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Health & Physical Education

Horizon Middle School Health & Physical Education

MYP Physical Education is a semester long course with a dual focus on fitness and team sports. Students will be tested at the beginning and end of the semester on their level of physical fitness. Various team sports are played for skill acquisition, to learn the fundamentals of sportsmanship, and to understand the strategy and purpose of sport play. Personal wellness is stressed during every class through conditioning and exploration of movement.

Health & Physical Education Department Overview

Physical education, PE or physical training, is an educational course related to the physique of the human body, taken during primary and secondary education that encourages psychomotor learning in a play or movement exploration setting to promote health.

Physical education trends have developed recently to incorporate a greater variety of activities besides typical sports. Introducing students to activities like bowling, walking, hiking or frisbee at an early age can help students develop good activity habits that will carry over into adulthood. Some teachers have even begun to incorporate stress-reduction techniques such as yoga, deep-breathing and tai chi.

Health is the level of functional or metabolic efficiency of a living organism. In humans, it is the general condition of a person's mind and body, usually meaning to be free from illness, injury or pain. The World Health Organization defined health in its broader sense in 1946 as "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." Other definitions have been proposed, among which a recent definition that correlates health and personal satisfaction.

Comprehensive health and physical education standards incorporate a wealth of 21st century skills that are critical to making healthy choices for the lifelong success of every student. Teaching comprehensive health and physical education in every Colorado school means that students will have more opportunities to master key life skills that employers are increasingly demanding, such as teamwork, goal setting, appreciating people’s differences, managing stress, and resolving conflicts.

Educational Content Areas

The power of Colorado’s education improvement efforts lies in having a comprehensive system consisting of relevant and rigorous standards, aligned and meaningful assessments, excellent teachers and school leaders, and high-performing schools and districts. All aspects of the system are continuously improving to advance student learning and prepare students to succeed in an increasingly competitive workforce The Colorado Academic Standards are the expectations of what students need to know and be able to do at the end of each grade. They also stand as the values and content organizers of what Colorado sees as the future skills and essential knowledge for our next generation to be more successful. State standards are the basis of the annual state assessment.

Colorado has 10 content areas:
  • Colorado Arts
    • Music
    • Visual Arts
    • Theatre
    • Dance
  • Comprehensive Health and Physical Education
  • Mathematics
  • Reading, Writing, and Communicating
  • Science
  • Social Studies
  • World Languages