Are You Fitter Than a 5th Grader Project Description
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Transcript of Are You Fitter Than a 5th Grader Project Description
Are You Fitter Than a Fifth Grader?
Project Description A key part of 5th grade science is to study how the body works. Students are interested in this content, but often it is taught without a purpose beyond delivery of knowledge. For this project, students will learn about the body and take it a step further: studying how different choices affect kids’ health. They will be aiming to promote the health of other children in VERY SPECIFIC ways (rather than simply get exercise – define how much is enough? What types of exercise should children be doing? How can they promote healthy growth?). Essential Question What is healthy for kids and how can we motivate kids to make healthy choices? Project Work
• Got in shape! • Took a fitness test before and after the project (11 weeks). • We learned about dynamic stretching and other types of
exercise necessary for keeping the body healthy. • Ran every morning (1/4 mile) and participated in other
physical fitness activities during the week. • Met with experts to learn how best to exercise our bodies.
• Taught each other about the body (delivering interactive presentations to learn about the body systems).
• Investigated children's fitness and nutrition. • Designed a parcourse to encourage other students at HTe to exercise
properly. This was the most challenging part of the project. Making decisions all by ourselves took a lot of time and a lot of discussion and compromise.
• Determined the exercises to include (involving debating in the class for certain exercises and identifying which ones were most beneficial for the body while ensuring that all muscles would be worked throughout the course).
• Named the exercises in fun ways to entice young children to do them.
• Designed signs by discussing everything from what information to include on the signs to the color of the signs to the layout.
• Built the parcourse. • Measured, cut, and stained and varnished wood for parcourse
station signs. • Dug holes for balance beam. • Created structure for climbing traverse. • Painted climbing traverse in the style of Jackson Pollock.
Timeline 10-weeks Collaborators Fitness professionals Children’s health professionals HTe’s Engineering Teacher, Bryan Barry City of Chula Vista (financial supporter through a city grant) Exhibition
• 5th graders will present a preview exhibition describing the process of working on this project. This exhibit will give people a chance to walk through the project: learning about the body, tasting healthy food, trying exercises, learning about the parcourse, practicing some of the skills required to build the parcourse structures, and being invited back for the opening of the actual parcourse.
• All students in the school will be scheduled to visit the parcourse on its Opening Day with their class. 5th graders will introduce students to the exercises and benefits of doing these at each station.
Assessment
• Student critique to improve work throughout the project • Teacher feedback in student journals • Student self-assessments midway through the project and at the end
of the project Products
• Parcourse signs and structures (collaborative work of all students) • Letters explaining the project and inviting someone to come to the
parcourse • Parcourse proposals (individual work) students create full
descriptions of an exercise (title, how it’s done, benefits, materials needed, etc.) to propose for inclusion in the parcourse
Post-Project Commentary Are You Fitter Than A 5th Grader? Over the course of 11 weeks, 5th grade students studied the human body, learned about types of exercise that support healthy growth in kids, and worked diligently to improve their own fitness levels. Most importantly, the class developed a solution for motivating their schoolmates to exercise more frequently. They designed and built a parcourse for the school – a permanent fitness circuit consisting of 13 exercise stations including a climbing traverse, tire run, balance beam and log jump. Teacher Reflection In addition to giving students a chance to study the body and explore children’s health, this project provided opportunities for students to develop their decision-‐making capabilities as they made the many choices required in designing and constructing the parcourse. The class also learned to manage hurdles that arose at various times related to the installation of their work and additionally, challenged themselves to pursue and surpass their own fitness goals throughout the project. Student Reflection It was challenging deciding among a lot of ideas from the class. It was hard to come up with one thing for how the signs should be designed to how the climbing traverse should be painted. But after making all those choices we ended up with a parcourse we’re really proud of. – Raymond Bezzo, 5th Grade In this project I learned that if you make a mistake then learn from it because when I painted the signs for the parcourse I made some mistakes and figured out how to fix them. It was challenging to make them look just right! –Alex Vazquez, 5th Grade The measurements for the frames was challenging because you have to be exact. If you’re not, then pieces won’t fit together! –Jaddin Thomas, 5th Grade Kids need to get fit and if they’re not it might not seem bad now, but it can lead to diseases in the future. I learned to not only stay healthy, but help others stay healthy. –Jessica Chou, 5th Grade I think this project was important because it will leave a lasting impact on this school. – Aiden Ramirez, 5th Grade
Climbing Traverse Parcourse Signs
Building the Climbing Traverse
Staining the Signs