Year 13 PEResearch

AssignmentCritically examine a current physical activity event or trend or issue and

explain in detail its impact on New Zealand society.

Students are required to

produce an essay of 1500 to 3000 words on a topic of their

choice. Using the process of critical

examination

What do we need to do?

What can the topics be?

Essay topics must be a current physical activity event, trend or

issue that has an impact on New Zealand Society

Adventure tourism Obesity The impact of technology on performance, Is it fair? Adrenaline sports or Xtreme sports The Olympics a range of possible issues Sexism in sport Drop off in participation in activity Cotton wool kids Fad Diets

Some examples of topics

Adventure Tourism

Obesity

Technology and

Performance

Extreme Sports

More Extreme Sports

The Olympics

Sexism in Sport

Drop off in activity

Fad Diets

Cotton Wool Kids

Otago Daily Times Sat, 13 Sep

2008

Schools are banning tag and bullrush. Parents are stopping their children from climbing trees. Kim Dungey asks what's going on.

Cotton Wool Kids as an example (1)

Should this be

stopped?

As a girl, Melissa Bremner would often

disappear for hours on end but the Dunedin mother would "have a fit" if her own boys proposed doing the same.

"You need to know these days where they are," she says.

"It's a sad fact." Like other parents, Bremner struggles with

how to keep her children safe while letting them take risks and have adventures.

Cotton Wool Kids (2)

A recent study in the United Kingdom showed

children were less likely to play outside than their parents were when they were growing up.

Half of children aged 7 to 12 were not allowed to climb a tree without adult supervision and 17% had been banned from playing tag .

Without an adult present, a third were not allowed to ride a bike to a friend's house and 42% were not allowed to play at their local park.

However, three-quarters of children were allowed to surf the Internet unsupervised.

Cotton Wool Kids (3)

Can internet surfing

be dangerous ?

Safety concerns have also seen some schools

ban traditional childhood activities like lunchtime football, snowball fights, cartwheels and handstands because they are deemed too dangerous.

One school in the UK prohibited pupils from doing the backstroke in swimming lessons because they might bump into somebody, while another in California banned tag because there is a "victim" or "it", which creates a self-esteem issue.

Cotton Wool Kids (4)

Cotton Wool Kids (5)

A ban on bullrush in some New Zealand schools moved one principal to complain that boys are missing out on crucial rough-and-tumble in a "feminised" school system that does not allow them to let off steam.

Critics of the cotton-wool culture say we are

rearing our children in captivity, their habitat shrinking almost daily.

Playing games like tag helps children learn to negotiate rules and resolve disputes, they claim.

Not only that, but limiting adventurous play when we are worried about childhood obesity seems ironic.

Cotton Wool Kids (6)

Is obesity really a

problem?

Steve Brown is horrified that many schools are

now putting camps in the "too hard" basket, believing there are too many rules to adhere to.

Young children do not have to do adrenalin-pumping activities like abseiling or kayaking that are governed by regulations and should get to do "back-to-basics stuff" like sleeping in a tent, damming a creek and cooking fritters over a fire: "There are no rules about tents, about fires, about freedom camping or climbing trees".

Cotton Wool Kids (7)

In an attempt to protect children from any

potential harm, we have banned pies from school canteens, created exam systems that nobody fails and made the world so "clean" that our immune systems never properly develop.

Cotton Wool Kids (8)

Ian Grant says after he spoke on the issue

recently, he was told of two schools that had banned running, not just in corridors but anywhere on the school grounds.

And after a child was tragically killed on a jungle gym, climbing equipment everywhere was lowered, when the mats underneath could "just have been made spongier".

Cotton Wool Kids (9)

Is this an extreme

sport?

Grant says society is turning fathers into

"male mothers" obsessed with safety instead of adventure.

While mothers can provide adventure too, fathers take an "edgier" approach: "When a mother goes into a park, she naturally thinks, 'How can I make sure my children are safe?' whereas dads go in thinking, "What crazy things can we do here?'."

Cotton Wool Kids (10)

So how do families find a balance?

Experts agree that parents need to identify real dangers without preventing children from exploring.

Ian Grant says children should be taught to

take "smart risks", weighing up the best and worst things that might happen.

Cotton Wool Kids (11)

Cotton wool kidsAn Example of an issue that is global but

also impacts New Zealand Society

Where could you research

informationInternet

Books , The LibraryJournal articles, use Google ScholarNewspaper and Magazine articles

TV Documentaries Personal research e.g. interviews

Examples of article titles found using

Google Scholar search of Cotton Wool Kids

You can't wrap them up in cotton wool!’ Constructing risk in young people's access to

outdoor play

Kids need the adventure of 'risky' play

Contemporary patterns and trends in physical activity in New Zealand children and adolescents

Understanding

Attainment Levels

Levels of attainment

What do we need to do to aim for Excellence?

Achievement

Examine a current physical activity event or trend or

issue and explain its impact on New Zealand society.

Achievement with Merit

Examine in detail a current physical activity event or

trend or issue and explain its impact on New Zealand

society.

Achievement with ExcellenceCritically examine a current physical activity event or

trend or issue and explain in detail its impact on

New Zealand society.

Could involve:

researching and analysing the event, trend or issue as appropriate and explaining the event, trend or issue.

Examine for Achieved

Could involve: researching and analysing with depth or breadth the event, trend or issue as appropriate, explaining the event, trend or issue from your and others’ perspectives.

Examine in detail for Merit

Involves critical analysis, evaluation and reflection, all of which are based on the process of critical thinking.examining, questioning, evaluating and challenging taken-for-granted assumptions about issues and practices

Critically Examine for Excellence

e.g. relevant socio-cultural factors and/or biophysical principles and their relationship to the event/trend/issue are considered in depth.

Critically Examine continued

The first step

Research information available on a range of topics.

Then decide what topic really interests you that has a range of information available from a wide

range of sources

Once you have determined the general focus of your research

topic.

Write out a range of possible options related to that research

topic

Step 2

Decide what options you like

best and show them to Mr Storrie so that he can approve your topic before you charge

ahead.

Step 3

Begin the process of researching

a wide range of quality information that will enable you to work towards an excellence

level of attainment.

Step 4

More to come next time

Be the best you can be.