Courses

The birds and the bees do it, so do octopuses, dolphins, kittens, humans, and maybe even dinosaurs. It’s an essential drive across many species, is culturally important, and too often missing from your life. What is it? If you’re thinking PLAY then you are correct and already primed for this distinctive course!

Research shows that play is necessary for healthy human biological and psychosocial functioning and when humans are play deprived they experience a multitude of global, negative outcomes. So why are we the only species that engineer play out of our daily lives? We will try to answer this question and discover ways to counter this trend as we explore the global functioning of individuals and societies from the unique aspect of play. Just think, you will also get to play as part of serious scientific inquiry!

We will study the topic of play behavior across the lifespan, with a focus on its impact on overall human physical and psychosocial health and well-being, as well as learning, development, and aging. We will also examine play from global, cultural, disability, and gender perspectives. Most importantly, we will explore ways that you can mindfully incorporate play as a necessary health behavior in your everyday life. 

It doesn’t matter your major as this course is for students who want to learn about the important influence of play on overall human functioning from the lenses of biological, psychological, health, and social sciences. We will take a holistic approach to better understand this critical, albeit often disregarded, human behavior. The course is designed according to a pedagogy of play format incorporating a variety of resources and approaches including research publications, other readings, government policies, videos/media, guest speakers, lectures, field trips, observations, group activities, self-assessment/reflection, and experiential learning by engaging in various forms of play. This is an inclusive, active class that will be adapted for students of all abilities.

This course is eligible for honors credit through Hutton Honors College.

Catalog Information: SPH-I 100  EXPRNCE IN PHYSICAL ACTIVITY

Instructor:

Georgia Frey

Email:

gfrey@indiana.edu

Department:

School of Public Health

Hello new Hoosiers and welcome to Indiana University! I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Kinesiology. I study physical activity, sedentarism and health outcomes in people with disabilities. I teach undergraduate and graduate courses in adapted physical activity, motor development, and lifespan physical activity. My research is aimed at using play to enhance physical activity and health. We recently published work on a mobile app designed to promote walking in people with autism, where the more steps accumulated led to more playing time on the app puzzle game. Our current work is studying the use of virtual reality games as a therapeutic intervention to improve balance in wheelchair users. I try to play every day, usually by cavorting with my 3 dogs or interacting with my cantankerous parrot. I enjoy many forms of play; particularly dancing and want to try so many more! I also enjoy travel, food, movies, music, reading, and time with family and friends, especially my toddler grandson who shows me new ways to play all the time. I am very excited about teaching this class and look forward to sharing my passion for the science of play!

This class is not approved for the IU Bloomington General Education Program.