MONROE - Cody Faust never expected to lose his breath making a healthy snack for teachers at Monroe High School.
Faust, a junior at Monroe, feverishly pedaled a bike powering a blender to make smoothies for teachers across the district Monday, Feb. 10. It was all part of the kickoff of the $953,000 three-year Carol M. White PEP grant the district was awarded in September.
"After making five full (blenders of smoothies) it got kind of tiring," Faust said. "It was my workout for the day."
The focus of the PEP grant is functional fitness targeting movement and injury prevention. District leaders are planning to teach children K-12 to self-manage their health, fitness and nutrition.
"The goal is to introduce the PEP grant to the staff so they can be champions in their buildings and good role models in their classrooms," said John Ditter, the district's PEP grant manager and a physical education teacher at Monroe High School.
In addition to the smoothies students made for teachers, they also provided a healthy snack - small cups of nuts mixed with raisins.
"We are showing them that they can eat healthy and it still tastes good," Ditter said.
District leaders have targeted three goals including eating nutritional foods, increasing movement of students and making sure students get enough rest.
Faust was heading home before he decided to pitch in with the smoothie making.
"I think it's really important to eat healthy," Faust said. "I haven't had soda in like three years. It has helped me get better at sports. I think it (PEP grant) will help a lot of kids get in shape and eat healthy."
The district received $423,080 this school year, $268,702 in 2014-15 and $261,773 in 2015-16. The district has already purchased some new P.E. curriculum from Focused Fitness and incorporated technology into tracking the fitness of students. A computer program randomly selected 460 students to be part of an initial testing group this year. The students are wearing pedometers so they can track their steps and are taking a fitness survey. Dan Keyser, the district's director of curriculum and instruction, said the district must provide some testing data each year so they can ensure the grant continues.
The district has spent $49,350 on a Welnet Data System from Focused Fitness to keep track of PEP grant data and for a three-year contract with Randy Knuth to be a quantitative evaluator for the grant. In addition to two fitness bikes and pedometers, the district has purchased heart monitors, one biometric index scales for each school, curriculum, assessment software and professional development training materials.
Ditter said district staff and students donated 170,000 pounds of food to the Green County Food pantry as part of the Million Pound Challenge through the Princeton Club in Madison.
Faust, a junior at Monroe, feverishly pedaled a bike powering a blender to make smoothies for teachers across the district Monday, Feb. 10. It was all part of the kickoff of the $953,000 three-year Carol M. White PEP grant the district was awarded in September.
"After making five full (blenders of smoothies) it got kind of tiring," Faust said. "It was my workout for the day."
The focus of the PEP grant is functional fitness targeting movement and injury prevention. District leaders are planning to teach children K-12 to self-manage their health, fitness and nutrition.
"The goal is to introduce the PEP grant to the staff so they can be champions in their buildings and good role models in their classrooms," said John Ditter, the district's PEP grant manager and a physical education teacher at Monroe High School.
In addition to the smoothies students made for teachers, they also provided a healthy snack - small cups of nuts mixed with raisins.
"We are showing them that they can eat healthy and it still tastes good," Ditter said.
District leaders have targeted three goals including eating nutritional foods, increasing movement of students and making sure students get enough rest.
Faust was heading home before he decided to pitch in with the smoothie making.
"I think it's really important to eat healthy," Faust said. "I haven't had soda in like three years. It has helped me get better at sports. I think it (PEP grant) will help a lot of kids get in shape and eat healthy."
The district received $423,080 this school year, $268,702 in 2014-15 and $261,773 in 2015-16. The district has already purchased some new P.E. curriculum from Focused Fitness and incorporated technology into tracking the fitness of students. A computer program randomly selected 460 students to be part of an initial testing group this year. The students are wearing pedometers so they can track their steps and are taking a fitness survey. Dan Keyser, the district's director of curriculum and instruction, said the district must provide some testing data each year so they can ensure the grant continues.
The district has spent $49,350 on a Welnet Data System from Focused Fitness to keep track of PEP grant data and for a three-year contract with Randy Knuth to be a quantitative evaluator for the grant. In addition to two fitness bikes and pedometers, the district has purchased heart monitors, one biometric index scales for each school, curriculum, assessment software and professional development training materials.
Ditter said district staff and students donated 170,000 pounds of food to the Green County Food pantry as part of the Million Pound Challenge through the Princeton Club in Madison.