Integrating A School Mandated Physical Activity Policy into Classrooms in Rural Midwestern Community

Abstract

Incorporating physical activity (PA) into the school day may be an additional mechanism to meet daily PA goals and enhance health and academic outcomes of students (Mahar et al., 2006). When policies to increase PA are implemented into classrooms, teachers are not always educated or confident in methods of increasing PA (Callea et al., 2008). In a local Midwestern rural community, school administrators mandated a 20 minute moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA) policy that required teachers to provide 20 minutes of MVPA to their students outside of recess and physical education. Teachers, unsure of how to meet the policy, provided students with a 20 minute walk/run period outdoors and complained of decreased time for curricular lessons and cold weather issues. PURPOSE: To determine if teachers can increase MVPA by 20 min/day in the classroom setting. METHODS: 48 students from 3 classrooms (2nd, 4th, 5th grade; 29 females; 19 males; age 9.6±1.25 yrs) volunteered to participate. Professional development (PD) about curricular integration of PA using Take 10!® activities was provided to teachers. Classroom teachers integrated 2 Take 10!® activities, a 20 min walk/run, or no activity on 3 randomized days. MVPA was measure via MTI accelerometers and defined as >3 METs using equations by Trost et al. (1998). ANOVA was used to determine differences between days. RESULTS: Students accumulated 69.96±29.7 min of MVPA on the Take 10!® activity day, 68.63±26.4 min on the days they walked or ran for 20 minutes outdoors which were both significantly greater than the control day (49.5±32.17 min; p<0.05). However, teachers felt the integrated activity took less time because students did not have to line up, put on coats, or resettle after coming indoors. CONCLUSION: Students accumulated 28% more MVPA through Take 10!® activities or walking/running outdoors, which met the policy mandate of an additional 20 minutes of MVPA outside of recess and PE. Teachers were able to integrate the activities into curricular lessons and transition times between subjects throughout the day and the cold weather issues were resolved. School administrators should provide teachers with professional development when implementing a mandated policy.