Take Health Lessons to the Gym — Part I

Abstract

Typical health lessons are taught in a classroom setting, where students sit in their chairs and passively receive information. This instructional method may not be the optimal approach, as Ratey discovered in his famous experiment that the human brain is more aroused when the body is physically and actively engaged in the learning environment. The purpose of this two-part article is to illustrate how health content can be delivered with hands-on activities, visual illustrations, and physical tasks that are associated with a specific lesson focus or that require students to repeatedly practice memory recall. Two physical activities in the following five health education topics are presented in this article: (1) mental and emotional health, (2) family and social health, (3) growth and development, (4) nutrition, and (5) personal health and physical activity. Aligned national health education standards and twenty-first-century skills, as well as evaluation for each activity, are also included. Although most of the activities presented in this article are content-specific, a few of the designs can be implemented with a different lesson focus or health topic.