At the University of Minnesota Duluth, physical education, health education, and adaptive physical education majors got real life experiences to train for their future careers.

The course Developmental Movement teaches students the stages of development that we go through in life. And what younger children are capable to do during physical activities. And rather than just reading about development in the books, the class is doing something special to get hands on experience.

The class teams up with Children’s Place, the university’s child care program, to play with the kids through physical activities. The team-up acts as a simulation for the students. They each have a station that works with certain mobility skills that the kids are working on like jumping, coordination, balance, and more.

Patty Wendinger is the instructor for the course and says, “that’s their goal, is to bring that love, that passion and support to what physical education really is and what it consists of.”

She says a good educator in this field is one that keeps things controlled but also is fun for the kids. “Bringing that joy to physical education and to physical activity,” She says.