Course Description:
"It's easier to maintain health than to regain it."
--Dr. Ken Cooper

Introduction to Fitness is a required course for 9th graders. This semester long course will focus on the basics of health-related fitness, including the components of fitness, the F.I.T.T. formula, and the principles of training. Fitness tests, goal-setting, videos, PowerPoint presentations, readings, written assignments, heart rate monitors, and the Fitness Center will be used to introduce, review, and apply fitness concepts. This information in this course will provide a foundation for completing the required culminating project in 10th grade.

Course Overview:
The following topics will be covered during this course. Students will be required to collect, analyze and appy the information explored in each unit.

Unit 1- A case for fitness

Unit 2 Fitness testing and Goal Setting

Unit 3 -Muscular Fitness

Unit 4 - Body Composition

Unit 5 - Cardiorespiratory Fitness

Unit 6 - Benefits of Flexibility

Unit 7- 9th grade final

Course Goals
Students will be able:

• To develop fundamental and complex movement skills as developmentally appropriate.
• To understand the concepts of health-related physical fitness and develop and monitor progress on personal fitness goals.
• To understand the relationship of nutrition and nutrients to physical performance and body composition.
• To safely participate in a variety of developmentally appropriate physical activities.
• To understand patterns of growth and development.
• To acquire skills to live safely and reduce health risks.
• To use social skills to promote health and safety in a variety of situations.
• To understand how emotions influence decision-making.
• To analyze health and safety information.
• To develop a health and fitness plan and a monitoring system.

Required Texts/Materials
There is no required textbook for this class. All resources will be available online. However, since this is an activity class, students will be required to be active. The following instruments will be used to verify physical activity levels in conjunction with journals and adult verification. It is preferred that students have a Polar E600 heart rate monitor that allows for downloading heart rate data to the computer. If this is not possible students may use a high quality pedometer. These can be purchased through the links below. Students in Spokane Public Schools may check a heart rate monitor out through their High School Health and Fitness department. However, they must agree to replace it if it is lost or broken.

For more information on Heart rate monitors click here

For more information on Pedometers click here

Evaluation/Grading/Requirements
Grades will be based on the completion of academic content, participation and attendance. As stated earlier, this is an activity class and students will be required to be active and document their activity. Thirty-five percent of the grade will come from the completion of worksheets, quizzes, logs and questionnaires. Fifteen percent of the grade will come from participation in online discussions boards, chats and group/partner work. The remaining fifty percent of the grade comes from participating in fitness related activities that help students achieve their fitness goals. The only way to get fit is to be active. In addition, fitness testing will contribute to this portion of the grade. Students will be required to document their activity in many ways. These may include parent/coach signatures, logs, journals, heart rate data, pedometer data and communication with your instructor.

All grades will be calculated on a point system for each assignment. Grades will be calculated on straight percentage basis of 90% or more is an "A", 80-89% = "B", 70-79% = "C", 60-69% = "D", below 60% = "F".

Please contact the instructor immediately if there are any technical problems with the course.

Expected Workload
There are two main components of this class: academic content and physical activity.

The academic portion of the class should take an average of one hour a week to complete over the course of the year.

The activity portion of this class will take 3 hours per week. Students will be required to be active a minimum of 5 days a week for at least 30 minutes a day (including 20 minutes in the Target Heart Rate Zone). In order to achieve health benefits and the fitness goals that students set for themselves, they will need to be consistent with their activity. There is a lot of flexibility in the types of activities that students can do. Some weeks, students may be required to complete a certain activity but otherwise students may choose the activities that they enjoy. Students will be required to log their activity, provide parent/coach verification and maintain a journal about their physical activity levels.

Attendance
Students are required to turn in at least one assignment per week and make substantial contributions to discussions and chats when required. Students will also be required to post an entry biweekly in their journal. In addition, since this is an activity class, students will be required to be active a minimum of 5 times per week. There will be procedures that students need to follow to verify that the activity was completed. As stated earlier, this is a requirement of this class and will be part of the overall grade.

Course Prerequisites
There are no academic prerequisites for this class. However, students should be able to participate in physical activity to complete the requirements of this course.

Course Policies

Academic Integrity :
It is the responsibility of the student to uphold the highest in academic integrity. Students in this course will be expected to comply with the official Spokane District 81 Policy regarding Academic Integrity. It is the assumption of the instructor that all work is done by the student.

District Computer/Network Usage:
Careful and ethical use of computing resources is the responsibility of every user. Students will be held to a stand of accountability for how they use computers. The official District Acceptable Use Policy is found here (PDF).