Physical Education
Stay active.
We care about your health and well-being, including your physical fitness and activity. Though there is no major or requirement for physical education, we encourage you to take advantage of our facilities and academic classes, which can be taken for credit or audit.
We offer classes in dance, martial arts, aquatics, and recreational sports as well as coaching, nutrition, lifetime fitness, and sports history.
You can also take courses for certification in scuba, lifeguarding, first aid, and CPR. With our facilities—the Johnson Fitness Center, Cain Gymnasium, Casey Swim Center, tennis courts, and boathouse and pavilion on the Chester River—and numerous recreational programs, club sports, and varsity athletics, Washington College students can enjoy active, healthy college lives.
All full-time students may take theory and activity classes in physical education for academic credit. Students may receive a maximum of four credits¬—two of which must be Lifetime Fitness. Theory courses and combined theory/activity courses (such as Life guarding/CPR and Scuba) yield two credits; activity courses are one half semester in length and yield one or two credits (see below). Classes may be taken for grades or on a pass/fail basis. While students may receive only the maximum of four credits in physical education, they may audit any class any number of times.
In order to receive the maximum total allowed of four credits in Physical Education, students must take one section of the CORE COURSE—Lifetime Fitness (two credits)—and any other two credits in Physical Education. Without Lifetime Fitness, students may receive a maximum of two credits in Physical Education.
Theory class grades are judged on the basis of normal academic criteria, including reading assignments, composition, class participation, and testing. Activity credit is assessed on the basis of skill acquisition; skill analysis; knowledge of strategies, rules, techniques; and required reading and testing.
While there is no major or a requirement in physical education, students are encouraged to take a variety of credit-bearing classes. The program offers activities in sports, fitness, dance, and aquatics, which serve to improve health and physical fitness, develop recreational and leisure-time skills, and facilitate functional and aesthetic body movement. The classes also impart knowledge of health and fitness, skills performance, game strategies and rules, sport coaching, nutrition, and history as well as offering American Red Cross certification in Advanced Emergency Care, CPR, Lifeguarding, and PADI certification in Scuba.