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ISSUES: Fitness & Health
Assignments
Assignments
Brainstorming
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What is fitness?
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How much exercise should you be doing each day,
based on your age?
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What is BMI?
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What does the term ‘obesity’ mean?
Research
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Research how much activity you should be doing per
week, based on your age. Create an exercise plan that
you believe would be easy to integrate into your daily
routine. For example, getting off the bus one stop early
and walking the rest of the way, playing sport after
school, doing an exercise class or following an exercise
DVD at home.
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Research High Intensity Interval Training and create
a bullet point list of the pros and cons of this kind of
exercise.
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Talk tosome friends and relatives about their experiences
of PE at school. Think of at least five questions to ask
and make a note of the respondent’s age and gender.
When you have gathered your results, write a summary
report no more than two pages long. Include graphs
to illustrate the difference between male and female
experiences of PE.
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Did you know that half of people in UK cannot run 100
metres? Run 100 metres and time how long it takes you.
What level of physical activity do you think you felt
while running? Low, moderate or high?
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Research a new sport or fitness activity that you have
always wanted to know more about. The more obscure
the better! For example, have you ever considered
archery or perhaps roller derby? Design a PowerPoint
presentation that will persuade people to take-up this
unique sport.
Design
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Choose one of the articles from this book and create an
illustration that highlights its key message.
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Design a new kind of exercise class aimed at those who
are overweight and very nervous about doing group
exercise. What kind of exercise could you do to make
the class fun and non-intimidating? Work in pairs and
create a poster for your class.
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Design a leaflet explaining obesity and its causes.
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Design a poster that will encourage office workers to
convert to using standing desks instead of sitting down
all day.
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Read the article
Ten new “healthy” towns to be built in
England
on page 37. In pairs, design your own ‘healthy
town’.
Oral
In pairs, list as many ‘moderate intensity’ exercises as you can
think of that would be easy for a working-mum or dad to fit
into their daily routine.
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Choose one of the illustrations from this book and, in
pairs, discuss what you think the artist was trying to
portray with their image.
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In pairs, create a presentation aimed at people over 60
explaining the benefits of exercise and suggesting ways
they can stay active.
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In small groups, discuss why you think 40–54-year-old
women are the least likely to meet the NHS exercise
guidelines. Share with the rest of your class.
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Do you think it is appropriate for young children to
be weighed at school, and for letters to be sent to
their parents if they are considered at risk of being
overweight? Debate this as a class.
Reading/Writing
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Write a summary of the article
How physical activity
prevents cancer
on page five.
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The article on page 15 says that ‘nearly one in five
people think their local park or green space [is] under
threat of being lost or built on.’ Write a letter/formal
email to your local MP explaining why your local park
is important and the impact it might have on the
community’s fitness levels if the park were to disappear.
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Imagine you work for a company that manufactures
‘wearable technology’. Your company has released a
new fitness tracker watch, aimed at young people, and
wants to try and sell it in-bulk to local schools. Write a
letter to the head teacher of a local school, explaining
why you think it would benefit their pupils to wear a
fitness tracker and why he/she should invest in them.
