TEAMING STEAM W I T H PHYSICAL ED UCATI ON ANY TRULY VALUABLE EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM IS COMMITTED TO ENGAGING STUDENTS INTELLECTUALLY, EMOTIONALLY, AND PHYSICALLY.
In the past, the world of general education had often addressed these aspects of learning in separate silos. Students may have sat passively in a classroom while a teacher engaged them intellectually. Later in the day, perhaps, they participated in an arts or music class to engage emotionally with the subject. Periodically, students would be shuttled to a gym class and put through the rigors of a rope climb, calisthenics, or a competitive ball game. This eventually became known as “physical education” with the addition of health and nutrition information added to the mix. Fortunately, modern educators are breaking down these silos and generating overwhelming evidence that movement and exercise should be as much a part of the academic experience as science, technology, engineering, and math should be part of physical education. As a Wall Street Journal education columnist Valerie Strauss once wrote, “Letting kids move in class isn’t a break from learning. It IS learning.” Physical education is essential and must “fit” or integrate within an overall school philosophy. At Peck, this means not just complimenting the work that our academic faculty are facilitating, but providing an active foundation for a lifelong appreciation of movement and exercise, combined with a commitment to intellectual curiosity and exploration. At The Peck School, problem-based, hands-on learning and STEAM projects (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) promote collaboration, teamwork, trial and error, and other skillsets that have long been nurtured in our physical education program. “Because students learn in different ways and excel in different environments, it’s important that we cast a wide net. We need to bring physical movement into the classroom and also find opportunities for problem solving and engineering in
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Physical Education can be an amazing learning environment for just about any academic concept
PE,” explains Chris Weaver, Peck’s Director of Curriculum and Faculty Development. Just as our classroom teachers have been ‘activating’ students with movement in and around the classroom, our physical education teachers have been doing some ‘intellectualizing’ during their own time with students. “PE can be an amazing learning environment for almost any academic concept,” says Sue Sweeney, Assistant Athletic Director, Head of Girls Athletics, and Physical Education Teacher. Coach Sweeney, and the entire Athletics Department at Peck, enjoy integrating physical activity with intellectual collaboration. Their hope is to blur the lines between what students do in their academic pursuits, and what they do in the gym. A great example of how they give students a workout while practicing engineering
individually, students picked a nation and a flag and spent several periods in the ID Lab constructing functional prototypes of their nations’ bobsleds. Finally, students competed with each other to race down a miniature bobsled track constructed out of rain gutters. (Watch a video at www.peckschool.org/bobsleds).
skills is the “hula hoop huts” game. Building hula hoop huts
At Peck, we are asking, “How can we utilize our Diebold Center
under the pressure of an incoming foam ball is a great team-
for Sportsmanship & Athletics, and the playing fields, beyond
building activity where students actively work on cooperation
exercise of the body to incorporate exercise of the mind—and
and communication while getting a workout at the same time.
infuse into a physical education program the goal of preparing
Teams of students work together using six hula hoops in
physically literate students for work and life?”
sequence to construct a freestanding structure resembling a
In elementary grades, for example, guided discovery and
hut. Every incoming ball they catch equates to one more hula
adventure education can promote problem-solving, decision-
hoop they can add to their structure. When they are finished
making and cooperation among groups. This leads to an
constructing, they must then defend their structure from
understanding of group dynamics, leadership, and navigating
incoming balls. Students enjoy this blend of engineering and
disagreement. In Upper School, creative approaches can be
exercise so much that they are often found organizing their own
used to teach basic nutrition, stress management, and other
pick-up games during recess!
lifelong physical skills. Perhaps our PE students might utilize
Another example of stretching the boundaries of physical
students to track vital health statistics during exercise.
education is the recent foray Coach Sweeney took with her
The possibilities are exciting when young, tech-savvy
PE classes into Peck’s Idea & Design Lab. Students had
students approach physical education with the same ‘design
been studying aspects of the 2018 Winter Olympics and, in
thinking’ concepts nurtured throughout the rest of their
particular, they focused on the sport of bobsled racing. Working
academic experience.
their coding course to develop an app to encourage other
Peck News
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