As the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games comes to an end and a successful medal tally for team GB, we wanted to look at some of the topics that can be applied to examination PE courses.
The Olympic Games inspires so many young people and it showcases what can be achieved with hard work and preparation which is ultimately a similar journey to exam success for students. Sport brings so much to everyone around the world such as motivation, determination, resilience, leadership, teamwork, communication, and desire. We wanted to help inspire students to achieve their best and be the best they can be. Answer Perfect was born to help students improve their knowledge and understanding in examination PE and Science. It helps guide and support students in school and home across the globe.
Applying Real Life To Teaching…
One of the key components of Answer Perfect is teaching students how to apply their knowledge to extended questions. So what is meant by application and why is it so important?
Application is what you apply your knowledge towards, you take a topic and have to relate the knowledge learnt from that topic area to a specific example. For example, ‘Evaluate the need for speed and agility in a 100m sprint in athletics’. In this exam question students need to give examples of why speed is important in 100m sprint events and say why speed is more important than agility. This exam question would be easier if students have seen Usain Bolt and knew what the 100m sprint entails. Not all PE students know each discipline in athletics or in fact other sporting examples.
Once you have taught a topic it is important to give students the opportunity to apply their knowledge to as many different situations as possible, because each answer may be very different. If you imagine the question was changed to ‘Evaluate the need for speed and agility in a downhill ski slalom race’. As the 100m sprint in athletics is running in a straight line, students would say speed is more important as agility is changing directions quickly but if an athlete changed direction they would be out of their lane and be disqualified. However, the slalom skier would benefit from both speed and agility as they have to be able to change direction quickly to get down the slope in the fastest time. You can see from this brief example that by changing the sporting example in the question, the two answers would be very different.
So back to the point, by using examples from the Olympic Games and Team GB athletes, students will have a better chance at applying their knowledge to other examples and remembering the content better. Application is crucial when answering extended questions in order to access the higher marking bands.
What Topic Areas Can You Use?
There are many topic areas which you could relate to the recent success of Team GB at the Tokyo Olympics 2020, here are a few examples:
- Hosting major sporting events
- Sponsorship and commercialisation
- Media coverage
- UK Sport
- National Governing Bodies
- Sports Analytics
- Technology
- Drugs in sport
- Women in sport
Answer Perfect has exam board specific videos for every topic area that guide students to breakdown extended questions, how to apply the knowledge and write the perfect answer. Download our FREE writing frames to support students writing their perfect answers and achieving gold medal success in their exams. We have two spreadsheets available, click the links below: