During this Clinical Practice project, students completed a Cardiovascular PBL where they acted as fitness consultants and designed a 1–2 week cardiovascular training program for a fictional client. Overall, the project went very well. Students were engaged in the task and took the role seriously, especially because it felt realistic and connected to real-world fitness planning. One challenge was time. Completing the project within a single 45-minute class required students to work efficiently, and some needed more time to fully explain their reasoning.

The rubric played an important role throughout the project, not just at the end. Before students started, we reviewed the rubric together so expectations were clear. As students worked, they used the rubric to check their progress and make sure they were meeting the requirements. I also had students do quick peer check-ins where they looked at each other’s work using the rubric language, especially focusing on reasoning and whether the plan actually matched the client’s needs.

All students earned an A on this assessment. This was not because the task was easy, but because the project was well-scaffolded and aligned closely to what was taught during the unit. Students performed particularly well in applying FITT principles and designing programs that matched client goals and limitations. Where I noticed some differences was in the depth of explanation, especially when students justified energy systems. While answers were correct, some explanations could have gone deeper.

Overall, the rubric did a good job of measuring student understanding and allowed me to give clear feedback. For future versions of this project, I would revise the rubric to place more emphasis on depth of reasoning and scientific explanation. I would also extend the project over more than one class period and add a draft or feedback checkpoint so students can improve their work before final submission.