be difficult. It’s not practical to accurately measure energy expenditure on a large scale, and the ability for children to perform detailed recall often makes self-reporting assessments less accurate than when performed by adults.
It’s always best to start off with the basics. The following list of factors are influential in determining the physical activity level of any student, and can perhaps be used to determine whether they are reaching the recommended weekly amount of physical exercise:
- Time spent in PE lessons
- Activity level during recess and lunch breaks
- Time spent outside when the child is away from school
- Involvement in community sports programs
One study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) used what’s referred to as the Youth Risk Behaviour Surveillance System (YRBSS) to monitor the general health of children by conducting several surveys – one at national level, as well as local school-based surveys conducted by state.
One of the findings from the combined results of these surveys was that nationwide, 56% of students had played on at least one sports team run by a local community group or their school. Based on their popularity alone, these certainly shouldn’t be discounted as a source of exercise, and would be an excellent addition to a school’s teaching plan if not already implemented.
This is also why it can be extremely important to offer extra-curricular sports clubs after school, which can cover anything from dance to American football. Incidentally, the CDC is another of the organizations that supports the recommendation of at least 150 minutes per week of physical exercise for children.
How to perform the assessments
Performing regular assessments on how much the children’s physical fitness has improved is important for many reasons. This isn’t just to validate whether or not your current lesson plan is effective, but also to identify and resolve any issues that may be causing the students to lose interest in the program.
The assessments themselves can be performed in a variety of ways, whether that be formal, informal, or process-orientated. Peer reviews are also an option, whereby the children evaluate each other on their performances, although these may require a little more management and planning.
The following list of resources should be able to provide you with some ideas on how to go about performing your own physical fitness assessments.
5 Useful resources for assessing student fitness
- 1. Monitoring Student Fitness Levels
A useful PDF docum