At the beginning of every school year, I tell my students that as a health and physical education teacher, I teach the most important subject in school. But when we connect our classrooms through interdisciplinary collaboration, the learning becomes even more powerful. One way to highlight the value of health and physical education is to partner with colleagues in other disciplines and tap into their expertise.
The Power of Interdisciplinary Learning
Drake and Burns (2004) found that integrated, interdisciplinary curriculum improves knowledge retention and helps students apply concepts in real-world contexts, making learning more personally meaningful. While I consider myself a seasoned health and physical education teacher, I would not consider myself an expert in many other subjects that my students are enrolled in. Collaboration strengthens my lessons, making them more meaningful and equipping students with durable, real-world skills.
My school conducts interdisciplinary and inquiry-based projects for K-12 students with a goal to incorporate transferable and real-world skills from preschool through 12th grade. I find myself in a unique position at my school as I teach at the only laboratory school in the state. My school is housed on a university campus with a core focus of training preservice teachers while supporting and collaborating with various departments on campus and utilizing new instructional methods and strategies.
According to the International Association of Laboratory Schools, “over the years, the laboratory schools have changed to reflect the diverse needs of the teaching professional and have often led the way in improving the science and art of teaching.” I love the freedom and flexibility of my school as it is set up to encourage collaboration and interdisciplinary projects that my students love.
My school has targeted a set of “competencies” that are not strictly subject based, as in many traditional educational settings. Within each set of competencies, there are specific goals for a project, and rubric that is aligned with each project. While I am grading a specific project or assignment in my class, other subjects and classes might be assessing over the same areas of the rubric. This leads to natural opportunities for collaboration.
Breaking Down Silos in Health and Physical Education
Even if you don’t teach at a laboratory school that encourages collaboration and interdisciplinary connections, I can assure you that it would be a worthwhile endeavor for yourself and a rewarding experience for your students to strengthen collaborative efforts.
I believe if we all shifted our mindset from a silo toward collaboration, it would make our lessons deeper and more meaningful for students. At a time when many schools and districts are cutting health and physical education classes or budgets, shifts in educational and public policy — combined with a nationwide teacher shortage — highlight the importance of interdisciplinary connections, making our subject more meaningful and relevant for all.
My Go-To Collaboration Playbook
I’ve gathered what I feel are some of the most helpful tips and tricks to help get you started on your collaborative journey. These were created after reflecting on my experience in collaboration with various disciplines and teachers at my school.
- Begin with the big picture — Create a shared vision and clarify your “why” for your project, lesson or activity. What is the overarching goal of your collaboration? Align your lessons and standards to best serve students.
- Establish clear roles — Will you be co-teachers, parallel teachers, or will someone take the reins to lead this collaborative work? Define clear roles and responsibilities to set realistic expectations.
- Honor student voice — I would argue this piece can be one of the most valuable. As I have infused more student choice into my classroom over the last several years, I have noticed student interest and engagement increase dramatically!
- Establish your timeline — Keep the end date in mind and plan backward. Be sure to leave buffer time. Be sure to consider what skills your students will need to have mastered before the collaboration.
- Be flexible and keep an open mind — Timelines and schedules change (sometimes without notice). Be able to pivot when needed to make it an enjoyable experience for all.
- Celebrate your success — Host a showcase or a time for students to show off their amazing work to their peers and families. The best part of the collaboration can be hearing students discuss their work as they showcase it to their families!
Finding Natural Collaboration Opportunities
As you consider the possibility of infusing your lessons with a collaborative approach, think about lessons or projects you are currently teaching and identify overlapping subject matter the could naturally lend itself to interdisciplinary collaboration. Fun collaborative efforts have taken place between my health and physical education classes and statistics, data analysis, media and information literacy/English, journalism, broadcasting, biology, research, and more.
From conducting science experiments to explore homeostasis to having students produce instructional videos in our school tv studio on specific sport skills, the possibilities are endless. Many of these subjects you would not assume would be a natural opportunity for collaboration, but in talking with my colleagues, we easily found common ground to strengthen our current curriculum.
This past school year, a colleague and I took our collaborative work a step further. We conducted multiple interdisciplinary projects across our classes using various mediums. My ninth-grade health and fitness classes collaborated throughout the year with our media and information literacy class. While students learned much of the content from my health and physical education classes, they perfected how to share their message effectively through media and information literacy.
Example projects included infographics, instructional CPR videos, magazine articles, and PSAs. These projects required high school students to think critically and creatively, often with their peers. These opportunities forged a collaborative approach that empowered students to address real-world health and safety challenges while engaging in meaningful and transferable experiences.
Take the Next Steps
I have seen the “lightbulb moments” as my students’ ideas come to life as a result of intentional collaboration. In the past year, more than 90% of students agreed or strongly agreed that our collaborative work with other classes seemed more meaningful than the stand-alone assignments. And, the vast majority of students agreed the work increased their depth of knowledge and quality of work due to the intentional collaboration between classes.
I’m grateful for my amazing colleagues that have taken the chance to collaborate for a meaningful experience for our students. As you plan your next unit, identify one colleague in a different subject area and start a conversation. Look for even a small overlap in your goals and design a joint activity. You may be surprised how quickly those “lightbulb moments” start to happen for your students and for you.
Additional Resources
- Connecting Health Education Skills in the Physical Education Setting
- National Physical Education Standards
- National Health Education Standards
Melanie Smith
Melanie Smith, Ed.D., teaches health, physical education and senior research at Model Laboratory School on the campus of Eastern Kentucky University. She was recognized as the 2025 SHAPE America Southern District Health Education Teacher of the Year and the 2024 Kentucky SHAPE Health Teacher of the Year. She is passionate about creating meaningful, interdisciplinary learning experiences that empower students to thrive. You can follow Melanie on X at @melsmithedu.
