What Is EXSC 240 at Frederick Community College? (3 cr)

You searched "EXSC 240 fitness assessment" and landed here. Most likely you're a Frederick Community College student looking up a course on your degree plan, an advisor checking what the course covers, or an outside fitness professional curious about the curriculum.

Here's what EXSC 240 actually is, who it's for, and how the credits move once you finish it.

#Quick answer

• Course code: EXSC 240
• Title: Fitness Assessment and Programming
• Credits: 3
• Prerequisites: Anatomy & physiology I (BSCI 201 or BI 103 or BSCI 117 or BI 107) AND EXSC 170 (Introduction to Exercise Science)
• Where it's taught: Frederick Community College (Frederick, MD) — currently the only college in our 21-state corpus offering this exact course code + title
• Mode: Hybrid — typically TuTh 10:00-11:15 AM with an additional Th 11:30-1:00 PM session
• Instructor: Noah Gibson (the section we track is consistently taught by the same instructor)
• Transfers as: Direct match to University of Maryland College Park (KNES 214) and Morgan State University (PHEC 212); elective credit at UMBC and Frostburg State

#What EXSC 240 actually teaches

EXSC 240 is the bridge course in Frederick CC's Exercise Science program — between the introductory survey courses (EXSC 170 and the anatomy & physiology prereqs) and the applied capstone work that prepares students for ACSM personal trainer or strength & conditioning specialist certifications.

The course is hands-on by design. Students:

• Administer standardized fitness assessments (cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength, body composition, flexibility)
• Interpret results against ACSM and AAHPERD norms for healthy adults
• Design individualized exercise programs based on assessment data, accounting for fitness goals, medical history, and contraindications
• Practice client-facing communication and program adjustment over multiple sessions
• Build a portfolio of programs that can be referenced in later coursework or shown to employers

The hybrid format reflects this split: the TuTh lecture slot covers theory and case discussion; the Thursday extended-meeting slot is the practical lab where assessments happen on actual subjects (often classmates).

#Who takes EXSC 240

Three audiences:

1. Frederick CC Exercise Science associate degree students — EXSC 240 is a core program course, typically taken in the second year after the prereq sequence is complete.
2. Students transferring into University of Maryland's Kinesiology program — UMD accepts EXSC 240 as a direct match for KNES 214 (Fitness Assessment), which is required for the Kinesiology BS.
3. Working fitness professionals taking individual courses to meet ACSM certification preparation requirements without a full degree program.

The course is not appropriate as a casual elective — the prerequisites lock out students without anatomy & physiology I and EXSC 170 already on their transcript.

#Prerequisites: anatomy & physiology + intro exercise science

EXSC 240 requires both:

1. One of: BSCI 201, BI 103, BSCI 117, or BI 107 — these are the equivalent A&P I courses at Frederick CC and accepted alternates. Most students take BSCI 201 (the standard 4-credit Anatomy & Physiology I).
2. EXSC 170 — Introduction to Exercise Science. The 3-credit overview of the field that EXSC 240 builds on.

Both prereqs must be on your transcript before registration unlocks. The instructor doesn't permit concurrent enrollment for EXSC 240, because the assessment techniques in EXSC 240 assume you can already locate muscle groups and understand respiratory and circulatory response to exercise.

Realistic timeline: a student starting from zero takes two semesters of prereqs (anatomy + intro exercise science) before being eligible for EXSC 240. Most program students take it in their third or fourth semester at Frederick.

#Credits and grading

EXSC 240 is 3 credits — typical for a 200-level science course at Frederick CC.

• Roughly 45 hours of total classroom time over the semester (the hybrid format means part of that is online async)
• Counts toward the 60-65 credit Frederick CC associate degree
• Graded A through F, with the practical-lab portion typically weighted heavily

The grade in EXSC 240 is closely tied to lab attendance — assessments need to be performed in person, and the practical portion is graded on technique demonstration, not just written reports.

#How EXSC 240 transfers

For Maryland students continuing to a 4-year program, the transfer picture for EXSC 240:

| Receiving university | EXSC 240 maps to | Credits | Type | |---|---|---|---| | University of Maryland, College Park | KNES 214 (Fitness Assessment) | 3 | Direct match | | Morgan State University | PHEC 212 | 3 | Direct match | | University of Maryland, Baltimore County | Lower Level Elective | 3 | Elective | | Frostburg State University | PHEC 195 | 4 | Elective |

The direct match at UMD College Park is the most consequential: students pursuing the Kinesiology BS at UMD have EXSC 240 satisfy a specific named program requirement. They don't retake it. This makes Frederick CC a deliberate pathway into UMD's kinesiology program — and EXSC 240 is one of the courses that anchors the articulation.

The elective designations at UMBC and Frostburg mean the credits transfer (3 and 4 respectively) but don't replace a specific named course. Students still earn the credit hours toward graduation, but they may need to take an equivalent fitness-assessment course at the receiving university if their major requires it.

For more on what direct match vs elective credit actually means for your timeline, see our transfer credit explainer. And for reading the equivalency-table notation precisely, our transfer-table guide walks through the symbols.

#How to register at Frederick CC

EXSC 240 typically runs one section per term (fall and spring), taught by Noah Gibson in the hybrid format described above. Registration windows open through the Frederick CC student portal (PeopleSoft) about a month before the term begins.

Steps:

1. Confirm both prerequisites (A&P I equivalent + EXSC 170) are on your transcript
2. Run a degree audit to confirm EXSC 240 is in your program
3. Register through PeopleSoft during your enrollment window
4. Note the hybrid schedule includes both the TuTh lecture and the Thursday lab session — both are required

To see the current section availability, mode, and seat counts at Frederick CC, visit the EXSC 240 course page on Community College Path.

#The bottom line

EXSC 240 at Frederick Community College is a 3-credit hybrid course that teaches fitness assessment and exercise programming — the practical bridge between Frederick's intro exercise science survey and applied capstone work. Two prereqs are required: an anatomy & physiology equivalent and EXSC 170.

For students transferring to UMD or Morgan State, EXSC 240 is a direct match to the receiving university's fitness assessment course — making it one of the highest-value courses in Frederick CC's Exercise Science program. If you're not in the Exercise Science degree but considering ACSM personal trainer certification, this is also the right preparation course.

If you're early in the Exercise Science program at Frederick, focus on the prereq sequence first. Once those are done, EXSC 240 unlocks the rest of the upper-level program coursework. For broader context on how to plan around prereq chains at Maryland community colleges, our Maryland prereq bottlenecks guide walks through the patterns.