Crusaders Excel in Health and PE

IMG_3844The Brother Martin Health & PE department continually strives to provide the student body with a plethora of activities and opportunities to promote awareness and the improvement of overall health and human performance. At this point during the academic calendar and curriculum, the Health & PE program is focusing on three different phases of instruction.

The eighth grade and ninth grade PE classes are involved in a phase of instruction that continually targets to improve, on a daily basis, aerobic capacity, overall flexibility, functional movements, and motor skills. Once they have completed a portion of the day, the remainder of our instruction falls into one of two of the following categories. Half of the week is committed to the improvement of muscular strength, muscular endurance, cardiovascular endurance, and overall body composition, either through the use of the weight room or through other alternative forms of strength and conditioning. The other half of the week is dedicated to participation in seasonal sports in order to improve sport-specific skills and to encourage healthy competition, teamwork, and sportsmanship. At this time of year the focus is on baseball.

IMG_4361Currently, a portion of ninth grade Health students are involved in the CPR certification process. Within CPR classes, members of the faculty are training students in basic first aid, CPR, and AED use. They also are training students on how to assess or check specific scenes and victims; how to properly roll or move a victim, if necessary; and how to assess a victim for injuries. Students will then know how to administer the process of breathing and chest compressions for those victims in need.

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Finally, the ninth grade Health classes have recently devoted time learning how to research communicable diseases. Students were instructed by the Librarians on how to access and cite information from Brother Martin’s print and virtual science collections. In addition to learning about specific communicable diseases, our students were instructed on how to use caution while researching any health-related topic. More specifically, they were instructed on how to locate current credible information from reputable sources that rely on medical research.