PDHPE Matters

The students have continued to demonstrate exceptional progress in both their application and learning across the full breath of the PDHPE Curriculum since the last PDHPE KLA report. The quality of the student’s assessment tasks continue to reflect their ability to be creative, engaging and informative. The student’s abilities to effectively integrate varied technologies into their assessment tasks and use a variety of personalised learning strategies to best demonstrate their learning has been astounding. The following provides just a snapshot of the learning opportunities taking place in PDHPE across each stage.

STAGE 6 OVERVIEW:

2 Unit Community and Family Studies (CAFS)

Our Year 11 and 12 Community and Family Studies (CAFS) students have been immersed in a variety of experiences to broaden their knowledge of their current topics. Year 11 have been exploring Individuals and Groups. They applied the theory in class and utilised the Research Methodology ‘Observation’ by observing particular groups within our community, the roles individuals play within groups and the group dynamics in different situations. The students came up with their own group scenarios and performed their own skits to demonstrate the elements of these groups in a variety of contexts. These skits not only demonstrated their knowledge of the content but were also very entertaining.

Year 12 have been covering the unit Groups in Context. This unit has given students the opportunity to explore a variety of specific groups in our society such as Youth, The Aged, People with Disabilities, Homeless, Rural Families etc. As part of this unit students are in the process of creating their own community seminar as an advocate of their chosen group that will be presented to the class later in the term. We have been fortunate to have a few special guests in our classroom to speak from their own perspective and give us a real insight into their own lives. Annie and David visited our classroom to tell us about their disabilities, share parts of their lives with us and answer questions about some of the content we were covering in class. Their presence and attitudes were inspirational and have left a lasting impression on all of us.

Mr Don Paul visited us on Thursday of Week 5 to discuss life for the elderly. At the age of 88 he was a true example of how to make the most of life and the contribution we can make to the community no matter what your age.

Another highlight this term was the e-workshop Year 12 engaged in through The Big Issue. Students were able to participate in the same workshop delivered face-to-face to students in the city, through the use of technology and using video teleconferencing. The students were in awe of the guest speaker who shared his own story of homelessness as well as the reality of homelessness in Australia. This was a great example of the ways in which technology can assist in providing meaningful educational opportunities to students in all locations. 

Ms Emily Paul (CAFS Teacher)

Stage 6- 2 Unit PDHPE

Our current Year 12 PDHPE students continue to work their way through the syllabus content and at present are close to completing their second compulsory core: Factors Affecting Performance. In recent time students have been consolidating their understanding of various Nutritional and Recovery strategies that are used in sport. Mr Bailey’s students were required to assume the role of a Sports Nutritionist working at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra. They had been asked by the head coach of a sport of their choice to make a 5 minute presentation to a group of young athletes who had been invited to attend a talented athlete’s camp in Canberra.  The aim of their presentation was to engage, inform and guide the athletes on the specific nutritional requirements needed to be successful in their chosen sport. A few examples of these presentations can be viewed below:

The students have commenced examining the stages of skill acquisition and have been involved in some practical activities to assist their understanding of what learning a new skill  feels and looks like as the person enters the cognitive stage of skill acquisition. Mr Lawrence’s class examined the skill of juggling, whilst Mr Bailey’s class were required to throw a tennis ball with their non-dominant hand at a tall cone target situated inside a large hoop and located seven metres away. The students performed five trials, each consisting of 10 throws and were scored based on if and how they hit the target and where the ball landed. The student’s results were most interesting and so to was their movement patterns as they executed the skills. Some photos of the students in action can be seen below:

The Year 11 Students have completed their first compulsory core unit: Better Health for Individuals and have recently commenced their second core unit: The Body in Motion where they have been working hard to consolidate their understanding of the skeletal and muscular systems. The students are currently completing their Mid-Course Examination and as depicted in the pictures below some of the students were using the game based applications called ‘wack a bone’ and poke a muscle’ to assist them to revise syllabus content before the examination.

The Year 11 students submitted their first assessment task at the end of Week 10, Term 1 with one component of the task requiring the students to construct their own health promotion video. The students were asked to address a specific health issue affecting young Australia’s in society today, with the purpose being for the video to be played during prime time television to promote awareness to the Australian community. Below are some examples of the exceptional videos they produced:

Mr Shane Bailey/Mr Daryl Lawrence (2 Unit PDHPE Teachers)

Stage 5

Year 10 PASS (Physical Activity and Sports Studies)

Currently Year 10 PASS students are studying Coaching, with their assessment task requiring the students to present a Coaching session on Oztag to their peers. They are working in pairs to coach a lesson which will include a warm up game, a skill component of Oztag and a drill to practice the skill and finish with a warm-down, including stretching. Students planning of their coaching session has been supported by the use of a lesson plan template. 

View video of the students in action below.

Students in Mr Irvine’s Year 10 PASS class participated in a gruelling boxing for fitness session late last term as a part of their Fitness Unit. 

Stage 4

Year 7 Healthy School Canteen WebQuest and assessment task

All of Year 7 over the past five weeks have been actively engaged in completing the Healthy School Canteen WebQuest to assist them to complete their assessment task. A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the internet, and which requires the students to investigate and solve a specific problem. You can visit our WebQuest and see what our Year 7 Seven students were required to do by clicking on the following link:

http://healthycanteenwebquest.weebly.com/

As part of their assessment task the students were required to work in groups to construct a google presentation, based on studying the MDCC school canteen in relation to the Healthy Schools Canteen strategy and make specific recommendations. The students have commenced presenting their work to their teacher and peers and these presentations will continue this week. I was fortunate enough to be invited into Mrs Priest’s Year 7 (C) class last week to watch some of these presentations and I was thoroughly impressed by the quality of presentations delivered, they were creative, engaging and informative. Well done to all Year 7 and their teachers. Just a few examples of these presentations can be viewed below and more of these presentations will be showcased at a later time.

In addition to the students delivering their presentations to their class, an opportunity exists for one presentation from each of the 5 Year 7 classes, judged by their teacher to be the most engaging, creative and informative to be presented to members of the College Leadership team at a later date. The Leadership team will judge which presentation overall in Year 7 is the most engaging, creative and informative, with each member of the