Area school testing if daily physical activity improves academics, behavior

"Not less than two hours a day should be devoted to exercise. ... I speak from experience, having made this arrangement of my life. If the body is feeble, the mind will not be strong."

— Thomas Jefferson

There's an experiment going on at Mitchell Elementary School this school year.

A committed "wellness team" of faculty members and health professionals is hoping to prove, with data backing it up, that physical activity improves learning, behavior and even test scores.

During this school year, the team is taking a multipronged approach to adding activity to Mitchell, a school next to the U.S. Highway 17 Crosstown, where most of the 305 students are eligible for federally subsidized free and reduced lunches.

Generally, the effort includes 40 minutes of daily, sustained physical activity, some "action-based learning" programs and an ExerLearning classroom filled with active computer games featuring dancing, cycling and virtual boxing, and even yoga on Mondays. The money for the programs comes primarily from grants and donations.

This summer, the team will compare academic and behavior reports as part of an effort to convince skeptics, namely administrators and other decisionmakers, that movement is tied to improved mental performance.

"By the end of the year, we'll know the results," says the Charleston County School District's Physical Education Director Dave Spurlock, who is spearheading the effort along with Mitchell physical education teacher Lindsay Beck. "The worst-case scenario is that we'll have fitter kids."

Spurlock is zealous about the need to bring physical education back into schools that have drifted into a world where the standardized test score reigns supreme. He's not alone.

The team at Mitchell includes the full support of Principal Dirk Bedford and numerous faculty members who, frankly, have been going beyond the call of duty to support the program, as well as an impressive lineup of volunteers from outside the school. Those include the Medical University of South Carolina's Junior Doctors of Health, Lean Team and pediatrician Dr. William Randazzo, as well as Louie's Kids Fit Club, local wellness guru Dr. Ann Kulze, certified yoga instructors and Whole Foods Market.

Almost all are tuned in to research done within the past 15 years that consistently shows the connection between activity and improved cognitive function, along with successful programs at schools in Titusville, Pa., and Napierville, Ill.

The team at Mitchell also has made nutrition a key component of the effort.

"We have eliminated the Pop-Tart breakfast," says Spurlock, noting that sugar spikes and drops create a recipe for behavior disasters. "Instead, it's eggs, oatmeal and fruit."

In a nutshell, here's what happening at Mitchell:

PE4Life

Mitchell is following an approach known as PE4Life, which is actually a not-for-profit organization with a mission to introduce quality, daily physical education programs in schools in the United States.

PE4Life stresses that physical education should be a daily routine and involve sustained activity by all students. In other words, all the students are moving. None are sitting on the bench or standing on the sidelines.

One goal of PE4Life is to instill in each student the importance of a physically active lifestyle for a lifetime.

Action!

The Action-Based Learning Lab features activities, such as balancing, coordinating, Spinning and crawling, that have been shown in research to improve the brain's ability to follow words, recognize patterns and solve problems.

Children in kindergarten to third grade participate in the lab.

ExerLearning Lab

We live in the computer age, and kids love to play computer games. The ExerLearning Lab encourages physical movement with games such as "Dance Dance Revolution," two exergaming bikes and XaviX.

The equipment and games are being paid for with money from grants, including $10,000 from the Medical Society of South Carolina.

Activity-based learning

Everyone who works at a desk knows the inevitable decrease in productivity after long periods of sitting. For kids, who are meant to move, it's even worse.

So some faculty members, such as teacher Shavonna Coakley, periodically will engage her sixth-grade class by getting them to stand and play games while she is teaching a lesson. For instance, she will ask a question and throw a bean bag to a student she wants to answer it.

The result: Every child in the room is on alert.

Louie's Kids Fit Club

About two dozen students, identified as obese or overweight and at-risk of long-term health consequences, are involved in Louie's Kids Fit Club.

The therapy-based program lasts 16 weeks and involves six hours of physical activity, food education and counseling.

Junior Doctors

Students from the six different colleges at the Medical University of South Carolina routinely come to Mitchell to teach students about the importance of healthy eating and exercise.

Health clinic

MUSC pediatrician Randazzo provides a school-based health clinic for students and will help in providing data on the relationship between the health of students and academics and behavior as well as advice on treating students in the most cost-effective manner.

Fresh Fridays

School nurse Glennis Randazzo coordinates Fresh Fridays, a program to introduce, teach and promote the variety of fruits and vegetables, in an effort to teach children how to make better choices.

Whole Foods Market in Mount Pleasant donates the produce for the program.

Randazzo not only distributes it to classrooms but also gives a brief background on the origin of the food and the key nutrients in it.

Reach David Quick at 937-5516 or dquick@postandcourier.com.

 E-mail this story   Printer-friendly version  

Copy and paste the link: