The Biome Project: developing a legitimate parallel curriculum for physical education and life sciences

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to describe the outcomes of a parallel curriculum project between life sciences and physical education. Throughout a 6-week period, students in grades two through five became members of teams that represented different animal species and biomes, and concurrently participated in a season of gymnastics skills and competitions. It was found that both classroom teachers and the specialist physical education teacher believed the organisation of this project led to greater learning of both subject strands than would have been possible if they were taught separately. This was due to both curricular and micro-political elements that worked together to both motivate students and allow for reinforcement of content. It is suggested that the organisational features of Sport Education allow for such shared partnerships to work without trivialising the content of either subject.

Keywords:

• Sport Education
• integrated curriculum
• school micro-politics
• gymnastics