Welcome to the Iowa FitnessGram Initiative

The Iowa FitnessGram Initiative was launched to help support best practices with the use of FitnessGram in school physical education. However, our programming continues to evolve over time. Click the Overview tab to learn more about how we have expanded.
The hub is set up as a "Participatory Research Network" and we welcome the addition of new schools that are interested in connecting. If you are interested in receiving our newsletters or enrolling in our related projects please complete the contact information form below.

Resources and Related Opportunities

SWITCH Obesity Prevention Program

The SWITCH obesity prevention program provides a way for schools to take coordinated action to help promote healthy lifestyles in their students. A customized PE curriculum (SWITCH PE) is specifically designed to facilitate coordination through Physical Education programs. Click here to download a brochure. Click here to read more about SWITCH on our page and to learn how to register.

Musculoskeletal Fitness Warmup Activities

A student project conducted in 2017/2018  through the network helped to evaluate the utility of a brief musculoskeletal fitness warmup routine that could be readily incorporated into most PE lessons. The brief warmup included dynamic stretching activities followed by a series of 1 minute circuit stations that included simple strength and plyometric activities. The evaluation demonstrated meaningful gains in musculoskeletal fitness (assessed with handgrip and vertical jump) following 8 weeks of use in PE. The materials are available for schools / teachers involved in the Iowa FitnessGram network. Click here to learn more.

New Projects

Evaluation of the Youth Activity Profile (Pilot Study)
The promotion of physical activity is an underlying goal of physical education so it is important to better understand youth activity behaviors. The Youth Activity Profile (YAP) is an online tool designed to help youth become more physically active. In Spring 2019, we will be guiding schools on the effective utilization of the YAP in PE programming. Schools get free support on how to administer it to students and how to use the data to promote physical activity. Contact Dr. Greg Welk to learn more or to have your school get involved (gwelk@iastate.edu).

Be apart of the Dragon Challenge physical literacy test (Pilot Project)
We are offering an opportunity, for the fall of 2019, to any schools who are interested in the development and assessment of students' (3rd-6th grade) physical literacy skills. Contact Matt Earney (mearney@iastate.edu) for more information and to get involved.