Interactive Projects

Overview
In this activity, students will visit a Web site dedicated to educating the American public about the importance of physical fitness. The opening screen contains a survey that students will complete to assess their current fitness habits. Through successive pages of an on-line "booklet," students will come to recognize the role of lifelong physical activity in maintaining a high personal fitness level, as well as the downside health risks of a sedentary lifestyle and of failing to maintain a healthful weight.

Objectives

• To recognize through an interactivity on a World Wide Web site that physical fitness is a goal for life.
• To understand that key components of fitness include maintaining a healthful weight and developing a regular program of physical activity.
• To identify health risks that go hand in hand with a sedentary lifestyle and obesity.

Getting Started
Ask if students know what the number one killer in the United States is today. After allowing time for speculation, reveal that the answer is lifestyle diseases such as heart disease and stroke. Explain that these are called lifestyle diseases because they are largely within a person's control. Note that the activity students are about to complete will focus on achieving a state of physical health that reduces a person's risk of lifestyle disease and the steps one needs to take to reach this state.

Before students log on to the site, explain that they may be prompted for information (for example, their blood cholesterol level) which is beyond their present scope of knowledge. Instruct students to do the best they can.

Classroom Follow-up
Review with students what they learned through the survey and the successive pages of the online "booklet." Have interested students each select one of the follow-up pages on the Web site and to prepare a summary of the ideas found there. Set aside a class period for a shape-up seminar in which the students present their findings about topics such as the energy-calorie tradeoff, tips for reducing fat in foods, and the health benefits of different physical activities. If the classroom computer has presentation software, this information might be communicated through a slide program.