Overcoming the Barriers to Regularly Including Alternative Environment Activities in Physical Education Programs

Alternative Environment Activities (AEAs) are physical activities included in physical education (PE) programs that take place outside of traditional gymnasium, playing field, indoor fitness training settings, and track settings. This session will provide an overview regarding the value of AEAs in PE and research that has identified the major barriers PE teachers face when trying to include AEAs (e.g., costs; time; organizational requirements; safety). Then, breakouts/discussions will be conducted on strategies for overcoming these barriers. Low cost/easy to deliver AEAs will be introduced (e.g., hiking; disc-golf; bird-watching; snow-bocce) and strategies for reducing costs/organization of more expensive AEAs will be discussed.