Participation Information
After reading about the U.S. - U.S.S.R. Youth Fitness Exchange from 1987, you can see where the idea for this project originated. There are many health / fitness tests available to children all over the world. Your children would welcome the challenge of taking a test from another country that would measure their health and fitness. It would definitely be a great motivational tool for your children to enjoy exercise as they train and participate in this unique exchange. This program will be of interest to physical education teachers, classroom teachers, health club organizations, YMCA’s, or anyone else that teaches children the benefits of leading a healthy lifestyle.
Come back to visit this site periodically to see if there is a new ‘Country Challenge’ taking place involving your country. If not, feel free to organize an exchange on your own. Your main objective is to find a children’s fitness test from another country. There are many ways of finding a test from another country. You will need to do some research, and have a lot of patience!
Ways To Find A Test From Another Country
The College Route
The Internet Route
The Government Route
The Postal Route
Your School Route
The Health Club Route
Please note: A sample letter will be provided in the download section of this web site to assist you with these examples.
The College Route
Colleges and Universities are plentiful throughout the world. Many of these schools of higher education have Physical Education departments. You would have to compose a letter to the PE department Chairperson with your intentions of exchanging tests. They probably would have student teachers in the field who may want to participate in this worthy exchange.
The Internet Route
The first thing you will need to do in this example is to perform a search for a potential participating school from another country. For example, if you lived in China, and wanted to exchange tests with an American elementary school in New York, you may do a search as follows:
{ Elementary Schools In New York }
This should get you several initial contacts. Once you get an address, send off a letter to the school principal or PE teacher with your intentions.
The Government Route
In this scenario, you will try to contact the Government of a country to direct you to a referral. Again, the Internet can get you addresses and contacts if you do a proper search.
The Postal Route
Let's imagine your students in Canada wanted to exchange tests with an American school, write a letter with your intentions and place it in the envelope. On a business size envelope, put your return address where it normally goes. Next, choose a town or city that is familiar to you where the letter can be sent. For our example, we will use the town Fort Lee, New Jersey. The example below shows how the envelope should look. Please take note of the important message highlighted in red in our example. This is the key to success with this message.
To get a zip code of a town or city, you can just do a search on the Internet. The content of your letter should include information about the concept of a fitness test exchange. It will also ask the school you wrote to if they would like to participate. You should include your name, school address and phone for them to contact you with their answer.
The School Route
In many cases, you will have a child in a local school that may have just arrived from a different country. Use them as a contact with their previous school. In few instances, a child in a local school may have a relative in another country that can serve as the means to obtain a test.
The Health Club Route
In this synopsis, go to your local health club to find out if they have any affiliates in another country. In this manner, you can organize it through the club.