TAKE ROOT
Nurturing future health and physical educators — and local K-12 students — through a sustainable, collaborative after-school program
By Laurie Morley and Carri KreiderEastern Washington University (EWU) has a strong history of engaging health and physical education (HPE) majors in community-based activities. We typically have 60-75 HPE majors at one time in the program and providing them with community engagement activities is essential to their growth as future educators.
While these activities — such as family health and fitness nights — are “win-win” events for all involved, we found there was a need to expand that engagement through a more in-depth program, particularly in the area of health, while working with low-income K-12 students.
The TAKE ROOT after-school program was created with this in mind.
TAKE ROOT began in the spring semester of 2018 as part of a required three-credit After-School Programming course for health and physical education majors. It was designed to expose students to the need for after-school programming and engage them in supporting, developing, and implementing physical activity and nutrition programs in their future careers.
The program was implemented once a week for six weeks in collaboration with a local Title I middle school and a local non-profit organization, Community in Schools (CIS). For two years, TAKE ROOT ran successfully as a face-to-face program. Then, the pandemic hit.
THE METAMORPHOSIS BEGINS
When schools across the country closed in March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, we — along with the middle school teacher serving as TAKE ROOT advisor and the CIS site coordinator — were left wondering, “Now what?”
The TAKE ROOT after-school program is the heart and soul of the required After-School Programming course, as well as a meaningful learning experience for all engaged in the program — leaders included.
We quickly began brainstorming and came up with an alternative plan to create a pen pal program. This was a heavy lift, but the team scrambled to pull it off. First, each EWU student enrolled in the After-School Programming course was teamed up with a middle school student identified by the CIS site coordinator.
Then, the professor gave each EWU student six weekly activity challenges. The EWU students were tasked with developing an instructional tool kit for each challenge that included items the middle school students would need to complete the activity. The activities ranged from recycled paper pots and an app-based scavenger hunt to a neighborhood walk map and sidewalk obstacle courses. The kits included, for example, the activity instructions, sidewalk chalk, or newspaper and a seed package.
After completing each week’s challenge, the EWU students forwarded their instructional tool kits to the course professor, who then put together the completed kits along with the TAKE ROOT advisor from the participating middle school. Then the CIS site coordinator delivered the kits to the middle school students’ homes.
SEASONS OF CHANGE
In spring 2021, we found ourselves facing another obstacle. Our CIS site coordinator, who was instrumental in the recruitment of middle school participants for the TAKE ROOT program, left the position to become a sixth-grade teacher. This meant that not only would we be unable to resume a face-toface program as hoped, we would also be unable to continue with the pen pal program.
After discussion with the TAKE ROOT middle school advisor, we decided it was best to shelve the program for a year in hopes of resuming with face-to-face programming at that time.
Then came spring 2022 and yet another set of circumstances to overcome related to whether we would be able to resume the face-to-face TAKE ROOT program. In the end, we were not.
Therefore, it was back to the drawing board to determine if we could create yet another alternative meaningful experience for all involved, given the current situation. We were still without the assistance of a CIS site coordinator. But this time, our department at EWU had several systems which had been purchased to effectively record lectures during the pandemic. This gave us the tools to create alternative in-school TAKE ROOT learning experiences.
We decided to focus on health topics utilizing the TAKE ROOT middle school advisor’s College and Career Readiness (CCLR) curriculum as a guide. The health and physical education students enrolled in the EWU After-School Programming course were required to develop and record health lessons on topics ranging from environmental health (i.e., recycling, toxins in health care products) to food (i.e., what’s a calorie, appropriate amounts and purpose of sodium).
HPE at Eastern Washington University: Students Speak Out
“After taking part in the TAKE ROOT program, my main takeaways are how important it is to include programs like TAKE ROOT at schools. When working hands on with the students you truly can see their interest and knowledge increase over the weeks. Providing students with greater learning opportunities such as TAKE ROOT allows them to understand how to make healthier decisions in so many different aspects in their lives.”
—HPE
Student, EWU Class of 2019Their lessons were shown virtually in five periods of grade 8 CCLR courses where health was taught. In all, the EWU students created a total of 25 health lessons.
STUDENTS BLOSSOM
Through all iterations of the TAKE ROOT program, one benefit has remained consistent: student growth — for the younger students participating in the program and the health and physical education majors leading the instruction and activities.
As the CIS site coordinator noted, the middle schoolers benefit from the “unique after-school programming that engages them in mentorship, hands-on activities, and nutrition-based education.” Additionally, “the EWU students get a snapshot of working with the middle school demographic and the influence they can have as mentors giving back to their communities.”
The TAKE ROOT middle school advisor also enjoyed “watching the EWU students grow and become better teachers by experiencing this unique population of students.”
LESSONS LEARNED
It has been challenging over the last few years to sustain engaging community-based learning initiatives, for both EWU’s health and physical education program and our local school partners. However, with flexibility and creativity we established suitable collaborations with local K-12 teachers who shared our passion for providing all students with additional physical activity and nutrition learning opportunities both in and out of the classroom.
These valuable collaborations provided us with opportunities to be innovative and resilient. We developed unique and meaningful learning experiences for K-12 students
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“The TAKE ROOT program really showed me that these activities are more important to have in high-risk areas to educate those students on how to live a healthy and active lifestyle. Many of the students do not have the safest places to be outside and active when they are not in school. The access to this type of program in a safe space helps students understand the importance of making healthy decisions that will impact their lives for years down the road and hopefully positively impact those around them.” —HPE Student, EWU Class of 2020
“This was a great experience seeing how it would be making lesson plans that we would present over Zoom. I learned a lot from the first lesson to the last lesson. I enjoyed being in the classroom as the video was presented to the students. It really helped me understand what we need to fix or add to our next lesson to keep the students more engaged. I learned so much from this class on how to be a better health teacher for the students.” —HPE Student, EWU Class of 2022
during the chaos of the pandemic — and continued to provide the EWU students with hands-on teaching experiences.
Through it all, we learned that the main keys to program sustainability are flexibility, creativity, and having boots on the ground.
Minimally, you must find a K-12 teacher willing to fully engage in being a part of the planning and implementation, as well as the recruitment of participants for the after-school program. You’ll also need the principal’s support to provide the teacher with a stipend for the time they commit to the program.
The program will need allocated space within the school to conduct health stations and hand out snacks, as well as an outside space to implement physical activities, etc. Finally, monetary funding will be essential to purchase the many supplies needed to run the program. This can be achieved by establishing a course fee and applying for internal school districts grants.
If you would like to learn more about the TAKE ROOT program, please reach out to us via email or attend our session at the 2023 SHAPE America National Convention & Expo in Seattle!
Laurie Morley, Ed.D., creator of the TAKE ROOT program, is a professor at Eastern Washington University and chair of the Department of Wellness and Movement Sciences. She can be reached at lmorley@ewu.edu
Carri Kreider, Ed.D., an associate professor at Eastern Washington University, is also program director of Health & Physical Education in the Department of Wellness and Movement Sciences. She can be reached at ckreider@ewu.edu
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