How PE Aids in Student Learning

It’s first block on a Tuesday morning after a holiday break and before you even enter the gym, you can hear PE teacher Justin Prohn talking about badminton techniques while some 1980’s rock music is playing in the background.

“The lower part of campus is amazing,” says Prohn. “Our students get a top-notch quality education, but we want them to come up to our space and let all the stress, homework, etc. go away and try to have fun in a challenging environment.”

For the past 22 years, Prohn has been teaching Overlake students the finer points of fitness-based education, which is more than just playing games. 

“Years ago, PE was a very skill-based type of curriculum. I remember hearing stories about grading in PE nationally and how students could only earn an “A” if they made 9 out of 10 three-pointers in basketball or ran a mile in under six minutes. I think the biggest objective we try to teach in our PE classes is this is a fitness-based education. We try to get 20-25 minutes of physical activity in (no matter what activity we are doing) and the goal is to get heart rates up and help our brains grow new brain cells.”

Science has found that exercise can serve as a “Miracle-Gro” for our brain cells. In fact, in the past decade many scientists have reported the positive benefits of physical activity and brain health. Linked here is a New York Times article uncovering the research.

At the end of ninth-grade PE, Prohn separates his students into two groups to take a cognitive test. One group does 20 minutes of physical activity before the test, while the other group does not. In color scans his tests show the students what the science community already knows. “I've attached a slide/picture that shows the brain composite of the students,” explains Prohn. “The left side is the picture of all the students taking the same test, but before the test, they were stationary and sitting. The photo on the right, with more colors other than blue, is the same test but after they took a 20-minute walk. Their brain is ‘fired up’ and ready to learn.”

Physical education teachers often are asked how PE is different than athletics. “In athletics, it’s really about competition, where PE is about participation,” explains Prohn. “In athletics, we spend 2 hours practicing and pushing our bodies in a specific aspect of that sport, trying to master those skills. That amount of time can be mentally and physically exhausting, but super rewarding from an experiential education standpoint. These practices happen at the end of the school day, which is much different than PE happening during the school day.” 

Taking PE classes during high school may not always be seen as beneficial amid students' busy schedules, but for teachers like Prohn, he knows the appreciation boomerangs around in the alums he talks with. “I think the thing about PE in high school is students do not really think about that for their future. But during their college years and after, they start gaining more interest in certain areas. I think our job as educators is to plant those seeds and hopefully, they will grow later down the road when they need it.”

And who knows, maybe those seeds will get a little Miracle Gro to help them flourish!