Lindenwood University’s Kinesiology Department partnered with the Wentzville School District to provide a professional development day that enabled educators throughout the community to develop innovative ways to incorporate different aspects of physical education into their current curriculums.

Lindenwood faculty members provided professional development for more than 75 physical education teachers last November at the Wentzville Recreation Center.

Professor of Physical Education Heather Pennington led the event, while Professor of Physical Education Dr. Annie Alameda, Associate Professor of Exercise Science Dr. Kyle Sunderland, Instructor of Kinesiology Susan Gustafson, and Lindenwood Dietitian Eric Finley helped organize it at the Wentzville Recreation Center. during the event. Breakout sessions also took place later in the day. Discussion topics included sports nutrition fundamentals, research on student-athlete performance, and adaptive resources, among others.

“The collaboration between the faculty experts in Wentzville School District’s Physical Education and Health department and Lindenwood’s Kinesiology Department was a huge success,” Alameda said. “The collaboration provided a unique and innovative opportunity for our department to showcase our undergraduate and graduate programs as well as share ideas for future opportunities to collaborate for research, internships, and their student-athletes.”

Through innovative education, Lindenwood faculty provided all 75-plus Wentzville School District teachers training on how to teach and implement adapted sports, such as goalball for the blind or visually impaired, wheelchair basketball and rugby, and sit volleyball into their own physical education classes. Lindenwood faculty also stressed the importance of why inclusion is so important to teach elementary, middle, and high school students.

“It was an amazing day of teaching and exposing physical education teachers to the necessity of inclusion in their classrooms,” Pennington said. “We had many teachers commenting on how much fun they had and how much they learned. It is a blessing to be able to help grow this important field and teach our teachers how to help their students accept and include all people.”