Spring 2027

Biomechanics of Human Movement

Biomechanics of Human Movement analyzes human action by applying mechanical principles to understand forces, muscle activity, and motion.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 8

Past student reviews · Kreg Gruben

The workload included weekly quizzes, labs, and major exams, with students advised to watch recorded lectures and complete practice problems from the course packet to succeed.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Identify, quantify, and describe mechanical aspects of human activities.

  • Determine forces within and external to the human body that are necessary to achieve desired behaviors.

  • Determine movements that result from muscle activity and external forces.

  • Demonstrate use of instruments to measure forces, muscle activity, and motion.

  • Interpret quantitative measurements of force, muscle activity, and motion.

  • Evaluate the validity of biomechanical claims related to exercise techniques, exercise devices, and assistive devices.

  • Become independent in self-guided continuation of learning and application of biomechanical principles beyond this course.

  • Demonstrate awareness of individual behaviors as they impact group dynamics.

  • Develop metacognitive skills for problem solving in biomechanics.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

(ANAT&PHY 337 or 338) and (MATH 112 or placement into MATH 113)

KINES 318 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

KREG GRUBEN is recorded teaching in Fall 2006, Spring 2007, Fall 2007, Spring 2008, Fall 2008, Spring 2009, Fall 2009, Spring 2010, Fall 2010, Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Kreg Gruben

Students found the course manageable by engaging with practice problems and attending office hours, noting the instructor’s willingness to help despite the demanding material.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.47 GPA, 78.5% A/AB (n=65 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.30 GPA, 57.0% A/AB (n=79 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.63 GPA, 84.8% A/AB (n=92 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Kreg Gruben

The workload included weekly quizzes, labs, and major exams, with students advised to watch recorded lectures and complete practice problems from the course packet to succeed.

Past student reviews · Kreg Gruben

Several students found lectures unhelpful, stating the instructor did not clearly explain concepts or provide feedback on exam questions, leading to feelings of being unsupported.

Topics

  • Application of mechanical principles to human action
  • Internal and external forces in the human body
  • Muscle activity and resulting movements
  • Instrumentation for measuring forces and motion
  • Biomechanics of exercise and assistive devices

Skills

  • Quantifying and describing mechanical aspects of human activities
  • Determining internal and external forces required for human behavior
  • Analyzing movements resulting from muscle activity and external forces
  • Using instruments to measure forces, muscle activity, and motion
  • Interpreting quantitative measurements of force, muscle activity, and motion
  • Evaluating biomechanical claims about exercise and assistive devices
  • Understanding how individual behaviors impact group dynamics
  • Developing metacognitive skills for biomechanical problem solving

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.17 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records
KINES 318 · Spring 2027

Biomechanics of Human Movement

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:742:015243",
    "course_id": "KINES 318",
    "course_uid": "course_6a4de4a19f44ec918b0a88d3",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "015243",
    "source_subject_id": "742",
    "title": "Biomechanics of Human Movement",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring, Summer"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "91c717d7471c35e4e82207ca59053d38f653e5ad4089fa940bee4645218da2b5",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}