School board members serving the South Middleton School District in Pennsylvania have approved including Distance PE in the educational planning guide for the 2024-25 school year at Boiling Springs High School.
As reported by The Sentinel in Carlisle, the concept was piloted this fall among a section of seniors. With board approval, the approach can be expanded, relieving the pressure of limited space at the high school. Seniors completing the course would gain a half credit toward the physical education requirement for graduation.
“Each week, students are assigned an online lesson delivered through slides, videos or an article,” Kate McCarney, teacher of the pilot and chair of the health and physical education department, told Joseph Cress of The Sentinel. “After viewing the material, students complete a variety of assignments and quizzes about the health- and exercise-related concepts of the week.
“In addition, students must complete a required amount of physical activity each week that registers in their target heart rate zone."
Each student is issued a Polar Watch, which includes a heart rate monitor.
“The watch allows the user to enter basic settings like height, weight and age, enabling the watch to calculate an individual’s target heart rate,” McCarney said. “A target heart rate is the minimum number of heartbeats needed to reach the level of exertion necessary for cardiovascular fitness, specific to a person’s age or physical fitness.
“When students complete their weekly required number of minutes of exercise, these minutes must register in a student’s target heart rate. The data recorded on the watch uploads to an app and syncs to a website, allowing their PE teacher to view the student data.”
According to Cress, students are currently required to complete four PE classes during their time at the high school. Enrollment growth has led to larger PE sections of more than 30 students each, according to background material cited in a course briefing form reviewed by the school board. During winter months, there have been cases where 70-plus students are in the same space when two sections are in the high school gym at the same time. Concern arose that such crowding could jeopardize student safety, prompting the district to shift some juniors and seniors to an outside cyber PE course that relieved the pressure, but created an expense, Cress reported.
Currently, the PE department has 40 watches for the course. In the future, the department plans to allocate $1,500 each year to purchase new or replacement watches. Distance PE was a $5,000 line item in the 2023-24 district budget. That could potentially be lower for the 2024-25 budget and beyond, according to the briefing form.
Developed by the district, Distance PE is a virtual class that allow seniors more time to complete internships, dual-enrollment classes, job shadowing and other programs while still meeting the district graduation requirements, the briefing form says.
“It allows students the flexibility to engage in self-directed physical activities of their choice that support their own personal fitness goals,” McCarney said. “Unlike a traditional PE class where students are told what activity to complete with a class full of peers, Distance PE is designed to have students practice the self-discipline and self-motivation needed in adulthood to complete exercise on their own to enhance and maintain a healthy lifestyle."
