The
goal for this Summer Team Impact Project is to present a unit plan and
activities for physical education instruction while integrating STEM content.
We found that integrating STEM topics is extremely beneficial for students.
Students can get extra time exploring their classroom content. Our hope is that
this integration can also pique interest in activities for those who may not
usually be as engaged during PE. Using Virginia Standards of Learning, we
sought to combine relevant science topics for K-12 students with games to
develop their basketball, pickleball and softball skills. This plan is
flexible, for teachers to use this unit plan in its entirety, or use lesson
activities and games as they see fit. My particular contribution was towards
the STEM content in the softball unit.
This
project fits into my future plans as a nurse and an Army officer by
contributing how to plan with various factors and reinforcing my knowledge in
STEM and biomechanics in particular. An average research day consists of a zoom
meeting with all undergraduate and graduate students then breakout sessions
with our individual groups to continue work on our unit plans. We had one day
in the gym to test out some physical education activities and record ancillary
materials for teachers. Something that I have discovered through this project
is how complicated it is to create a unit and lesson plans. There are so many
things that go into creating them. This project was different than it would
have been if it were face to face because a majority of this was done virtually
with all of us in different states, this was very cool since we were able to
travel and still do research and work on the project. My next steps are to take
the knowledge I learned from this project and apply it anyway I can to nursing
school and Army ROTC.
