In the past three years, the department has made its goals more tangible by creating an interdisciplinary approach to physical well-being. The challenge was not only to increase the number of participants but also to educate students in a very cognitive way, so they will be able to set up an exercise program for themselves based on sound, scientific principles.

"We wanted to devise a way of making the gymnasium more than just 'a place to kick a ball around,' " says Nekton. Principles of physics, chemistry and biology have practical application to what occurs during physical activity, she explains. But the knowledge about how muscles work, for example, often remains theoretical, even after students have taken a formal biology course. "Integrating more cognitive aspects of wellness in the physical education program can help us make our students 'better consumers' with regard to their own fitness," she says.

"A physically educated person does, knows and values activity," state the guidelines set forth by the National Association of Sports and Physical Education. Exeter has always been comfortable with the "does" category, but during a curricular review, the department sought to enhance the "knows" and "values" aspect for our students. Hands-on experimental presentations seem to accomplish this most effectively, and the notion of a sports science lab was born.

Established in a former squash court in the Love Gymnasium in the fall of 1998, the lab is equipped with five Pentium computers, a LaserJet printer, a TV/VCR and a video camera capable of digitized analysis, 30 Polar vantage heart-rate monitors and five interface units. The heart-rate monitor, which looks like a watch, is as much the center of the lab as the computers. Its tiny computer chip tracks the user's heart rate at regular intervals during a workout; the information can then be downloaded to the computer station and displayed on screen or saved on the network for future comparisons.

On a fall afternoon, senior Meredith Coogan was in the sports science lab with her field hockey teammates and Nekton, analyzing the physiological changes to her heart rate that had occurred during a workout. Looking at the graph, they could see how the hour-and-a-half practice had been paced. She says: "My heart rate rose when we did high-intensity, game-paced drills and fell during times of rest. We checked how much of the time my heart rate stayed within my target zone and how long recovery took. Recovery time is an indicator of fitness. What's fun is to compare recovery time from the start of a season to the end to see how it has improved."

Dan Morrissey, the Academy's strength and conditioning coach, has used the heart-rate monitors extensively in his classes, and he has gradually integrated other software programs into the lab component of his courses as well. In his senior studies course called "Sports Science," which is taken mostly by varsity athletes, he likes to use the A.D.A.M. program to teach basic sports-related anatomy and the cardiovascular system. This program illustrates muscles, their origins and insertions in good graphic detail, and Morrissey believes it is a valuable training tool. "A.D.A.M. helps these highly competitive athletes train more efficiently, which makes for improved performance," he says.

Integrating the lab into the school's physical education program begins in ninth grade with fitness science, as part of their five-day rotation. These classes cover the components of a workout-warm-up, aerobic activity, anaerobic activity, resistance exercise, stretching and cool-down. Later, in "Indoor Fitness," a sports choice open to lowers, uppers and seniors, students do four weekly classes of a cardiovascular activity of their choice, with time integrated in the lab.

The sports science lab gives the Academy's physical education instructors the learning aids to address wellness issues and training/performance needs in a new way. Their interdisciplinary approach, employing tools today's students use intuitively, enables them to graduate boys and girls who can parlay knowledge about how the body works mechanically and biologically into lifelong fitness and personal well-being.

- Janice M Reiter