A set of three courses within the Health and Human Services pathway at Spring Lake Park High School are exposing students to careers in health and wellness, providing strategies and avenues to personal health and offering opportunities for college credit.
Eli, a senior, will never forget the off-campus experiences in his Health and Sports Performance class.
“We went to HyVee with an assignment to create a meal for someone who just had heart surgery,” he recalls. “I made a burrito bowl thing - with salmon, rice, beans, lettuce.”
After developing their meals, students shared them. It was all a part of exploring the world of dieticians and how they balance health and nutrition and make it taste good.
Health and Sports Performance, Exercise Science and Anatomy of Movement are three courses within the high school’s Health and Human Services pathway. Career and College Pathways are sets of courses within a specific career field or path that provide opportunities for students to explore different careers, develop relevant skills and earn high school – and even college – credits.
Laying a foundation
The Health and Sports Performance course is a year-long course for students in grades 11-12 with an option for four college credits through Anoka-Ramsey Community College. The course is a prerequisite for Exercise Science and Anatomy of Movement.
The course has different focus areas each trimester. The first trimester is a health course – a high school requirement – focused on individual health and wellness. The second and third trimester offer both high school credits as well as options for college credits. The second trimester has a classroom focus and the third trimester is in the gym and labs and shadowing outside the school.
Justin Gagnon, teacher of Health and Physical Education, pursued his master’s to be able to teach the college-level material across all three of these courses.
Health and Sports Performance is one of the first college courses a student might take when they get to college. It really is about college preparedness. For the lab portion of the class, you really can't miss days or have tardies. Students really have to take more ownership over their own learning. It's a little bumpy at first, but then they really figure it out. It's a really good way to set them up for college. Justin Gagon, SLPHS teacher of Health and Physical Education
Throughout the year, students work toward achieving individual fitness goals and develop skills to assess and enhance their own health and fitness. Labs throughout the year – on and off campus – help students put their skills into practice and explore new activities. Students also have opportunities to shadow professionals working in sport and health-related fields, such as physical therapy, athletic training, occupational therapy, sports management, and sports psychology.
“Doing the labs was the best part,” says Eli. “We learned to measure a partner’s joints for range of motion. We went to the grocery store. We played disc golf.”
The off-campus experiences were particularly impactful in making connections to real life. Eli had never put on ice skates before they went to National Sports Center to learn how to play hockey.
“One of the goals is wellness for life, which means exposure to things they may have never done, like disc golf,” says Justin. “Students may not go into a profession, but they will have tried a bunch of stuff. Finding the things we can do as we age is important.”
Exercise Science and Anatomy of Movement
Seniors who complete the Health and Sports Performance course can take Exercise Science and Anatomy of Movement as seniors.
Exercise Science is geared toward students interested in pursuing physical therapy, personal training and similar fields. Anatomy of Movement has broad application for a variety of careers in health-related fields.
A small group of driven seniors took the 2-trimester Exercise Science course last year. They spent the first weeks talking about career development – LinkedIn profiles, networking and getting set up to be a professional in these fields. Then, they spent a week each on a variety of careers – athletic training, sports psychology, dieticians, cardiac rehab, and others. A day of lecture on the career was followed by a day with a guest speaker working in the field. Then, there was 1-2 days of lab experience.
Labs put skills into action. For athletic training, students learned how to properly tape legs and wrists. For physical therapy, they used tools to measure range of motion. For dieticians, students returned to HyVee to create a healthy snack for an athlete with a specific nutritional need (then they tasted the snacks!). For sports management, they designed a promotional flyer for a sporting event.
The month of May was dedicated to practical experience out in the field. Students taught fitness classes for a local gym. They ran an adaptive phy ed. class. They led step and yoga classes. They went to Centerview Elementary to teach gym class. They spent time with physical therapists and sports trainers at Twin Cities Orthopedics. Each experience provided a peek into a life doing that work.
“It was a great group of students. They knew what they wanted to do with their lives,” says Justin. “They were so engaged and interested in going into the field – they had a lot of buy-in. They asked a lot of questions, and they found it relevant to what they want to do with their lives.”
Anatomy of Movement, another course for seniors, is a new, 1-trimester long course offering four college credits through Anoka-Ramsey Community College. Justin is excited about the course because there isn’t currently another anatomy offering at the high school.
“Anatomy is typically a big stress class for students in college,” says Justin. “It’s good to get a baseline understanding before you enter college. This is super relevant for those interested in the sports field as well as nursing and other pre-medical health care professions.”
Eli’s experiences have helped him identify his next steps. He plans on going to the University of Minnesota to study Kinesiology and eventually go into physical therapy. Along with college credits for Health and Sports Performance, he has other college credits from Government, Environmental Science and other courses that have helped him prepare for his next steps after graduation.
“I feel like I'm ready to go,” he says.
There are three Career and College Pathways at Spring Lake Park High School that each represent a need for future jobs. Students explore careers, gain skills, work on real-world projects and even earn college credit and certifications. Students take courses in one – or all three. Learn more about career and college readiness at Spring Lake Park High School.