Fitness for Life: Building Lifelong Strength and Movement Literacy
Nat Vaughan
ID-2015
School Name:Seacrest Country Day School - Upper School
Grant Request Grade:9-12
Grant Request Subject:Health/P.E.
Additional Details
a) Overall purpose: This project equips students in Fitness for Life with core strength and power-training equipment, barbells, a full dumbbell range, and jump boxes, so every student can learn safe resistance-training and functional-movement fundamentals as part of building lifelong exercise habits.
b) Need addressed: The current weight room doesn't have enough barbells or a full dumbbell range for a whole class to train at once, and there's no dedicated equipment for teaching power/plyometric movement (jump boxes) as part of a complete strength unit. Shared equipment also has no standing sanitizing station to keep it usable between back-to-back class periods.
c) Learning goal / standard: Fitness for Life spans grades 5-12, so this supports Florida's Next Generation Sunshine State Standards for Physical Education across two grade bands, matching the course's own progression from bodyweight movement to loaded training.
Grades 5-6 (bodyweight and coordination foundation): PE.5.L.4.1 (differentiating muscular strength from muscular endurance) and PE.6.M.1.5 (using equipment, including the jump boxes, to build and maintain muscular strength and endurance) build the movement competency and body awareness students need before adding external load. PE.6.R.5.5 covers equipment care and safe behavior for this band.
Grades 7-12 (progression to loaded lifts): PE.8.L.4.6 (defining training principles for muscular strength, endurance, and body composition) bridges into PE.912.M.1.12 (using equipment to build muscular strength and endurance, including plyometric movement) and PE.912.L.4.5 (applying overload, specificity, and progression to personal fitness goals) as students take on the barbells and dumbbells. PE.912.R.5.5 covers equipment care and safe behavior for this band.
d) Connection to school priority: This project connects to all four pillars of Seacrest's mission. It fuels intellectual engagement by teaching students the actual training principles behind what they're doing, overload, specificity, and progression, rather than having them move through exercises passively. It teaches ownership of the educational experience directly through the grades 7-12 personal fitness plan, where students design and take responsibility for their own program instead of following a generic routine. It cultivates quality of character through the daily discipline of proper equipment use, care, and safe, respectful behavior in shared space. And it supports students leading lives of significance by building a skill they carry for the next 70-plus years, not just for the length of a course, the entire premise of Fitness for Life is that these habits outlast the classroom.
a) Active participation: Grades 5-6 build foundational movement competency through bodyweight strength exercises and coordination/landing-mechanics work on the jump boxes, developing the motor control and body awareness needed before training with external load. Grades 7-12 progress to barbell and dumbbell work, learning squat, hinge/deadlift, and press mechanics under direct instructor supervision as they take on resistance training.
b) Meets classroom needs: Every student across the full 5th-12th grade span gets equipment matched to their developmental stage instead of one-size-fits-all access. The sanitizing supplies keep equipment shared across multiple age groups and back-to-back class periods safe and usable.
c) Teaching strategies: Direct instruction paired with guided practice, scaffolded by grade band. Younger students are checked against a coordination and landing-technique checklist; older students are checked against a lifting-technique checklist at set points in the unit. The jump boxes serve both bands, coordination and landing mechanics for grades 5-6, explosive/plyometric power work for grades 7-12, once foundational strength is established.
d) Connection to classroom instruction: All equipment is used inside grade-appropriate units of the Fitness for Life course, bodyweight and coordination work for grades 5-6, loaded barbell and dumbbell training for grades 7-12, not as an extracurricular add-on.
a) Expected improvements: Grades 5-6 build foundational coordination, body control, and a working understanding of what muscular strength and endurance actually mean before ever touching a loaded bar. Grades 7-12 show measurable gains in lifting technique and confidence handling resistance, plus a stronger working understanding of how to structure a fitness routine independently, beyond this class and beyond graduation.
b) How success will be known: A pre/post coordination and landing-mechanics checklist for grades 5-6. A pre/post lifting-technique checklist plus a culminating personal fitness plan students design and present at the end of the unit for grades 7-12.
c) Evidence of impact: Completed personal fitness plans (grades 7-12), instructor rubric scores comparing pre- and post-unit checks across both bands, and [participation/completion data across the unit — insert Nat's preferred tracking method].
a) How items support learning: Barbells and the dumbbell rack are the primary tools for teaching loaded movement patterns in the grades 7-12 resistance-training unit. Jump boxes serve both bands, coordination and landing mechanics for grades 5-6, plyometric power work for grades 7-12, making them the one piece of equipment used across the entire course span. The sanitizing supplies keep equipment safe and usable across every grade level and class period using the room.
b) Number of students benefiting: 200 total students across all sections and grade levels (5th-12th) this year, and will impact over 200 students within the next couple of years
