Bikes added at Dorseyville Middle School
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Greg Laun, health and physical education teacher at Dorseyville Middle School in the Fox Chapel Area School District, leads a class of eighth-graders on a mountain bike ride around the school campus.
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By the time they reach high school, students at Dorseyville Middle School in the Fox Chapel Area School District will be able to climb any mountain -- or at least ride to the top.
With a Highmark grant, the school was able to buy 21 Trek mountain bikes and helmets from Dirty Harry's Bicycles in Oakmont so that physical education teachers can teach sixth- through eighth-graders a lifelong skill.
"We're really giving them a lifetime of fitness," said Allan Quackenbus, a 14-year veteran of the middle school's physical education department. The teachers were surprised that some students hadn't yet learned to ride a bike, so they divided them into groups based on riding skill, from beginner through advanced.
The teachers took to the brush surrounding the school building to construct trails that were safe yet challenging.
"The kids just loved it," Mr. Quackenbus said. "If it was raining one morning, they'd literally be on the gym floor, whining."
Mountain biking is among the lifetime fitness skills introduced to the students as part of new physical education curriculum in the district. Those who aren't biking on any given day can run the track. All students have been provided with heart rate monitors to track their progress. Other fitness equipment suited to lifetime use includes two stationary bikes, an elliptical machine and flexibility bands.
Michelle Bailey, who has taught physical education at the school for 18 years, wrote the grant that netted the school $9,500 for the new equipment through the Highmark Healthy High Five program.
"They are just loving the bicycles," she said of the students.
"It was kind of fun, mixing it up and not always doing the same thing," said Niall Burns, 12, of Fox Chapel, a seventh-grader at Dorseyville. "It was nice to have the opportunity to ride bikes."
Morgan Geahry, 13, of Indiana Township, also a seventh-grader, said, "We got to get outdoors and do something besides run on the track."
Matt Harris, principal at the middle school, said more physical education programs are moving away from a game-based to a life skills-based curriculum.
"They're moving away from team sports to yoga, wave board riding and many new activities," he said. The new program stresses physical activities that can be carried on throughout adulthood, he said. "It also fits into building awareness of health and obesity prevention."
First Published December 1, 2011 12:00 am
