So I’m guessing many of you Phys Ed folks are looking for quick and easy ways to integrate some health and nutrition concepts into your classes, am I right?
I came across this awesome health E-course one year when I was teaching and decided I wanted to try and integrate some more health concepts into our Physical Education curriculum. I knew that not many kids were getting health content in the classroom and I wanted to find a way to introduce some concepts in a fun, quick and interesting way. I really wanted kids to start to understand the science behind the importance of Physical Literacy.
Ultimately I want them to leave my school knowing that exercise and healthy eating impacts every other area of their life in a positive way.
After doing some research I found these really cool whiteboard drawing videos created by a company called Life Dojo. They are offered through an online learning company called Udemy where people can create courses and sell them through the Udemy Online Platform. I’ve taken a ton of courses through the Udemy Learning Platform personally and professionally and really like their platform.
I bought a course that looked fun called “Fit for Life: The Science of Exercise”, you can check out a preview video at the affiliate link below:
Fit for Life: The Science of Exercise
I tested it out with my 5th graders. It consisted of 16 short whiteboard videos that guided students through exercise science basics and also some basic written activities that helped the students work on developing a personal activity plan and realizing what activities would be good for them to integrate into their lives.
I showed my kids one video after our daily warmup and we talked about the concepts for a few minutes after the video was over.
I really loved the conversations that the videos helped me bring up with my students. Honestly, I learned a lot through the course as well and it helped me remember the WHY behind the importance of Physical Education.
Here are a few reasons I think this is a great course to integrate into your PE curriculum:
- The videos are short, well designed, funny and engaging (3-6 minutes each)
- Each video talks about some pretty incredible scientific research relating exercise to:
- Emotional Health
- Physical Health
- Cognitive Health
- The videos guide students through a series of written exercises which was a was a nice built in assessment and gave me a way to measure student learning and also a portfolio to give students after the series was over.
- Each video builds on the previous and it was well structured with a great overview of personal fitness and the benefits of exercise.
If you decide to try this course out with your kids, feel free to download my notes on the course below. They are pretty simple and just include things like topic, video length and questions that I asked my students after each video.
Note: The course used to come with a PDF download, but now has been updated so students just create their own workbook exercises from a blank piece of paper to simplify things I would just start with 10 pages of paper stapled together and allow your students to use this throughout the different exercises
Also, here are a few student examples from the Student Workbook:
One question was what is your default future without regular exercise?
Then the students wrote what their new future would look like with regular exercise…
If you like the Fit for Life Course you should also check out the developers other health related courses, I’ve gone through the Healthy Eating Course personally and really enjoyed it. I plan on using a few of the videos with my students this year. It gives a great overview of basic nutrition and the way the body digests food. It emphasizes the importance of eating whole foods and checking ingredients labels on what you buy. The tagline of the course is You Are What You Eat.
I think it would be perfect for Middle or High School level in a situation where students see the teacher more often than once a week. I included my personal notes from this course as well. You can check out the details at the affiliate link below. If you try it out out – let me know how it goes.
You can download my personal notes on the course below:
I hope you find these courses as useful as I have personally and professionally
Other Health Related Courses from Life Dojo
They also have some other health related courses that I’ve purchased and plan on using this year since I’ll most likely have to teach in a classroom for at least part of the year with all the social distancing guidelines and restrictions on schools due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I included the links below to their other courses in case you want to check them out as well.
The 2 other courses I already mentioned in the video:
Now also available on Teachers Pay Teachers:
I just heard from the Life Dojo Team and they have posted these on TPT as well, so if that makes more sense you can check them out at the link below:
- Life Dojo TPT Store
- The four programs can each span 12 weeks, and so can cover a full academic + summer school year for grades 4th through 12th
- The videos are entertaining and 5 minutes each
- For science of exercise and healthy eating, there is a detailed lesson plan with associated activities for every lesson, you can also download my free notes in the post above
- Courses are run through Google Classrooms which can make it easier for some teachers to keep up with students and present concerns to the LifeDojo team directly. Alternatively, they can just download the videos from the classroom and us
If you decide to use any of these courses with your students or take any of them personally, let me know what you think on Twitter
Kelly Card says
Do you know where I can find the handouts? They no longer seem available on either Udemy, nor on TPT. I paid for the course on Udemy and would love the support materials. Googled lots of stuff and can’t find a download anywhere.
Nisha says
This course is no longer available when I click on the link. Bummer.
Jim Hambel says
I clicked the link above and was sent to Floqq. I tried to look around but none of the videos work. Is it out of order?
Ben Landers says
Floqq is where the E-course is hosted, I would contact them with any questions you have about the site
Charla says
I too tried to order the videos, but can not find them. Any idea how to purchase those?
Ben Landers says
Did you try the link at the top of the post?
It looks like the video E-course is available for sale on the Floqq website.
Elizabeth Bolger says
Please tell me more about Fit for life. I am trying to google it but I am not finding it. Is there a website to directly look at this product?
Adam Elvington says
Exactly what I needed! Thanks Ben!
The PE Specialist says
Awesome! Glad it was helpful