Ohlone College – Department of Kinesiology & Athletics
KIN 240 – Introduction to Kinesiology
PERSONAL ACTIVITY HISTORY ASSIGNMENT
1. Describe your personal patterns of physical activity (sport, physical education, dance, fitness,
recreation, etc.) for each stage of your life as listed below. Describe the kinds of activities in
which you participated in in each stage and the factors (people, events, etc.) that influenced
your pattern at that time. Keep in mind that Kinesiology is the study of human movement.
Thus, highlight and describe in detail all of the different areas of physical activity for each and
every stage of life. Each stage should contain substantial thought and please keep in mind
grammar, punctuation, spelling, sentence structure, etc. Content and effort are imperative
to obtain a good grade.
Pre-school (prior to Kindergarten)
Elementary school
Middle/junior high school
High school
Between high school and college (if you did not start college right away)
Currently
See Ch. 1 and 2 Questions on next page.
Chapter 1
1) What is the difference between movement and physical activity (PA)? Give an example
of each. (p. 7)
2) What is meant when kinesiology is described as a holistic discipline? (p. 18)
3) What two general categories of PA receive the most physical attention in kinesiology?
List the sub-classifications for each. (p.12)
4) What are the three sources of knowledge of kinesiology? Briefly describe each.
(p.20,22,25)
5) List the spheres of PA experience. (p. 22)
6) List the sphere of scholarly study. (p.24)
7) List the spheres of professional practice centered in PA and give an example of a career
in the PA professions for each sphere. (p. 27)
Chapter 2
1) Why are ADL’s and IADL’s important to kinesiologists who work with elderly and
disabled people? (p. 34)
2) Describe the difference between these three guestures: emblems, illustrators, and
regulators (pp. 39-40).
3) What are gestures and what purposes do they serve in our daily living? (p. 39)
4) Why is public school physical education important? What objectives to physical
education teachers pursue? (p.49)
5) List three health benefits of regular PA and explain, with statistics, how bad the obesity
epidemic has become in the U.S. (p. 53)
6) What does the element of competition add to PA? When is this helpful and when might
it be harmful? (pp. 66-67)