Topic > A Comprehensive Approach to Physical Activity at Euclid Middle School

IndexLiterature ReviewMethodsIntervention StrategiesParticipantsSettingsData Collection Procedures/TimelineData Collection ToolsData Analysis PlanAppendicesWith obesity rates on the rise and student MVPA time at an all-time low, It is important, now more than ever, to provide students with tools and creative opportunities for a healthy and active lifestyle. A school following a CSPAP program should use all resources and means necessary to build an effective program for its students. This includes engaging staff, community and students before, during and after school. Euclid Middle School (EMS) has overcome many of these barriers to physical activity, including creating a quality physical education program, community and family involvement through school/district/community fun runs and other events, and integrated moments of physical activity during the school day with activity breaks inside the classroom and moments of recreation. One area that needs improvement is student involvement in physical activity after school. By implementing quality after-school activity clubs, EMS students will be much more likely to combat rising obesity rates by aiming for 60 minutes of MVPA on a daily basis. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Studying Euclid Middle School's (EMS) CSPAP Needs Assessment, reports find an even lower percentage of students participating in organized sports than the national average of 50-57%, according to the U.S. Report Card. Only about one in three students at EMS participate in at least one sport during the school year, which is lower than the U.S. Report Card mark of 50-56%. According to CSPAP, a quality before- and after-school program provides all students with the opportunity to “1) apply what they learn in physical education, 2) work toward achieving the nationally recommended 60 minutes of daily physical activity , 3) prepare more adequately for learning, 4) engage in safe, social, and supervised activities, and 5) identify activities they enjoy and are likely to engage in long-term. Physical activity provided in a controlled environment before and after school can help prevent sedentary behaviors such as sitting and waiting for the school day to end/begin. The Physical Education Extension Program is relevant to PE and CSPAP. Through the implementation of PEP, I want to examine the following question: What are the long-term effects of an after-school physical activity club on students' MVPA levels? Literature Review We are a nation currently in trouble. According to the CDC, the prevalence of obesity was 18.5% for children aged 13.7 million to approximately 13.7 million children, with obesity rates of 13.9% among ages 2 to 5 , 18.4% among 6- to 11-year-olds and 20.6% among youth ages 12-19 (CDC 2018). The adolescent age group, i.e. 12-19 years, is aimed at middle and high school students. Not only are the statistics alarming, but they are growing, even tripling compared to the 1960s-1970s. “The average male and female adult in the United States has gained 25 and 24 pounds, respectively, since 1962. The body mass index of the average adult has increased from 25 to 28. Among young people, the body mass index average has increased from 21.3 to 24.1 since 1963. This increase in body weight among adults and youth is partly due to decreasing levels of physical activity” (LaFontaine 2008). According to the guidelinesOn physical activity for Americans, children and adolescents are encouraged to participate in 60 minutes of physical activity per day. This time should include moderate to vigorous aerobic activities at least three days a week. Moderate activities should increase your heart rate and breathing to some extent and could reach a value between 5 or 6 on the effort scale (out of 10). Moderate exercise activities include activities such as slow cycling, canoeing, dancing, general gardening, manual wheelchair use, arm pedaling, brisk walking and water aerobics (Appendix 1. Guidelines on physical activity for Americans 2015-2020)". Vigorous activities should really increase your heart rate and breathing rate and should measure between 7 and 8 on an exertion scale. Examples of vigorous activities are “basketball, jumping rope, hill running or bicycling, soccer, swimming, and martial arts (Appendix 1. Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans 2015-2020).” The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans also recommend adding muscle-strengthening activities such as weight lifting, calisthenics, resistance training and body-weight exercises at least three days a week. Bone-strengthening exercises include most "impact" activities such as jumping rope, running, playing hopscotch, basketball and tennis, which should be incorporated as many as three times a week. Before and after school physical activity clubs have been shown to be effective in initiating MVPA in students. In elementary-aged students (third and fourth grades), an examination of a walking/running club was initiated to see if substantial MVPA was increased. The results found that students made notable progress in MVPA. Participants averaged between 1,502 and 1,731 steps taken and between 8:30-10:02 minutes (50%-57% of program duration) of MVPA at each session (Stylianou, van der Mars, Kulinna, Adams, Mahar, & Amazeen 2016). These students were able to achieve higher MVPA times without taking time away from classroom instruction. In a separate study, research was reviewed in over 750 sources, and Mears and Jago deduced that after-school clubs achieved on average up to 10 additional minutes of MVPA in students. aged between 5 and 18 (Mears & Jago 2016). A similar study was conducted in 2006 that examined the progress in skills and proficiency of middle and high school students. Most students increased their advantage in at least one skill and maintained that progress in their follow-up intervention one year later (Barnett, Beurden, Morgan, Brooks, Zask, and Beard 2006). These studies tell us that students are increasing not only MVPA, but also skill acquisition. Methods Intervention Strategies Sport fitness principles, concepts, skills and strategies will be addressed, providing enrichment and intervention for students in physical education lessons. The goal is to provide students with additional opportunities for physical activity and to practice strengthening skills. In addressing cognitive factors, knowledge of skills taught and practiced in physical education (PE) and self-efficacy, or “a person's confidence in their ability to perform a behavior that leads to an outcome” will be evident at the PEP. . Teachers will provide individual practice time, pair and group work, and teamwork activities that will allow for multiple chances for success. Modified activities and tasks will provide students with ample practice time to help further develop their skills, formphysics and knowledge, liberating students' confidence in physical activity. To address socioenvironmental factors, or aspects of the perceived and/or physical environment that promote, enable, or discourage engagement, observational learning will occur and all physical barriers will be removed. Not only will the physical education teacher demonstrate examples of positive, safe, and skillful play, but students will be able to observe other students. Through “peer-led” exercises and activities, observational learning will be prevalent during the PEP. The PEP will also remove any physical barriers to physical education, as several areas will be accessible, at no charge or cost, and equipment will be provided to students by the physical education department. Third, to meet behavioral factors classified as “health-promoting” behavioral skills, intentions, which serve as self-incentives, will be verbalized and written via goal sheets provided by the physical education teacher (Glanz et al., 2015). Goal setting establishes internal standards for behavior and therefore goals help actualize behavioral intentions in order to achieve behavior changes. As students transition to self-managing their health behavior, setting behavioral goals becomes crucial to behavior change (Bandura, 2005). Each PEP lesson includes a similar outline, in which different components will be practiced, taught, and reinforced. Each class will include a short warm-up, focusing on preparing your body for exercise. A multitude of different cardio, strength and muscular endurance exercises will not only prepare students for learning but prevent injury. The effort will be concentrated and lively and cheerful music will continuously play in the background. Subsequently, a cooperative and/or team building game will be played which will foster a positive and stimulating culture within the group of students. Students will learn how to handle minor conflicts, how to quickly choose partners/groups, how to encourage others verbally and nonverbally, and how to play safely. This type of activity also builds on each student's self-efficacy. Confidence will be strengthened through mastery experiences, social modeling, verbal persuasion, and practice under stress-free conditions (Glanz 2015 et al., 2015). Following the cooperative activity, game skills and strategies will be discussed. These will vary from week to week as a new sport or concept will rotate every three weeks. With frequently rotating lessons, participants will not only practice a myriad of different skills and achieve mastery in several, but also increase engagement while avoiding boredom. After the skills and knowledge have been reviewed and learned observationally, individual, partner and small group practice will begin. The exercises will last 3-5 minutes each and the partners, modifications and rules will constantly change. Once students are given plenty of time to practice, they continue with the gameplay or modified game. This provides the opportunity to develop strategies and also allow for observational learning of other students. Teams and groups will be selected by the teacher during this period to deliver equal skills. During the “game” the teacher will observe how the skills/actions from the cooperative/team building games transfer. Positive feedback and reinforcement are provided by the instructor and other students at that time. At the end of the PEP, students will discuss a “highlight reel” of the day in which students will recognize examples they grew up experiencingindividually or in which they witnessed the growth of other students. After the “highlight reel” moment, the teacher gives awards and small prizes to some students. The enrichment moment ends with a popular school round of applause and a passing out high five! Participants Intervention participants include 50 students from EMS, a middle school in Littleton, Colorado. Male and female participants will be equally distributed. The age of the participants varies from 11 to 12 years. All students in this study will be at the 7th grade level and are currently placed in a physical education class at this school. 21% of participating students are enrolled in or eligible for the free/reduced lunch plan. Seventy-eight percent of the subjects are white, 20% are Hispanic, and 2% are black. 9% of participants are also involved in an intramural sport through school. 84% of participants are also active in another school-sponsored club such as TSA, jazz band, recycling club, etc. Settings The study plans to include a physical education extension program in Euclid Middle School (PEP). This program will be conducted weekly at Euclid Middle School on Tuesday afternoons from 4:00 pm to 5:10 pm. Activities will be set up in several areas of the school, including the gymnasium, fitness center and wrestling/activity room. Data Collection Procedures/Timeline Students participating in the PEP group were required to attend the program with a participation rate of 90% or higher. The concept of PEP is to extend a student's learning and skills beyond the physical education experience and to increase minutes of MVPA among students before and after school. Cognitive knowledge and familiarity with strategies related to the units of instruction to be covered, as well as the survey outlining physical activity, goal setting and tracking, and self-confidence in these skills are part of the pretest. The post-test will be administered to PEP participants at the initial meeting, during week 9 of the study, and again at the completion of the 18-week study. Responses to questions and video reflections will be examined with growth/difference in data at the forefront of analysis. The central goal of the PEP is to directly observe the relationships between MVPA in students' lives before, during, and after a physical enrichment and extension club. It will be clear whether students have reached a level at which they have acquired behavior change since knowledge, self-efficacy, and goal pursuit are constructs to be measured. With the increase in physical activity at the center of research, the benefits of PEP will be demonstrated. Data Collection Tools Data will be collected via Screencastify, a recording device that students will be able to access on their personal computers at home. The data will also be collected on Google forms/sheets and through written reflections. Students will have the option to complete surveys online via recording device or on paper. Finally, qualitative observations/interviews/field notes. Other forms of data collection can be collected via pedometers. Students will keep a log of their steps one day a week without PEP and will record their step count one day they attend PEP. A Google Form will be sent once a week to allow students to register their information on club days and non-club days. This will provide substantial data and allow comparison between club days and non-club days. Graphs and diagrams will be compiled. Data analysis plan. Themes and models will be linked by pre-, mid- and post-reflections and surveys. Survey responses will be represented graphically and;?