By Akshita Joshi, Staff Reporter
Extended experience physical education (EEPE) is an alternative for students to meet their physical education requirements, requiring each student to fulfill a minimum of 30 supervised hours of physical activity each semester. ‘Stoga students typically complete their requirements at fitness centers such as the YMCA and Lifetime Fitness Center. However, due to the statewide closures of nonessential businesses like gyms and fitness centers, EEPE was revised to make sure that students would be able to meet these requirements at home.
Each student must complete a specific number of activities within the categories of physical, non-physical and mental health depending on the number of hours needed to reach the 30 hour mark. Students who need 0-10 hours must complete two physical activities, one non-physical activity and one mental health activity. Those who need 11-20 more hours must do four physical activities, two non-physical activities and one mental health activity. Students who need 21-30 hours must complete two times the requirements of their 11-20 hours peers in each of the three categories.
Assistant principal Patrick Boyle runs extended experience and made the decision to add mental health activities to EEPE, which usually only requires physical health activities. He added this aspect to encourage students to take care of their mental health while they were trapped at home.
“We tried to create a program that allowed students to have a full experience of physical health, motivational health, and mental health in a short period of time,” Boyle said.
The physical health category includes activities from DAREBEE, a fitness challenge website chosen by the school. Activities on DAREBEE include body circuits and no-sugar challenges. Sophomore Kaitlyn Casciato, who originally chose EEPE due to the choices of physical activity available to her at the YMCA, loves how she can also choose her workouts on DAREBEE.
“I think it’s a great way to get students to get up and exercise while staying home. I also like being able to do it alone because I can go at my own pace and choose my own workouts depending on my mood,” Casciato said.
The non-physical health activities ask students to submit written reflections about videos on leadership lessons in sports, inspirational quotes and advice from athletes.
The mental health portion of the requirement focuses on gratitude. Students can choose to write a letter to someone special, write about friends and family members that they are grateful to, or write a “quarantine reflection” that describes activities they have been doing to keep in “optimal shape.”
While students like Casciato like the new requirements, others like sophomore Katherine Zhang feel that the new requirements don’t fit the course.
“There is a lot more than what we would normally do because now I feel as though we have to do so much more than simple exercises, and there’s even writing involved, which I think is a bit much for EEPE,” Zhang said.
All students must turn in their EEPE verification forms by May 15. Extended experience will return to its original requirements next school year as fitness centers begin to reopen in the coming months.
Akshita Joshi can be reached at [email protected]
