Health and Physical Education

This course is designed for Health & Physical Education majors, students who wish to complete a minor in coaching and other interested students. The course focus is on basic motor principles of motor learning and the relationship to performance.

This course will explore the major concepts and theories related to comprehensive health education. Participants will examine disciplinary knowledge, consider motivational and behavioral theories, and assess competencies that promote the maintenance of, or improvement to, one's quality of life. Based upon guidelines provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) and the Society of Health and Physical Education (SHAPE), students will analyze a variety of healthy behaviors that are important to overall wellbeing, such as: mental and emotional health; personal health and wellbeing; safety, injury, and violence prevention; healthy eating; physical activity; alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs; and sexual health. By the end of the term, participants will have developed the necessary skills to assist others in becoming health literate.

This course will include information about a wide range of disabilities and diseases and how to provide appropriately inclusive physical activity opportunities. The focus will include designing safe and effective exercise programs for individuals with disabilities, and how to respond to emergency situations. Students will explore the role of the professional in multiple settings in the provision of activity for special populations.

This course examines national and state standards in health and physical education and their application to comprehensive curricula in the coordination, organization, and administration of health and physical education programs. Mission, history, philosophy, goals, content standards, and assessment measures in current physical education curricular models are examined. Students construct and critique needs assessment tools and develop a scope and sequence for a unit topic.