Outreach Programs
Individualized Sports Skills Program
The University of Rhode Island's Department of Kinesiology offers an endorsement in Adapted Physical Education as part of their pre-professional teacher education program. An integral aspect of the APE program is its distinguishing and influential hands-on learning experiences. URI is the only university in the state which offers the Individualized Sports Skills Program, a once-a-week physical activity program offering aquatics and recreational-based activities for children and adolescents with special needs. In this program, URI students work one-on-one or in small groups with children aged 6-16 on various physical activities, including formulating and implementing actual Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) throughout the 9-week program.
Camp Abilities
Each summer, selected physical education students have the opportunity to serve as counselors or team leaders at Camp Abilities, a one-week sports and recreation camp for children with primarily visual impairments, deaf-blindness, and multiple disabilities located in Brockport, NY. For a period of eight days, seven days with campers and one day in-service training, URI students undertake a unique pre-professional development experience of sharing the life of an individual with a disability, within sporting activities as well as activities of daily living, socialization, and understanding of individual differences and diversity. Not only does this provide students with experiences not available under other circumstances, but also provides a foundation for growth and development as a future teacher.
Go Girls Go! Program Helping Girls in Rhode Island Become Active
Researchers at the University of Rhode Island examined the effects of an 8-week
after-school program featuring the GoGirlGo! educational curriculum along with a physical activity program. The study, conducted at a middle school in Providence, Rhode Island, focused on adolescent girls, ages 12-14, and their attitudes toward physical activity and body image.
One group of girls participated in the GoGirlGo! curriculum plus a physical activity program while the other group of girls participated in the physical activity program only. On the first and last day of the study, each girl completed two questionnaires, the Children’s Attraction to Physical Activity (CAPA) (Brustad, 1993) that assesses the extent of subjects’ interest in physical activity and the Sociocultural Measure of Body Weight/Shape (SMBWS) (Delaney, O’Keefe, & Skene, 1997) that examines attitudes toward weight dissatisfaction and the value of slimness.
The girls who participated in both the GoGirlGo! curriculum plus the physical activity program demonstrated a higher attraction to physical activity and demonstrated a lower weight dissatisfaction and a decrease in the connection between thinness and self-worth compared to the group who experienced the physical activity program only.
These results suggest that the girls may have been able to connect with GoGirlGo!'s messages regarding the importance of physical activity and may have positively changed their attitudes toward physical activity and body image. Although girls in urban environments report positive feelings about sport and physical activity, many do not have the funding or opportunity to participate in sport or extracurricular physical activity programs. Physical education and health educators can use the results from this study to create in-school or after school programs that use the GoGirlGo! curriculum and physical activities to offer adolescent girls a supportive environment to adopt and maintain regular physical activity for a lifetime.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
New PHETE in Kinesiology
-- How this will effect you
Learn about new Physical Health Education Teacher Education Program (PHETE)
WHEN: Friday 9/18 9am-10am OR Tuesday 9/22 11am-12am. WHERE Kinesiology Conference Room
New for Fall 2009!
The 2009-2010
HSS Living and Learning Community
in Butterfield Hall
is a great opportunity for Kinesiology students
to network with each other
during their first year
on campus.
