Physical Activity Life Skills Program

     The PALS Program is designed to give students knowledge in leisure pastimes, individual and team sports, health, wellness and other fitness activities. It sponsors a wide variety of activity-centered cultural and educational activities which have significance beyond the campus and the local community.

• Prepare and encourage students to engage in a lifetime of activity and wellness.
• Educate students about good health, the importance of bodily movement, psychological aspects of exercise, preventative care and good nutrition.
• Provide a fun, academic setting to interact with students outside of their own majors.
• Educate students on how to recreate.
• Teach activities that are safe for our communities.
• Teach about how sport and physical activity are organized and how they can impact/affect our culture.
• Provide an educational setting outside the classroom.
• Connect physical activity to the overall educational experience of the student.

     The Basic Instruction Program offers over thirty different courses each semester. The typical class size is approximately 30 students. Most of the courses are taught by graduate assistants in the Department of Physical Education, Health and Sport Studies. Courses are divided into six categories:

I. Dance

• ballet
• jazz
• modern
• social
• tap

II. Lifetime Fitness Activities

• aerobic dance
• cross training
• walking/jogging for health
• weight training

III. Lifetime Sports Activities

• golf
• ice skating
• racquetball
• tennis

IV. Outdoor Pursuit Activities

• horseback riding
• mounted instruction
• elementary horse training

V. Aquatic Activities

• swimming
• lifeguarding

See the Miami University Bulletin (PHS courses 110-170) for course descriptions.