VIDEO: 'Brain Break' Gives MRH Board Look at Revised Health Curriculum

School board members raised their hands in the air and swayed to music Thursday as part of a presentation on changes to physical education curriculum in the .

"Exercise cures everything," said Kathy Simon, physical education (PE) and health teacher at , during a presentation to the MRH Board of Education. She has been leading the district's efforts to more closely link its PE and health curricula.

In doing so, she and other MRH teachers said, the district has:

• Focused instruction on helping students choose to be active and make decisions about their own health.

• Provided moderate to vigorous exercise with no exceptions.

• Provided exercise more regularly than in the past.

• Given instruction about body systems, nutrition, wellness, and risk assessment and reduction.

At the middle school, instructors have taken students to places such as   community center to show them how they can use their surrounding to make beneficial health decisions, said Tom Kulla-Abbott, the district's director of alternative services.

Seventh- and eighth-graders now get PE every day, and gender-specific classes have been implemented, said John Harbaugh, the middle school's PE and health teacher. The changes have resulted in higher student participation and satisfaction with those classes.

"Research clearly states that this is the way to go," Harbaugh said.

District staff also are working on ways to incorporate brief exercise periods known as "brain breaks" and other healthy practices into classes.

Next steps for PE and health curricula include tuning and revising units, developing more collaboration, expanding resources and ordering additional equipment over a three-year period, Simon said.