The interconnection of adventure education with adventure learning to promote physical activities on children

Abstract

Introduction Time spent by youngsters making use of IT technology has reached concerning limits, inducing sedentary behaviors. It is required to change these patterns of spending free time, this being possible by increasing motivation and offering attractive ways identified by the combination of simulated games specific to adventure learning with physical activities specific to adventure. The purpose of the research was to identify the impact upon motivation, by evaluating the time assigned to physical recreational activities, determined by the combination of means specific to adventure education and adventure learning, within the optional recreational program [1] , [2] , [3] . Methods The research was carried out between August 10th and September 10th 2013, on 124 pupils participating in a recreational camp, with 7-day/module. They were aged 10 to 12 and were divided into two groups: experimental and control. They opted for a 2-hour program on a daily basis and this included: using IT technology and/or physical activities in Park Aventura or on the recreational sport ground. The independent variable applied to the experimental group consisted in online adventure games implementation and exergames. The control group had unlimited access to internet. The two groups were monitored throughout the optional program. Results The time speed (minutes) for physical activities for the experimental group was M ± SD = 79 ± 19.7 and for the control group M ± SD = 41.4 ± 23.9. Statistically significant differences between the experimental and control group for paired groups are also confirmed by the values tvalue = 11.842, df = 61, P Conclusion The research shows that the implementation of a combined program of adventure learning and adventure education determined the increase of time and motivation for practicing physical activities, thus enabling their addition to the extracurricular activity of recreation.