Motor Development

Code:

207

Acronym:

207

Instance: 2014/2015 - 1S

Active?	Yes
Course/CS Responsible:	Sports Sciences

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
LCD	172	First Degree in Sports Sciences (2011/2012)	2	-	5	60	135

Teaching language

Suitable for English-speaking students

Objectives

Motor development UC aims to show students the dynamics of human growth, biological maturation and motor performance of children and adolescents in varied contexts, namely sports and school related. Additionaly, it builds up an interpretative window around the theme of genetic and environmetal factors.
It also addresses main research questions related to inadequate weight development and its links with metabolic risk during the adolescent years.

Learning outcomes and competences

1º Develop aptitudes and competences which will allow students to formulate, from a dvelopmental perspective, problems and solutions by their pedagogical practises within the school context, in sports training, or other differentiated institutions on the sports-performance domain;
2º Acquire profound knowledge in human growth, biological maturation and motor performance;
3º Adequately identify the interactive scheme relating human growth and biological maturation in fundamental skills acquisition;
4º To know about variation conditional factors on human growth, biological maturation and motor performance - genetic and environmental, as well as to be acquainted with the famous debate - nature versus nurture;
5º To adequately interpret, based on diferent perspectives, the maisn ategory of sport sciences - motor and sports performance;
6º To be acquainted with the anthropological position to interpret motor performance - the allometric approach;
7º Acquire competences to deal with auxometric data as well as maturation, constrcut profiles of varied order, describe fundamental motor skills, interpret somatotypological data and body composition, assess physical fitness (normaltive and criterium referenced), and interpret the complex issue of sports performance.

Working method

Presencial

Program

All classes are divided in two intertwined building blocks - theoretical and laboratory. The program od the theoretical classes is as follows:

1º Motor development (MD) fundamental concepts and the why of study development.
2º Historical ideas and main researchers in MD. Main approaches.
3º Basic research designs in MD and its illustration from research conducted in Portugal.
4º Human growth: distance and velocity curves from norms to individual differences; growth curve modelling and its implementation in motor performance; growth organization.
5º Body composition development, its assessment, chemical maturity, changes in body composition and tracking.
6º Development of body physique; somatotype, uts quantification and graphical representation. Assessment and somatotyping children.
7º Biological maturation: concept and assessment systems. Alingning data from PHV and its application to motor performance.
8º Effects of physical activity/exercise in growth and biological maturation.
9º Development in musule strength, motor performance and maximal oxygen uptake.
10º Allometric perspective in interpreting motor performance data.
11º Genetic factors in human growth, biological maturation and motor performance.
12º Youth young athelte and the motor readiness concept. Readiness and treinability.
13º Socioeconomic ethnic and climate factors regulating variation in growth and biological maturation.
14º Secular trend in growth, biological maturation and motor performance.
15. Physical fitness assessment: concepts, test batteries and tracking.
16º Motor coordination and neuro-motor development. Concepts, assessment, normative changes and interindividual differences.
17º Physical activity. Concept, assessment and main epidemiological information.
18º Main research results done at the Kinanthropometry Laboratory (Porto, Portugal) in growth, biological maturation, and motor performance in children and adolescents.

The laboratory program is as follwos:
1º Anthropometric assessment based on linear dimensions and masses. Anthropometric indices.
2º Data quality control. Introduction to measurement precision.
3º Graphical method and data transformations. Profile analysis.
4º Morphological typologies - somatotype. Basic concepts and representation. Data transformation and indices.
5º Body composition assessment. Concepts and diversified methods to estimate different compartments of the body mass.
6º Physical fitness assessment. Normative and criterium based references. Test batteries health and performance related.
7º Physical activity assessment. Development and Epidemiological data. Movement sensors (pedometers and accelerometers) and questionnaires.
8º Auxometry, postural assessment and their importance.

Mandatory literature

Malina Robert M.; Growth, maturation, and physical activity. ISBN: 0-87322-321-7
Gabbard Carl P.; Lifelong motor development. ISBN: 0-07-114268-1
Gallahue David L.; Understanding motor development. ISBN: 0-697-29487-0
Haywood KM (1993). Lifelong motor development. 2nd edition. Champaign: Human Kinetics
Armstrong N, van Mechellen W (eds). Paediatric Exercise Science and Medicine. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Freitas DL, Maia JA, Beunen GP, Lefevre JA, Claessens, AL, Marques AT, Rodrigues AL, Silva CA, Crespo MT ; Crescimento somático, maturação biológica, aptidão física, actividade física e estatuto sócio-económico de crianças e adolescentes madeirenses, 2002

Teaching methods and learning activities

Formal teaching classes.
Laboratory classes aiming at learning research methodology, instrumentaion, topics in Motor Development and research  procedures.
Laboratory work.

keywords

Health sciences

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation with final exam

Assessment Components

designation	Weight (%)
Exame	80,00
Trabalho laboratorial	20,00
Total:	100,00

Eligibility for exams

"Ordinary" students:
Based on theGeneral Legislation from UP of May 19, 2010, the assessment process of this Unit will be made in different plans:

1. In the formal plan it is required that all students participate in 75% of all classes (theoretical and laboratory)
2. In the plan of laboratory assessment, which has to be positive, it is required active participation as well as a fulfilment of all laboratoty tasks, namely: (i) prersentation of a "topic" from the program list (theoretical and laboratory); (ii) a brief report of applied research.

Student-workers
Based on article 8, point 2, Republic Diary, 2ª série - nº 93 - 5 May 2014, to be able to attend the final exam in the Unit of Motor Development which is dependent on the following acts where the student is expected to obtain, at least 9.5 points (on a scale of 0 to 20) on the following tasks:
Act 1: Individual presentation in the Kinanthropometry Laboratory, in a specified date, one of the following themes (all discussed in theoritical and laboratory classes): postural assessment, body composition assessment, somatotype assessment and somatotype calculation, physical fitness assessment, and physical activity assessment.
Act 2: perform in the Kinathrpometry Laboratory, and the end of the semester, the following tasks: anthropometric measurements based on protocols, compute anthropometric indices, compute measurement precision and interpretation, static and dynamic posture assessment, body compotion assessment based on doubly indirect methods and available equipment, compue somatotype and its indices, construct and interpre relative profiles.

The examined student should bring a coleague that will help in these tasks.

Notes:
1. Each assessing act is scored on a scale of 0 to 10 points.
2. The final mark in this UC is calculated as follows: 70% for the theoretical exam and 30% for these acts (10% for act 1, and 20% for act 2).

Calculation formula of final grade

The final exam has a weight of 80%, and the laboratory part 20% of the final mark (FM). This FM will be calculated according to the formula: FM=(8*(final exam)+2*(mark of the laboratory part))/10.

Examinations or Special Assignments

Any student from previous years tha attended all theoretical and laboratoty classes according to the rules of this Unit do not need to do so in the current year. Similarly, those who achieved in previous years a minimum of 47.5% (9.5 points in a scale of 0 to 20 points) in the laboratory part of this Unit do not need to do the laboratory part in the current year. All they have to do is the final exam.

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

Students who do not attend, at least, 75% of all theoretical and laboratory classes (e.g., high level athletes), should contact Motor Development main Professor, within 15 days after the first lecture, to define an alternative plan to assess his knowledge in this Unit.

Classification improvement

Those who want to renew his/her exam in orden to have another final mark should follow the available legislation. All these students have full suport from their teaching staff in order to optimize their knowledge and reduce their insufficiencies, namely in more problematic topics and problem solving.