Biased Headlines: Run, Find and Rewrite the News

A team relay where each runner brings back a card with a made-up sports headline containing gender bias, and the team has to spot it and rewrite it. It mixes continuous running with critical thinking about how sport is reported.

How to play

1. Explain with an example: "Soccer player's wife wins judo gold" versus "Judoka wins gold" (3 min).
2. Relay: each team's base is 20 m from a cone with face-down cards; one runner goes, grabs a card and returns (6 min).
3. For each card, the team marks the biased word (looks, family, comparison with men, calling adult women "girls"…) and rewrites it on paper (8 min).
4. Second relay round to collect the remaining cards (4 min).
5. Each team reads its best rewrite aloud and explains the change (4 min).

Rules

• Run out in your lane and come back on the outside.
• One card per trip, and don't read it until you're back at base.
• Rewrite the headline with sports facts, not opinions about the person.
• No one leaves until the previous runner has tagged a hand at base.

Variations

Adaptations

• Students with dyslexia: large-print cards and a teammate reads aloud.
• Limited mobility: runs a shorter lane in a wheelchair or acts as team scribe.
• Low vision: high-contrast, large-print cards.

Learning goals

• Sustain intermittent aerobic effort.
• Spot gender bias in sports language.
• Suggest a more equal way to report sport.

Equipment for a class of 25

• headline cards: 16
• pencils: 6
• paper sheets: 12
• cones: 6

Teacher tip

Write invented headlines with no real names, and mix bias against girls and against boys (for example, "Boy does rhythmic gymnastics, why not football?"). Prepare 16 cards and reuse if needed.

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