Popular High School Research Articles

Epidemiologic Analysis Of Adolescent Track & Field Related Emergency Department Visits

PURPOSE: Track and field (T&F) is the most popular high school sport in the United States with close to 1.1 million participants. T&F athletes experience many health benefits of sport participation; however, they are also confronted by injury risks associated with the sport. With steady growth in T&F participation over the last 20 years, it is important to analyze serious injuries that may affect T&F participants’ future health. The purpose of this study is to examine adolescent T&F athletes’ emergency department (ED) visits from a nationally representative sample of hospitals. METHODS: Data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System was used to describe the types of T&F injuries that resulted in ED visits among adolescents aged 14-18 between the years 2000 and 2019. The total number of ED visits were reported and a national estimate of T&F related ED visits was calculated. The most frequent injury diagnoses were reported, as were the most frequent diagnoses resulting in hospital admission. Injuries during 2018 and 2019 were categorized and reported by the type of T&F activity adolescents were engaged in at their time of injury. RESULTS: During the study period NEISS recorded 8,105 T&F related ED visits, suggesting an estimated 274,630 visits nationally over the same timeframe (95% CI: 164,721 384,539). The most common diagnoses evaluated in the ED were ankle sprains (n = 1,100, 13.6%), knee sprains (n = 626, 7.72%), and lower trunk strains (n = 542, 6.69%). One-hundred and ninety-six of the observations led to hospital admission (2.42% of all visits). Hospital admissions were most commonly due to fractures (n = 85, 43.4%), internal injuries (n = 23, 11.7%), and heat-related illnesses (n = 7, 3.6%). Over the last two years of the study period, the most common T&F activities associated with ED visits were track running (n = 507, 52.4%), cross country running (n = 108, 11.2%), hurdling (n = 88, 9.09%), jumping (n = 49, 5.06%), pole vaulting (n = 27, 2.79%), and throwing events (n = 25, 2.58%). CONCLUSIONS: This study describes the most common reasons for ED visits and hospital admissions among adolescent T&F athletes over the last 20 years. A variety of injuries involving multiple levels of severity were observed. Ankle sprains were the most common reason for ED visit and fractures accounted for the most hospital admissions.

Writing and choosing problems for a popular high school mathematics competition

In this paper, we consider the issues involved in creating appropriate problems for a popular mathematics competition, and how such problems differ from problems typically encountered in a classroom. We discuss the differences and similarities in school curricula versus the generally agreed upon topics encountered in international competitions. The question of inspiration for the development of competition problems is dealt with from the standpoint of the problem author, while aspects related to the motivation of the contest participant, objective and subjective problem difficulty and mathematical precision in mathematics competitions are also discussed.

Similarities and Differences in Popular Peers in Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood

The transition to emerging adulthood is accompanied by shifts in social ecology that influence the attributes that garner popularity among peers. The goal of this study was to compare descriptions of popular high school and college peers. Participants were 218 college undergraduates (70% female, mean age 19.6 years) at a large, public Midwestern university. Participants provided descriptions of their popular male and female college peers, and retrospective descriptions of their popular male and female high school peers. Descriptions were coded into one of 11 content categories and rated for their valence. Popular high school students were described in terms of their appearance, wealth, and athletic ability. Popular college students were described in terms of their prosocial behavior, peer interactions, social competencies, and involvement in campus groups. Emerging adulthood may bring a shift in the meaning of popularity toward more prosocial attributes and behaviors that facilitate the development of positive relationships with others.

Objective Assessment of Physical Activity and Associated Contexts During High School Sport Practices.

Background: Organized sports provide children and adolescents with opportunities to achieve recommended amounts of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA), and schools are a primary setting for sports programs. The main aims of this study were to examine participant physical activity (PA) levels during the most popular high school sports in the United States and to assess the influences of practice contextual factors on PA levels.Methods: Participant PA and its contexts were assessed during practices for the 10 most popular girls' and boys' high school sports in the United States. Data were obtained during 598 practice sessions in 12 schools in North Carolina using a validated direct observation instrument (System for Observing Fitness Instruction Time (SOFIT). A regression model was applied to understand the association between sport context and athletes' PA.Results: Overall, athletes were observed engaging in MVPA 60% of practice time. MVPA varied among sports and levels were highly influenced by practice contexts. Among girls' sports, cross country and soccer practices provided the highest proportion of MVPA and MVPA percent during boys' practice sessions was highest during cross country and track and field. Practice contexts were associated with MVPA accrual with time allocated for gameplay and fitness activities associated with the highest levels of PA.Conclusions: The results contribute to an understanding of which sports and how their practices are conducted facilitate increased PA. Findings indicate athletes accrue substantial amounts of PA during high school practices, but that it varies from sport to sport. As well, the context that characterizes sport practices is a significant determinant in how much PA occurs. Most sports that emphasized game simulation, fitness, and skill development drills had higher levels of MVPA. Given the length and frequency of practices and how the content is delivered, we can accurately predict how much PA athletes are likely to achieve during a given sport season. The findings from this study demonstrate that sport can make a useful, if not sufficient role in helping high school athletes reach recommended PA levels. PA engagement can be optimized by attending to the management of contexts surrounding the sports.

Factors Associated With Self-Selected Step Rates Between Collegiate and High School Cross Country Runners.

Introduction: Cross country is a popular high school and collegiate sport with a high rate of running-related injuries (RRI). Among high school runners, higher step rates have been associated with greater running experience and decreased body height, and lower step rates have been prospectively associated with increased risk of shin RRI. These associations have not been reported in collegiate cross country runners. The purpose of this study was to compare step rates between collegiate and high school cross country runners. Secondary objectives included determining if step rates in collegiate runners were related to experience and anthropometric variables, and whether their self-selected step rates were prospectively related to lower extremity RRI.Materials and methods: Twenty-nine NCAA Division III collegiate cross country runners (13 females, mean ± SD age 19.7 ± 1.3 years) completed a survey and ran at their self-selected speed. Step rate was assessed with Polar RCX5 wristwatches and S3+ Stride Sensors™ on the first day of the season. Runners were followed during the season for occurrence of time-loss lower extremity RRI. A cohort of 68 high school runners was used for comparison of step rates at their self-selected speeds.Results: Collegiate runners' self-selected step rates (177.1 ± 7.2 spm [steps per minute]) were higher than high school runners' (171.3 ± 8.3 spm) (p = 0.01). Collegiate runners ran at higher self-selected speeds (4.6 ± 0.5 m/s) than the high school runners (3.8 ± 0.5 m/s) (p < 0.001). A lower percentage of collegiate runners ran at ≤166 spm than high school runners. Body mass was negatively correlated with step rate in collegiate runners. During the season, 41.3% of collegiate runners experienced lower extremity RRI. Step rates for collegiate runners who did not experience RRI (178.9 ± 7.7 spm) were not significantly higher than runners who did experience RRI (174.5 ± 5.7 spm) (p = 0.10).Discussion: Higher step rates were found in collegiate than high school runners, but the difference was partially explained by higher self-selected running speeds. Thus, variations in step rate between high school and collegiate runners may be expected based on experience, speed, and body mass.

THE CONTEXTUALIZED SITUATIONS CONSTRUCTED FOR THE USE OF STATISTICS BY SCHOOL MATHEMATICS TEXTBOOKS

The consideration of context is crucial in the discipline of statistics. In this paper, I present a Foucauldian discourse analysis (FDA) of two popular high school mathematics textbook series in the United States investigating what contextual situations they construct for the (re)use of statistics. As FDA is a novel approach in statistics education,an extended discussion is provided to help show a rationale for its use and to provide a foundation for others. An important finding is that the contextualized situations presented in both textbook series are predominantly fictional, neutral, and providelimited raw data. The findings have implications for the teaching and learning of statistics in view ofrecent calls for more focus on data and statistical literacy in schools.&#x0D; First published November 2019 at Statistics Eduation Research Journal Archives

Observational Study of the Associations of Participation in High School Football With Self-Rated Health, Obesity, and Pain in Adulthood

American football is the most popular high school sport in the United States, yet its association with health in adulthood has not been widely studied. We investigated the association between high school football and self-rated health, obesity, and pain in adulthood in a retrospective cohort study of data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (1957-2004). We matched 925 males who played varsity football in high school with 1,521 males who did not play football. After matching, playing football was not associated with poor or fair self-rated health (odds ratio (OR)=0.88, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.63, 1.24; P=0.48) or pain that limited activities (OR=0.86, 95% CI: 0.59, 1.25; P=0.42) at age 65 years. Football was associated with obesity (body mass index (weight (kg)height (m)2) ≥30) in adulthood (OR=1.32, 95% CI: 1.06, 1.64; P=0.01). The findings suggest that playing football in high school was not significantly associated with poor or fair self-related health at age 65 years, but it was associated with the risk of being obese as an adult in comparison with not playing football in high school. Our findings provide needed information about the risk of playing football with regard to a broader set of health outcomes.

Secondary Biology Textbooks and National Standards for English Learners

ABSTRACTGiven secondary teachers’ dependence on textbooks for curricular and instructional guidance, the challenges introduced by increasingly diverse classrooms in the United States, and national efforts to provide equitable access to science for all students, this study examined the alignment between three popular high school biology textbooks and the tenets of four national standards. The standards, Benchmarks for Science Literacy (the national science content standards when the textbooks were published), The CREDE Five Standards for Effective Pedagogy and Learning, World‐Class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA) English Language Proficiency Standards, and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study Standards (TIMSS), were chosen as representative of nationally accepted ways of meeting the discipline‐specific content, pedagogical, linguistic, and cognitive needs of English learners (ELs). Descriptive content analysis revealed that the instructional helps (textual tools) found in all three textbooks had some level of alignment with all four standards. However, not all chapters or instructional units included explicit recommendations for teaching ELs, and the overall alignment ranged from low to moderate across textbooks. Equally concerning was that many important instructional recommendations from the standards, particularly those designed to develop and challenge student thinking, were implicit or completely absent. Implications for textbook publishers, textbook adoption committees, teachers, and teacher educators are discussed.

Epidemiology of Injuries in United States High School Track and Field

Background: Track and field is one of the most popular high school sports among boys and girls, but epidemiological research on the sport and its individual events has been limited. Purpose: To describe injury rates and patterns in boys’ and girls’ high school track and field. Study Design: Descriptive epidemiology study. Methods: A retrospective epidemiological analysis of injury and exposure data from a longitudinal national high school sports injury surveillance system was conducted. Results: From 2008-2009 through 2013-2014, 2485 track and field injuries occurred during 2,962,308 athlete exposures (0.84 injuries per 1000 athlete exposures). Injury rates were higher in competition versus practice for both sexes. Girls had higher injury rates than boys overall (rate ratio, 1.37; 95% CI, 1.27-1.48) and in practice (rate ratio, 1.60; 95% CI, 1.46-1.76), but competition injury rates did not differ. Overuse/chronic injuries accounted for 27.5% and 36.2% of boys’ and girls’ track and field injuries, respectively. The majority of injuries were to the lower extremity. Sprints, distance running, and jumps accounted for over 65% of all track injuries. Boys sustained a greater proportion of injuries in relay events (injury proportion ratio, 2.02; 95% CI, 1.69-2.36) but fewer in hurdle events (injury proportion ratio, 0.51; 95% CI, 0.23-0.78). Conclusion: Injury rates varied by event, sex, and competition versus practice exposure. To increase effectiveness, targeted strategies for injury prevention should be driven by an understanding of such differences. Because many track and field injuries are overuse/chronic across sexes and for both competitions and practices, coaches and athletic trainers should be adept at recognizing early injury symptoms, intervene to treat minor injuries in order to prevent severe injuries, and ensure the prompt diagnosis and management of all injuries.

Caring for Wrestlers.

Wrestling is a popular high school and college sport with an injury and illness rate second only to football. It is important that the physician providing medical care for wrestlers be familiar with the unique characteristics of wrestling and the associated common injuries and medical problems. Common orthopedic injuries include shoulder, elbow, and finger dislocation; prepatellar bursitis; knee medial collateral ligament sprains; and cervical strains. Skin infections are the most common cause of missed mat time for wrestlers. Physicians need to be able to identify and treat these infections, and know the rules regarding return to wrestling once an infection has been identified. Other conditions that are common include auricular hematomas, epistaxis, and brow lacerations. Physicians also need to be familiar with the medical issues involved with rapid weight loss and weight cycling, and understand the high school and college weight certification rules.

Footwear Traction and Lower Extremity Noncontact Injury

Football is the most popular high school sport; however, it has the highest rate of injury. Speculation has been prevalent that foot fixation due to high footwear traction contributes to injury risk. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to determine whether a relationship exists between the athlete's specific footwear traction (measured with their own shoes on the field of play) and lower extremity noncontact injury in high school football. For 3 yr, 555 high school football athletes had their footwear traction measured on the actual field of play at the start of the season, and any injury the athletes suffered during a game was recorded. Lower extremity noncontact injury rates, grouped based on the athlete's specific footwear traction (both translational and rotational), were compared. For translational traction, injury rate reached a peak of 23.3 injuries/1000 game exposures within the midrange of translational traction, before decreasing to 5.0 injuries/1000 game exposures in the high range of traction. For rotational traction, there was a steady increase in injury rate as footwear traction increased, starting at 4.2 injuries/1000 game exposures at low traction and reaching 19.2 injuries/1000 game exposures at high traction. A relationship exists between footwear traction and noncontact lower extremity injury, with increases in rotational traction leading to a greater injury rate and increases in translational traction leading to a decrease in injury. It is recommended that athletes consider selecting footwear with the lowest rotational traction values for which no detriment in performance results.

Who Is Coaching High School Girls’ Sport Teams?

While the number of high school girls’ teams has dramatically increased since Title IX, the number of female head coaches has not. In the 10 most popular high school sports in 2011-2012, only three (volleyball, swimming and diving, and competitive spirit squads) had more than 44% female head coaches. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether females or males are coaching high school girls’ sport teams and whether female coaches are attaining head coaching positions in the most popular high school girls’ sports. Additionally, the study sought to understand better why males and females choose to become head coaches of high school girls’ sport teams and what factors might cause head high school girls’ coaches to resign from coaching. In the 21–30 age group, there were more female than male head coaches of girls’ teams, but after age 40, male head coaches vastly outnumbered female head coaches. Of the coaches with 12 or more years of experience, only 33% were females. Time away from family, player issues, inadequate compensation, and time away from other activities were the top reasons high school coaches might resign.

National Standards for High School Psychology Curricula.

The National Standards for High School Psychology Curricula attempts to represent current knowledge in the field of psychology in developmentally appropriate ways. Psychology is a popular high school course, one that can introduce students to scientific ideas and engage students in the learning process. However, it is difficult for even the best of teachers to present all of psychology in a single course for students who begin with virtually no formal knowledge of psychology. The standards presented here constitute the first of two reports in this issue of the American Psychologist (January 2013) representing recent American Psychological Association (APA) policies that support high-quality instruction in the teaching of high school psychology. These standards provide curricular benchmarks for student learning in the high school course.

Do Preseason Running Mileage and Video Analysis Predict In-season Injury Among High School Cross Country Athletes

Cross country is a popular high school sport. Over one third of high school cross country runners sustain a lower extremity injury each season. Despite this high rate of injury, there is little known about risk factors for injury in this population or appropriate preseason running mileage. Identification of risk factors has been limited to static alignment measures which have not been proven to be reliable measures for dynamic movements, such as running. Increased Q-angle (valgus) has been proposed as a possible predictor for injury in high school runners but has not been a reliable measure when utilizing 2D video analysis. Frontal plane projection angle (FPPA) has been found to be a reliable 2D measure of this valgus angle during dynamic running analysis. PURPOSE: To determine if increased FPPA and summer running mileage predict lower extremity injury during one high school cross-country season. To describe gender differences in running gait analysis for teenage runners. METHODS: Demographics, running history, anthropometric measures and running video analysis were collected on 28 (17 males, 11 females) high school cross country runners. Running related injury incidence was recorded during the 2008 cross country season. RESULTS: 10 athletes reported an injury during the cross country season. All injuries occurred to the lower extremity. Mean FPPA for injured was not significantly different than non-injured (p=.73). Mean preseason running mileage per week was less in injured (20.7 miles/week) compared to non-injured (26.6 miles /week) (p=.12). Gender analysis revealed females had significantly higher mean FPPA (9.3° vs 6.4°, p=0.03), lower mean hip external rotation strength (8.6kg vs 12.3kg, p=.0001) and hip drop (82% vs 41%, p=0.03). CONCLUSION: Lower preseason training mileage (inadequate preseason conditioning) may be a risk factor for injury for male and female high school cross country runners. Females demonstrated increased FPPA and hip drop during 2D running video analysis which may predispose them to higher incidence of running related injuries

Traumatic brain injury in high school athletes.

The potential seriousness of mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) is increasingly recognized; however, information on the frequency of MTBI among high school athletes is limited. To identify the type, frequency, and severity of MTBI in selected high school sports activities. Observational cohort study. Two hundred forty-six certified athletic trainers recorded injury and exposure data for high school varsity athletes participating in boys' football, wrestling, baseball and field hockey, girls' volleyball and softball, boys' and girls' basketball, and boys' and girls' soccer at 235 US high schools during 1 or more of the 1995-1997 academic years. Rates of reported MTBI, defined as a head-injured player who was removed from participation and evaluated by an athletic trainer or physician prior to returning to participation. National incidence figures for MTBI also were estimated. Of 23566 reported injuries in the 10 sports during the 3-year study period, 1219 (5.5%) were MTBIs. Of the MTBIs, football accounted for 773 (63.4%) of cases; wrestling, 128 (10.5%); girls' soccer, 76 (6.2%); boys' soccer, 69 (5.7%); girls' basketball, 63 (5.2%); boys' basketball, 51 (4.2%); softball, 25 (2.1%); baseball, 15 (1.2%); field hockey, 13 (1.1%); and volleyball, 6 (0.5%). The injury rates per 100 player-seasons were 3.66 for football, 1.58 for wrestling, 1.14 for girls' soccer, 1.04 for girls' basketball, 0.92 for boys' soccer, 0.75 for boys' basketball, 0.46 for softball, 0.46 for field hockey, 0.23 for baseball, and 0.14 for volleyball. The median time lost from participation for all MTBIs was 3 days. There were 6 cases of subdural hematoma and intracranial injury reported in football. Based on these data, an estimated 62816 cases of MTBI occur annually among high school varsity athletes participating in these sports, with football accounting for about 63% of cases. Rates of MTBI vary among sports and none of the 10 popular high school sports we studied is without the occurrence of an MTBI. Continued involvement of high school sports sponsors, researchers, medical professionals, coaches, and sports participants is essential to help minimize the risk of MTBI.

Our guys: the Glen Ridge rape and the secret life of the perfect suburb

It was a crime that captured national attention. In the idyllic suburb of Glen Ridge, New Jersey, four of the town's most popular high school athletes were accused of raping a retarded young woman while nine of their teammates watched. Everyone was riveted by the question: What went wrong in this seemingly flawless American town? In search of the answer, Bernard Lefkowitz takes the reader behind Glen Ridge's manicured facade into the shadowy basement that was the scene of the rape, into the mansions on 'Millionaire's Row', into the All-American high school, and finally into the courtroom where justice itself was on trial. Lefkowitz's sweeping narrative, informed by more than 200 interviews and six years of research, recreates a murky adolescent world that parents didn't - or wouldn't - see: a high school dominated by a band of predatory athletes; a teenage culture where girls were frequently abused and humiliated at sybaritic and destructive parties, and a town that continued to embrace its celebrity athletes - despite the havoc they created - as 'our guys'. But that was not only true of Glen Ridge; Lefkowitz found that the unqualified adulation the athletes received in their town was echoed in communities throughout the nation. Glen Ridge was not an aberration. The clash of cultures and values that divided Glen Ridge, Lefkowitz writes, still divides the country. Parents, teachers, and anyone concerned with how children are raised, how their characters are formed, how boys and girls learn to treat each other, will want to read this important book.

Dimensions of Hands-on Science

BIOLOGY teachers have been bombarded with information regarding the need for hands-on science. Articles directed to biology teachers have been written on the subject (Leonard 1988). A blue ribbon panel authored a recent book on reform in biology and included a large section on the role laboratory instruction should play in biology classrooms (Fulfilling the Promise: Biology Education in the Nation's Schools, 1990). Recently, a new twist has been added, and the topic is called Hands-on/Minds-on science. Part of a recent issue of the Kappan was devoted to this very issue (Gough 1990). Padilla (1980) stated that many texts and programs use the term hands-on quite freely in order to sell their programs without regard to its real meaning. Like many terms in educational practice, these terms are not often used with a standard definition that has one meaning for all practitioners. What then do these terms mean? Are they sufficiently comprehensive and meaningful for the science teacher to find useful? In the process of answering these questions, we propose a new organization that is more comprehensive and useful than previous descriptions. If effective lab instruction is a goal, then clarity of these terms is necessary. In general, hands-on science is defined as any science lab activity that allows the student to handle, manipulate or observe a scientific process. Hofstein and Lunetta (1982) defined hands-on science laboratory activities as contrived learning experiences in which students interact with materials to observe phenomena (pp. 201-202). Hands-on science lab activities may be differentiated from other common methods of instruction, such as lecture and demonstration, by the criterion that students interact with materials. According to Hofstein and Lunetta, lab activities do not include demonstrations, museum visits or diffused field trips. A minds-on science activity includes the use of higher order thinking, such as problem solving, to the hands-on activity. Recent calls have been made to reform hands-on laboratory instruction in secondary biology. A distinguished panel of biology educators iterated the fact that current modes of biology laboratory instructional strategies have failed to meet the goals of laboratory instruction (Fulfilling the Promise: Biology Education in the Nation's Schools, 1990). This panel recommended that hands-on lab activities should be capable of producing conceptual changes necessary for intellectual development and understanding (p. 37). Higher level cognitive skill development was also stressed by the panel. Weiss (1987) reported that the use of hands-on lab activities by secondary teachers has dropped from 59 percent in 1977 to 39 percent in 1985-86. Recent researchers who reviewed popular high school biology textbooks revealed that the written lab activities of these texts are not capable of meeting the laboratory goals of problem solving and higher level inquiry (Lumpe & Scharmann, in press). It is evident that a clearer picture of the biology laboratory is needed so that reforms may be effectively employed.

A Biomes Field Trip

Biogeography is a common topic in a high school or introductory university biology course. Most high school and university texts include at least one chapter on biogeography of biomes. A biome is a specific geographical area where the characteristic climatic patterns maintain a corresponding and predictable flora and fauna. One of the primary objectives of teaching biomes is that the students be able to characterize life zones based on the dominant life forms present and to relate these observations to climatic patterns. A problem, however, is that there are few commercial laboratory/field activities available to develop this objective. For instance, a text which is one of the most popular high school biology books used today (Otto, Towle, and Bradley 1981) has no experiential activities on biomes. The BSCS Green Version (1983) has a nice paper-and-pencil activity on predicting biomes from climatograms, but it is hardly an adequate substitute for students being able to experience firsthand biogeographical concepts. Field activities on biomes for university general biology can be found in only a few laboratory manuals. The activity described here derived from an attempt to get a group of high school biology students at Piedmont Hills High