Supporting Health and Wellness in High Schools

Margaret Stetsko

Master of Science in Education Program

Northwestern University

August 2006

Table of Contents

Rationale……………………………………………………………….……...3

Research Project Question Development………………….…..…..…….…3

Literature Review…………………………………………………..….…..…5

Data Collection………………………………………………………..…….27

Ethics Statement……………………………………………………..….…..29

Data Analysis and Interpretation…………………………….…..…….....30

Figure 1.1 – Q-Sort Prompt Ranking……………………..…...……31

Figure 1.2 – I get bored or tired during class……………......….…41

Figure 1.3 – I like to sit in class and listen………………......…..…41

Figure 2.1 – I feel stupid when I am playing sports….………..…49

Figure 2.2 – I use Math everyday……………………......................50

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Figure 2.3 – I like the way I feel when I am active…….….….…..50

Conclusion…………….…………………………………………....….…...56

References……….……………………………………….….……….…..…63

Appendix A……………………………………..………….……………....67

Appendix B………………………………………………………………....69.Appendix C………………………………………………………………....84

Appendix D…………………………………………………….…………..86

Appendix E…………………………………………………….…………...88

Rationale

I first began to think about researching school involvement in

student health while watching a national news report on the obesity

epidemic in America. The reporter outlined several of the problems that

excess weight and inactivity can have on a person’s health. The

program also outlined some ways that people can make positive changes

to their lives. I immediately began to think about how to best educate

Americans on making positive health decisions. I believe that educating

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youth is the best place to start for encouraging healthy habits, and I

believe that schools are one of the best places for that education. I

believe that the health issues in America that are related to diet and

exercise are partially a cultural issue. People’s habits in this culture are

not likely to change without sufficient education and motivation.

Research Project Question Development

My project did not begin with the topic of promoting student

health. Initially, I was interested in researching the International

Baccalaureate (IB) program and the IB degree. I have always been

passionate about teaching a world-wide perspective to students, and I

thought that researching the IB program was ideal for determining how

to encourage students to take an international perspective towards their

education. While I am still very interested in this topic, the research

began to become difficult in determining exactly what my question was.

I knew that I was interested in international education, but I could not

determine exactly what I wanted to find out, or how the IB programs in

the United States had implications regarding the IB programs overseas.

I probably would have stuck with my original topic if I had not

been inspired by the news program I saw on the obesity epidemic.

Health and physical fitness has played an important role in my life, and

it has taken me a long time to get to the point where I feel as though I

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have adequate knowledge and motivation for being the healthiest that I

can be. I also worry about the health of those around me, and struggle

with the best way to encourage positive changes in my loved ones’ lives

without being hurtful. That is part of the reason I think healthy habits

are best if learned at a young age – unhealthy habits are hard to break.

One of the most difficult issues with choosing this topic was that I

had to determine a researchable question. I knew that I wanted to look

at how schools can help encourage good habits, but I also knew that it

would be hard to determine what constitutes a habit. There is no way to

know whether a person will continue to act the way they do in their

youth. Furthermore, there are difficulties in defining health, as there

are many components tied to health. Physical fitness and nutrition were

the two areas that were most important to me, but these two areas are

still very broad when looking at a variety of issues in schools that could

affect student behavior. I knew from the start that I did not want to

limit my study to physical education and health classes alone, as I see

those as places that provide information, but do not necessarily provide

an environment for forming habits outside the classroom. That is how I

got the idea to look at health and physical education in classrooms

outside of health and physical education.

Moving the focus of my question to places outside of physical

education and health classes widened my project, but I believe that is an

important component. In fact, I wanted my project to look at places in

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the school outside of all classrooms. While this provided potential

problems in having too wide of a topic, I thought that it was extremely

important. As I stated in my Rationale section of this project, I believe

that the health problems in America are partially cultural. I also believe

that schools are a sub-culture in America. Students are profoundly

affected by the entire environment in which they learn, not just by the

classroom. I wanted to consider the entire school environment in my

research.

For a while, my project question focused on just lessons in the

classroom, and I wanted to look specifically at Math. However, as I

actually began to collect data, I never stopped looking at the school-

wide environment. I realized as I collected data that the larger

environment had never left my point of interest. Therefore, I settled on

the following question for my research project: “What changes can be

made in high school classrooms and the high school environment

in order to promote student health?”

Literature Review

Introduction

Students learn far more than math, science, reading, literature

and language in schools. Students learn how to take care of themselves.

Schools provide an education on life, not just academic subjects. One

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example of this extension of education is health and general well being.

Schools provide not only the curriculum for health and physical

education, but also an environment in which students can make

decisions based on what they learn in those subjects. Given the amount

of time that children and adolescents spend at school, it is possible that

they are learning more of their health habits in school than they learn at

home.

America is facing a health crisis. The evidence that our country is

in need of change is abundant. Medical costs are increasing rapidly as

more people with diseases stemming from obesity are in need of

treatment. More specifically, the health problems related to obesity are

beginning at younger ages. In a Congressional Subcommittee on

Education Reform, U.S. House Representative Michael N. Castle cited a

report by the National Institute for Health Care Management stating

that the number of overweight and obese young Americans doubled

between 1990 and 2000 (2004). Researchers are pessimistic. Given the

current trends, the outlook does not look good for the future of

America’s health. Through the domain of the American health crisis,

this project aims to look at how current health trends in America

directly impact children and adolescents.

In analyzing the effect that our culture has on children and

adolescent health, the school environment plays a key role in

determining the future of these issues and the degree to which health

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trends will impact today’s youth. A school with soda machines, candy

machines, french fries and nachos for lunch might dissuade students

from making health choices. If teachers and administrators emphasize

the importance of math tests or AP credits over the importance of daily

physical activity, students are less likely to make health their priority.

While health is ultimately up to the individual, a school environment

might influence students to make positive choices based on the

opportunities surrounding them. The second domain of this project is

school environment. This project will look at examples of existing

school health programs, and will consider the role that educators and

the school environment might play in addressing national health issues.

Currently, many schools across the nation are restructuring their

Physical Education courses. These positive changes in physical

education curriculum are gaining a lot of media attention, especially in

light of this American health crisis. Still, the burden of teaching a

healthy life is typically left in the hands of the health educators and the

physical educators. By doing this, educators are suggesting that the

disciplines of health are only meant for health subject courses.

Education researchers have explored the effects of combining

curriculum in other academic areas. For example, students study

Economics in History, Calculus in Physics, and Literature in Foreign

Language. Therefore, the final domain of this project is integrated

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curriculum, as the goals for physical health could be a priority for all

educators.

It should be noted that the contents of health and physical

education are broad. Therefore, this project will focus primarily on

nutrition and physical activity. There are many additional topics for

adolescent health, such as alcohol and drug use, sexual health, social

and emotional health, and so on. This project will also limit the

discussion of nutrition education in terms of making healthy food

choices, but will not address the complexities of issues such as anorexia

and bulimia in teenagers. Furthermore, a great deal of the research on

these topics does not differentiate between primary and secondary

education, and often generalizes findings to both populations. While the

main concern of this project is education in a secondary setting,

research on programs in primary education is included. The primary

education programs may serve as guidelines and a frame of reference

for what may or may not work for adolescent programs.

The American health crisis

Health statistics regarding Americans and recent trends in obesity

are startling. For the first time in our Nation’s history, some states are

reporting over 20% of the adult population as obese. The medical

definition of obese is based on a person’s Body Mass Index (BMI), which

is a number determined by calculating weight in kilograms divided by

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the square of height in meters. A BMI of 18.5 up to 25 commonly refers

to a healthy weight, a BMI between 25 and 30 refers to overweight and

a BMI of 30 or higher refers to obese (The Endocrine Society, 2006,

Obesity Basics section, chart). For most people, being 30 pounds over

the recommended weight range for your height constitutes obesity. A

limitation in using the BMI as an indicator of health is that is does not

account for increased muscle mass (Taras and Potts-Datema, 2005). In

addition, some researchers use a more limited weight range when

discussing children’s health issues because children’s weight ranges are

actually smaller than adult weight ranges. The BMI does not reflect this

smaller overall weight range. Despite a few inconsistencies of this

measurement, the BMI is a relatively reliable indicator of a person’s

health in relation to their weight.

The effects of excess weight reach far. People who are overweight

or obese often suffer a number of related health problems. According to

the Surgeon General, one out of every eight deaths in America is caused

by an illness directly related to overweight and obesity (Surgeon

General, 2003, paragraph 5). In fact, obesity contributes to the number-

one cause of death in our nation: heart disease. Excess weight is also

linked to diabetes, some cancers, sexual health problems, sleep apnea,

asthma, depression and a variety of social issues. (Taras and Potts-

Datema, 2005).

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Our nation’s weight problems are also taking a major toll on our

economy. According to a study sponsored by the Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention (CDC), obesity-related medical expenditures in

the United States reached $75 billion in 2003 (U.S Congress, 2004).

One example of a costly weight-related disease is diabetes. In a recent

report, the surgeon general suggests that excess weight has led to an

increased number of people living with Type II diabetes, since this

disease is often caused by excess weight. People with Type II diabetes

also suffer additional health problems, such as eye diseases,

cardiovascular problems, kidney failure, and early death. Given the

number of people living with diabetes and its associated medical

problems, each year, this condition costs America an estimated $132

billion (U.S. Congress, 2004).

There are trends in childhood and adolescent health that suggest

that the situation may become even worse. According to the CDC,

childhood and adolescent obesity rates (ages 6-19) have increased 4-fold

in the past two decades (Taras & Potts-Datema, 2005). For the first

time ever noted, people are developing Type II diabetes in their youth.

According to Dr. Kenneth Cooper, an expert in health and physical

fitness, “The Baylor College of Medicine has even reported that children

who develop Type II diabetes before 14 years of age may be shortening

their life span by 17 to 27 years” (U.S. Congress, 2004). Given the

current costs of treating adults with obesity-related illnesses, our

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country can expect those costs to increase as this generation of youth

reaches adulthood.

Despite the negative impact of overweight lifestyles, the damage

is not always permanent. According to the American Obesity

Association (AOA), “Weight loss of about 10% of body weight, for

persons with overweight or obesity, can improve some obesity-related

medical conditions including diabetes and hypertension.” (AOA, 2006,

paragraph 1). While the current trends are pessimistic, change is still

possible. This health crisis is capturing the attention of the media and

therefore becoming perceptible to Americans. In addition, the federal

government is on board and is working to make changes for the benefit

of the American health and economy. Between the Childhood Obesity

Prevention Act, the Child Nutrition bill, the School Nutrition

Association, Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004, the

involvement of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Alliance

for Nutrition and Activity, the U.S. Department of Health & Human

Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and any of the

hundreds more organizations dedicated to this cause, the government is

actively searching for solutions to cure the American obesity epidemic.

Part of the problem of addressing this issue is pinpointing what

exactly needs to change. Experts debate whether the biggest problem

in our culture is poor diet, or whether the biggest problem is a lack of

physical activity. Medical experts now know more than ever about the

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combination of genetic, social, metabolic, and environmental factors

that play a role in a person’s weight. Still, the issue frequently

returns to the fact that many people are eating too much and moving

too little. An article by the Associated Press (2006) recently stated that

some experts are blaming soda and sugar-sweetened beverages for

weight gain, as a study found that one of every five calories in the

average American diet is liquid. “The nation’s single biggest ‘food’ is

soda, and nutrition experts have long demonized it” (Associated Press,

2006). The soda blame is only one theory, however, and many schools

have recently begun to ban the soda machines all together. Other

theories include an increased consumption of fast food, larger portion

sizes and families who fail to make time to sit down and eat meals at

home.

There are some areas in which our nation has had success in

terms of nutrition health. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has

recently mandated that all nutrition information includes a breakdown

of fats, including how much trans fat is in the food. Trans fat is often

included in packaged foods in order to increase their shelf life. Trans

fat, along with saturated fat, is known to raise low-density lipoprotein

(LDL) cholesterol levels, which contributes to health problems such as

cardiovascular disease. The government is making an effort to get more

information out to people regarding the food they are consuming.

However, these efforts will have little effect if people are not also

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learning the importance of nutrition labels and also learning how to read

those labels. Part of the reason that current health trends are

continuing to decline is that the major information providers of our

country, particularly schools and the media, may not be providing

adequate information or positive influence.

Lack of physical activity could be an equal or greater contributor

to America’s health problems. This generation appears to be more

sedentary than ever. According to the CDC, two out of three Americans

are not active at recommended levels (CDC, 2006, paragraph 1).

Furthermore, a study by the University of Hong Kong and the

Department of Health found that being inactive could be more

hazardous for a person’s health than smoking (News Target, 2006,

paragraph 1). According to this study, 20% of all deaths of people older

than 35 were a result of a lack of physical activity. Some research is

also suggesting that physical activity might be more significant than

weight in terms of a person’s health. In a study published by the Annals

of Epidemiology, Carlos J. Crespo, Dr.P.H., associate professor of social

and preventive medicine in the University at Buffalo's School of

Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, states,

Our findings confirm that, independent of other known risk

factors, such as hypertension, high cholesterol and smoking,

physical activity exerts positive health benefits independent of

body weight. The benefit may derive from the fact that regular

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moderate physical activity, no matter how much you weigh,

appears to stimulate the immune system, improve insulin

sensitivity and increase bone density, among other positive

effects. These findings send a strong message that everyone

should strive to be active in some way (Senior Journal, 2006,

paragraph 5).

Even though the health benefits of physical activity are clear, many

adults still choose not to exercise.

The number of sedentary adults is likely to increase as children

and adolescents are failing to develop active life habits. According to

Casazza and Ciccazzo (2006), the CDC has reported that less than 50%

of adolescents are physically active on a regular basis. The benefits that

children and adolescents could receive from an active lifestyle are not

only long-term, but could also affect their immediate lives. Dr. Kenneth

Cooper of the Cooper Institute conducted a study of 953,000 children

aged fifth grade through ninth grade for the National Association for

Sports and Physical Education and found that, “physically active

children had improved self-esteem, were better able to handle adversity,

and had better problem-solving skills” (U.S Senate, 2005). According to

a literature review conducted by Taras and Potts-Datema (2005),

“overweight and obese children are more likely to have low self-esteem

and [have] higher rates of anxiety disorders, depression and other

psychopathology” (p. 292). Many children and adolescents are failing to

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learn behaviors and practices that are paramount to their adult lives.

What is unclear is where the breakdown of information dissemination is

occurring.

Healthy School Environments

One way to combat obesity in America is to create healthier living

environments. As schools are a direct extension of children and

adolescents’ living environments, educators might address health issues

with their students not only through curriculum, but also through the

school campus as a whole. Some ideas of what constitutes a healthy

school environment is an environment in which lessons address topics of

nutrition and physical fitness, where a variety of quality lunch items are

offered which meet students’ dietary needs and where teachers and

administrators go out of their way to emphasize student wellness as a

priority.

One barrier against creating healthy school environments could be

the failure to communicate to teachers and administrators the relevant

findings in health-related topics and the failure to emphasize teachers’

roles in environmental programs. In addition, while there has been a

great deal of research conducted in relation to the adolescent health

crisis, little research has evaluated programs beyond health courses and

physical education. Teachers could use their position as leaders to

promote a higher awareness of health issues to all students in all class

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environments. Clark and McCormack (2006) of the American School

Health Association claim, “There is considerable need to build the base

of evidence-based knowledge regarding school health programs and to

provide an environment in which school health research is of high

quality, yet meaningful and useful” (p. 38). A lot of the research about

school health programs is inconclusive, or fails to provide sound

evidence of the program’s success or failure. Most programs

implemented today are still in an experimental stage, and there is little

organization to coordinate research in regards to the effectiveness of

these programs. Still, the direction of the research on these issues is

changing. Taras and Potts-Datema (2005) recently reviewed a small

sample of the existing literature on how obesity affects student

performance at school. Their general conclusion was that, “despite the

current lack of understanding about the directionality of the association

between obesity and poor school performance, the fact that there is an

association may be adequate to influence change in school policies and

practices” (p. 292). The research is clear that the environments need to

change, but little research shows what changes could be most effective.

There are many challenges that a school faces in trying to create

or maintain a healthy learning and living environment. Despite efforts,

the Department of Agriculture has found that scarcely any school-age

children and adolescents meet all scientific recommendations for a

sound diet (U.S. Senate, 2004). Healthy diets include foods that are

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high in nutrients, low in saturated and trans fats, and that provide a

good source of energy. While the failure to choose healthy foods may be

a result of availability and personal preference, it is also likely that

many Americans lack the general knowledge of how their food choices

affect their health. Schools, in particular, are paramount to addressing

this problem, as many sources have indicated that the food provided at

schools is sometimes the best a child has all day (U.S Senate, 2004;

NANA, 2006; NASBE, 2006). According to Karen Johnson, the former

School Nutrition Association President and Director of Child Nutrition

Programs in Yuma, Arizona, “The current Federal reimbursement rate

for a free lunch is $2.24 per meal with an additional 17 cents in USDA

commodities. It is very challenging and often impossible to produce a

nutritious meal for that amount of money” (U.S Senate, 2005, p. 6). As a

result, a lot of the nutritional value is compromised in government

programs. These school lunch programs are under a lot of scrutiny, and

these programs continue to face the challenges of limited funding.

Lunch is not the only nutrition issue in schools. The option of

vending machines and a la carte options affects students’ diets.

According to Johnson, “It is the shortfall in the Federal reimbursement

rate that has in great part led to the introduction and expansion of other

food items through a la carte lines and vending operations.” (U.S

Senate, 2005, p. 6). In fact, schools are hesitant to eliminate soda

machines when these companies are providing such a large source of

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revenue for the schools. The question remains, however, that even if

the school is able to offer nutritious options, will these be the options

that students choose? Dr. Kenneth Cooper, who is best known as the

father of aerobics, has mused “You could put all the vending machines

at the bottom of the ocean. It will have no effect on the obesity

problem” (U.S. Congress, 2004, p. 47). Cooper believes that the issue

has more to do with changing children’s habits by educating them on

the right choices.

The key issue with students’ health and the school environment is

that students spend the majority of their waking time at school.

According to research collected by the U.S. Department of Health and

Human Services entitled Healthy People 2010, “Research suggests that

parents who understand proper nutrition can help children in preschool

choose healthful foods, but they have less influence on the choices of

school-aged children” (Healthy People 2010, Focus Area 19). In other

words, schools might be the number one place for children and

adolescents to learn healthy habits. According to a survey by the

Healthy People 2010 report, in 1994, only 69 percent of States and 80

percent of school districts required nutrition education for students in at

least some grades from kindergarten through 12th grade (Healthy People

2010, Focus Area 19). Given that Illinois is the only State that mandates

four years of physical education in high school, little has changed since

then. School is the environment where students could have a great deal

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of opportunity to explore a variety of health-related issues, and some

schools are failing to provide this opportunity.

Physical Education is one arena in which some schools have been

having a great deal of success. Illinois is not only a model for physical

education because of mandatory PE, but also because it is the home

state of Phil Lawler and the PE4Life program that was piloted in his

school district. Lawler’s ideas, and his school program, emphasize

fitness over raw athletic ability. His program uses new technology to

help students monitor their personal fitness levels and every student

keeps their own fitness portfolio beginning in Junior High. To date,

Lawler’s School District has spent $450,000 on high-tech P.E. tools for

junior and senior high school students. What is unique about Lawler’s

program in terms of the school environment as a whole is that students

create health portfolios that ascend with them from year to year.

Therefore, their success in any given year of physical education does not

end with the conclusion of that course.

Lawler’s program has been mimicked at schools all over the

nation, many of which are bragging about their success. One prime

example is Tim McCord’s school district in Pennsylvania. His school

implemented the PE4Life program in a small blue-collar town of 6,000,

where funding is often an issue. His program has utilized creative

outreach strategies such as receiving a $12,000 donation from a local

health insurance provider to upgrade the technology offered in their

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school’s physical education classes. Some of these technologies include

heart rate monitors, body fat calculators and arcade dance machines.

McCord personally believes that there is a connection between the

PE4Life program and a perceived reduction of bullying and fighting in

their schools (U.S. Congress, 2004, p. 46). This is a prime example of

how changes in a school could potentially affect the health of the entire

school environment, as well as the outlying community.

PE4Life means working together with the whole community. In

Titusville, the local hospital conducts an annual health fair at our

middle school. Senior citizens exercise in our high school fitness

center during the day. The PE department and the central blood

bank conduct blood drives to support our hospital three times a

year (U.S Congress, 2004, p. 19).

School environments extend to students’ home environments and,

therefore, a mindful school incorporates the rest of the community in

the educational process. The dedication of families and the community

helps to reinforce the health lessons that students are learning while at

school.

Positive programs outside academic curriculum have been

implemented in schools as well. Natural Ovens Bakery, an organic

baking company, has implemented a lunch program in schools all over

Wisconsin. Natural Ovens hires and trains the cooks for a school, and

then provides the menus and prepares the lunches. Menus include

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natural, organic foods that are low in sugar, low in fat, and have a

balanced amount of carbohydrates and protein. Unbalanced meals that

are too high in carbohydrates and other sugars often cause people to

have short spurts of energy immediately followed by extreme tiredness.

One aim of the Natural Ovens menus is to provide healthy foods in order

to positively affect learning behaviors. The pilot school has reported

many positive effects of this program, especially as it is a school

specifically designed for students with behavioral disorders. Says

principal LuAnn Coenen, "I can't buy the argument that it's too costly

for schools to provide good nutrition for their students. I found that one

cost will reduce another. I don't have the vandalism. I don't have the

litter. I don't have the need for high security” (Natural Ovens, 2006,

Section 3). According to Natural Ovens President, Dr. Barbara Reed

Stitt, the cost for turning around a school lunch program is an additional

$20,000 per year for five years.

Another similar and very famous example of nutrition in schools is

the work of Jamie Oliver in England, who is popularly known as the

Naked Chef. Oliver has started programs all across England that offer

affordable, natural and organic foods for schools. With a recent study

finding one in four English children to be obese, it is clear that they are

suffering from similar problems as the United States (Feed Me Better,

2006, “Why FMB”). Oliver’s manifesto, which he calls “Feed Me Better”

(2005), includes making the profession of cooking at schools a more

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respectable and well-trained position. Oliver has claimed, “training will

keep [the cooks] motivated, in touch with each other, and up-to-date

with new nutritional advice, healthy menus and kitchen management

skills, (Feed Me Better, 2006, “Manifesto for Change”). Oliver also

advocates for a school-wide approach to food education he advocates for

teaching kids how food is grown, where it comes from, how it varies

throughout different cultures, how foods affect people, and he believes

that classroom curriculum could be used to do this.

Another example of how lunch programs are moving toward a

healthy school environment is a program implemented by the U.S.

Department of Agriculture and Forestry called the Fruits and

Vegetables Program. The program was initiated as part of the 2002

Farm Bill and the idea was to provide free fruits and vegetables that are

available all day, anywhere in the building. The purpose was to provide

students with an alternative to vending machines, and to make these

alternatives appealing by eliminating the cost. In a 2005 Senate hearing

on school nutrition programs, Senator Tom Harkin reported that at the

schools he visited in Iowa –- one of the eight States to provide this

program – students were eating a variety of the fruits and vegetables

provided, and the teachers claimed students were calmer and better

behaved (U.S Senate, 2005). Keeping students satiated, and using foods

that are low in refined sugars could be contributing to students’

attentiveness. There was no research conducted as to the exact

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effectiveness of this program, but a similar program, the Michigan

Farm-to-School Program, has made additional claims as to the

importance of fruits and vegetables in schools. The purpose of Farm-to-

School is to connect schools with local farms, in order to simultaneously

support local economies as well as provide nutrition to schools. In a

2004 survey evaluating the potential effectiveness and limitations of this

program, the research team suggests that nutrition education can be

supplemented by providing an environment where students can apply

classroom-taught skills (Izumi, Ostant, Moss and Hamm, 2004).

Students not only learn about healthy foods, but they are provided a

lunch environment where they can choose those foods. In addition, the

schools provide a viable way to address local economic issues.

Any of these programs outside of health and physical education

curriculum are examples of school and community wide efforts to

address health problems of children and adolescents. The federal

government has recognized the importance of having comprehensive

programs in schools that move outside the boundaries of the content of

subject-specific lessons. In the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization

Act of 2004, the U.S. Congress established a requirement that all

schools with a federally-funded meal program must develop and

implement wellness policies that address nutrition and physical activity

by the start of the 2006-2007 school year (NANA, 2006). The

government has defined a wellness policy as a policy that includes goals

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for nutrition education, physical activity, and nutrition guidelines for

foods available on the school campus (U.S Senate, 2005). The exact

contents of the policy are left up to school administrators, teachers and

members of the local school community.

The government purposefully left the guidelines for developing

these policies lenient, so that local communities could address local

needs through these policies. Therefore, these policies may be lacking

in tried practices, prioritization of issues, rubrics for assessment and

implementation plans. Still, the National Alliance for Nutrition and

Activity has developed a model school wellness policy that schools can

use as a resource for developing their own policies that provide

guidance toward addressing these issues (2006). Additionally, the

National Association of State Boards of Education has made a policy

guide for healthy schools as well. NASBE claims that their policy guide

complements the Center for Disease Control’s school health guidelines

and provides scientifically reliable information on what constitutes an

effective health program (2006). As with any research in education, the

determination that a program is effective is dependent upon many

factors that may not necessarily apply to all schools. Still, it is

encouraging that the policy-makers who are involved with wellness

policies are relying on research to guide the direction of schools’ health

policies. Another encouraging fact, as emphasized by NANA, is that in

order to develop these policies, schools are needing to conduct baseline

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assessments of their existing environments. These assessments may

provide additional research for future studies on the effectiveness of

these policies and a measurable way to track the overall progress of

American schools utilizing these policies.

Interdisciplinary Studies and Integrated Curriculum

Most of the programs outlined above highlight educational reform

either within health curriculum itself or within programs in the schools

independent of classes. However, there are examples of curriculum that

have been implemented in schools that aims to bring health concepts

into courses outside of the domain of health education. While most of

this curriculum has been designed for elementary or middle school

children, there may be potential to develop more ideas that could apply

to high schools as well.

One example of a curriculum is Eat Well & Keep Moving (1999),

which was designed as a nutrition and physical activity curriculum

aimed at building lifelong healthy habits in upper elementary school

students. The book focuses on classroom lessons, but lessons can also

reinforce healthy practices in the cafeteria, gymnasium, home, and

community (Cheung, Gortmaker and Dart, 2001). According to a 1999

study in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, the Eat Well

& Keep Moving curriculum was founded in social cognitive theory,

(Gortmaker et al, 1999). The purpose of the curriculum is to provide

26

students with the knowledge and the skills to change their behaviors

outside of the classroom. In the findings of this particular study, the

researchers found a marginal decrease of television watching and an

improved dietary intake for students that included less fat, more fruits

and vegetables, increased vitamin C and increased dietary fiber. The

researchers attribute a lot of these changes to the interdisciplinary

approach of the curriculum (1999).

There is not complete agreement on how to define

interdisciplinary studies or what they should entail. The approach in

Eat Well & Keep Moving was to,

integrate the intervention into existing school structures and

curricula via an interdisciplinary approach using classroom

teachers. Materials were developed that fit into math, science,

language arts, and social studies classes and provided links to the

school food service and physical education activities (Gortmaker

et al, 1999, p. 4).

The point is to extend ideas across subject lines so that students are not

learning topics independent of each other. Research has shown that

there are positive effects to learning across disciplines. Oliver and

Schofield (2006) claim, “[making] the concept of improved health

through an active lifestyle relevant to all disciplines… is not a new

concept in education. Evidence exists to support the academic and

27

social benefits of integrating general disciplines” (p. 74). To this end,

the Healthy People 2010 initiative suggests,

Nutrition should be taught as part of a comprehensive school

health education program, and essential nutrition education topics

should be integrated into science and other curricula to reinforce

principles and messages learned in the health units (Focus Area

19).

There are educators, however, who warn against modifying the

existing curriculum to try and weave two disciplines together. Learning

may be compromised in either subject if contents of a particular lesson

are lost or confused in the integration. In addition, teachers and

curriculum designers in secondary education rely a great deal on the

division of academic subjects. Drake (2004) evaluates the possibility of

meeting standards through these kinds of curriculum. “For secondary

teachers, the organizational structure of the department is a large

obstacle to collaborating with others” (p. 18). Oliver and Schofield

(2006) speak more specifically on this issue, noting, “these limitations

are especially applicable to physical education lessons, as content

knowledge in this area is often weaker than traditional disciplines of

mathematics and English,” (p. 75). A Math, for example, could teach the

equation used to calculate a person’s optimal heart-rate range for

exercise, but that teacher may not be completely knowledgeable on the

benefits of exercising in that heart-rate zone.

28

In the Healthy People 2010 initiative, these interdisciplinary

limitations are expressed more as an objective, stating, “Nutrition

course work should be part of the core curriculum for the professional

preparation of teachers of all grades and should be emphasized in

continuing education activities for teachers” (Focus Area 19). Rewriting

or restructuring any curriculum is a lengthy process that involves many

trials. The potential for Math, History or Language teachers to adapt

their curriculum to include motivation and information on the

importance of nutrition and physical activity is completely dependent

upon that teacher’s own content knowledge on health education as well

as his or her ability to collaborate with the health and physical

education instructors. While the educational benefits of

interdisciplinary curriculum exist, the limitations of structure, planning,

and teacher knowledge are hard to overcome.

Another example of the effectiveness of an interdisciplinary

approach to health education in an elementary school was a study in

which students tracked their daily steps using pedometers. In this study

by Oliver and Schofield (2006), New Zealand primary school children

wore pedometers for a six-week intervention period. First, the school

provided pedometers to track student steps. Then, the researchers

initiated an intervention during which the school offered a variety of

activities aimed at increasing the number of student steps as well as

limiting activities such as television watching. Their findings were that

29

throughout the intervention period of this project, students significantly

increased their daily step number. The study also questioned whether

students reduced their daily caloric intake. One advantage of this

particular study was that the use of pedometers made the findings

measurable. Despite limitations such as the lack of a longitudinal study,

this research demonstrates that integrating physical and health

education into students’ lives is a valid and researchable topic. These

studies could broaden to include more secondary level studies, as well

as long-term studies.

The major difference between the Oliver and Schofield study and

the practice of linking subject-specific curriculum is that this study

measured the effects on activities and disciplines beyond the classroom

content areas. One goal of interdisciplinary studies is to help students

find connections between subjects and beyond classrooms, and it is just

one component of what some researchers have defined more broadly as

integrated curriculum. The concept of integrated curriculum in

education has been around for over a century. Beane (1997) defines

integrated curriculum as,

a design theory that is concerned with enhancing the possibilities

for personal and social integration through the organization of

curriculum around significant problems and issues, collaboratively

identified by educators and young people, without regard for

subject-area lines (p. 19).

30

Some researchers define this as teaching around themes, or as teaching

toward the demands for society. For example, the face of education

changed dramatically throughout the Industrial Revolution, as people

realized that there were new demands to be met by workers versus

intellectuals. That notion of integrated curriculum has broadened

significantly over the past century, but the term is still used to

demonstrate the need to teach topics that are applicable to problems,

irrelevant of any predefined school subject.

Bonds (1993) even goes as far as to define this kind of curriculum

as “synergistic pedagogy,” that is, “a process of teaching whereby all

the school subjects are related and taught in such a manner that they

are almost inseparable” (p. 3). Another way of describing this approach

toward curriculum is to call the learning holistic. Holistic means

emphasizing the importance of the whole and the interdependence of its

parts. In the case of education, the parts are the subjects or the

disciplines, and the whole is the interconnectedness of these topics. In

the case of teaching students to have healthy lives, a holistic approach

would be to deemphasize the health class itself, and them permeate

other courses with its subject matter. For example, cover all the topics

of health education by teaching how to use physical technology in

technology classes, teaching the affects of nutrition in anatomy classes,

teach the history of American health in social studies courses, teach the

31

effects of health insurance and health prevention in economics classes

and so on.

While some of these ideas are overwhelming in terms of

evaluating existing secondary curriculum, some concepts may still be

useful in small steps. For example, addressing real-world problems in

courses is a way of integrating the curriculum, yet it does not require

completely eliminating the existing design. The surgeon general has

advocated for teaching students and adults better “health literacy,”

which has been described as “the ability of an individual to access,

understand, and use health-related information and services to make

appropriate health decisions” (Surgeon General, 2006, paragraph 44).

While this seems like an obvious goal of health education, it includes the

important implication that health is the ends and education is the

means. The health of our country is a social problem, and education

using integrated curriculum can address that problem through health

education and interdisciplinary studies.

Conclusion

The literature existing on the topics of the American health crisis,

healthy school environments and the role of integrated curriculum

continues to grow. As the public becomes more involved with these

issues, there is a greater need for educational research on these topics.

This project will look at how the American health crisis pertains to

32

schools and to adolescents. In the domain of healthy school

environments, this project will look at an example of a school where the

physical education program has earned national acclaim for its success.

Finally, this project will explore the possibilities and limitations of

integrating physical education with one to two other high school

subjects. The question of focus for this project will be: “What changes

can be made in high school classrooms and the high school environment

in order to promote student health?”

Data Collection

I thought that the most obvious place to start with my data

collection was at a school that I had found through my Literature

Review. I found a school in the Chicago suburbs that I will refer to as

“Townsville High School”. Their physical education department has

earned a national reputation. In addition, this school has a unique

program that is called “Zero Hour PE” in which freshmen at the school

who have scored poorly on Literacy tests may elect to take a 7:00 am

Physical Education class that incorporates vocabulary drills into their

physical activities. I wanted to see this class first-hand, as it speaks to

curriculum integration, and I wanted to see what this school’s reputable

33

physical education department looked like. Therefore, my first method

of data collection was observations. I received signed consent from the

assistant principal at the school to do research there.

While at Townsville, I planned initially to interview the Physical

Education Department Chair, Dave S., who helped get the Zero Hour

program off the ground. I prepared several questions (See Appendix A)

and the interview lasted approximately forty minutes. I received signed

consent from him to tape -record and transcribe his interview. In my

preliminary research on the high school, I also found contact

information for Michael Davis, math teacher, freshman boys’ soccer

coach, director of the intramural program, and faculty leader for the

Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) at their school. I thought that

Michael might be an insightful person to talk to as he has experiences

both with Math and with students who volunteer to be active outside of

school. I developed an interview protocol for Michael as well (See

Appendix C) and we spoke for approximately thirty minutes. I also

received signed consent from him to tape-record and transcribe the

interview.

What I did not realize prior to visiting Townsville was that the

Physical Education Department and the Math Department were in

discussions to have a pre-algebra class that would incorporate

movement and activity into the curriculum next year. Michael is the

teacher they have asked to teach that course. Without even meaning to,

34

I found myself interviewing a teacher who would be teaching a class

next year that could answer so much of my Master’s Project Question.

After finding this out, I met Jim Richards, the Math Department Chair,

to do a quick interview with him. He happily agreed. I hoped to find out

more about how the PE Department and Math Department came to

work together. In addition, I was given two articles regarding using

movement I the classroom. I also looked over a lesson that one of the

department’s teachers had developed for integrating math and physical

education based on a lesson in Prentice Hall Algebra (See Appendix E).

I did not have much time to prepare interview questions for Jim, so our

interview was a brief ten minutes. Once again, consent was provided to

tape-record and transcribe the interview.

After doing observations and speaking to teachers, I felt that my

project could benefit from having student input. That is how I decided

to conduct a focus group at a local high school, “Whitfield High School”.

I conducted a Q-Sort in order to initiate discussion in the focus group. I

had enough tools for a ten-person Q-Sort and prepared cards that had

thirty prompts, one prompt per card (see Appendix D). The prompts

were statements which included topics on student interest in physical

activity, student interest in Mathematics, and student knowledge of

nutrition. For example, one prompt said, “I like the way that I feel when

I am active,” and another said “I use Math every day”. I asked the

students to sort the cards into 3 piles based on the statements that were

35

never true for them, the statements that were sometimes true for them

and the statements that were always true for them. If they had any

statement remaining at that point, I applied them to the “sometimes”

pile.

After collecting all the Q-Sort cards, I opened the students up to a

discussion that I tape-recorded. I had hoped that the students would

take more initiative in the discussion, but instead the discussion

required a great deal of prompting. The Q-Sort lasted approximately

five minutes and the discussion lasted approximately ten minutes.

Ethics Statement

While I believe that this topic is important and valid for research, I

went into this data collection of this project with the understanding that

particular aspects of this research could be difficult. First and foremost,

researching students’ health and fitness is a very personal issue and I

realized that not all students would be comfortable with questions

regarding their personal choices. Therefore, I chose to limit my

interaction with students in this study.

Furthermore, while making observations at schools is not a

confrontational action, I was concerned that asking too many questions

to the teachers at the schools could seem presumptuous or critical. I

wanted to be sure that the teachers knew that my questions and

curiosities were not meant as a criticism for the way in which their

36

schools or departments were being run. I wanted to be sure that

teachers and administrators understood that I was simply looking for a

better understanding of how their classes have been run and that any

comparisons made between schools and classes would simply be

observations and not judgments.

My final ethical concern in this project was to be careful in making

generalizations or predictions for the future. Since the program I was

observing was in its first year, and since the program in Math that I

discussed with Michael had not even begun, I was afraid that making

too many assumptions about how the new curriculum and new

scheduling ideas will affect student learning could be flat-out wrong. I

also did not want to make statements about how the Pre-Algebra

teacher will run his class next year, because he has not yet determined

all of his lessons and I did not want to influence his choices for his

classroom.

Analysis and Interpretation

For each of the three interviews, I coded the data, looking at

several themes and breaking down each theme into sub-themes. For the

Zero Hour PE class observations as well as the Townsville facility tour

observations, I coded my notes using the same themes as in the

interviews. Other, smaller themes emerged from the observations, but

37

these were not as prevalent in the interviews. Finally, for the Q-sort

conducted with the student focus group, ten students were able to

participate. I took their responses to the thirty prompts and gave a

value of zero for any time a student answered “Never” to the prompt.

The response “Sometimes” scored one point, and the response “Always”

scored two points. I then totaled these number for each of the thirty

prompts based on how the students answered (See Figure 1.0 below). I

then ranked these prompts from lowest to highest in order to analyze

the responses. I also transcribed our discussion and coded the

transcription using the same themes as in the previous two data sets.

The three themes that emerged more than any others were 1)

Physical Education as a tool for academic success, 2) School-wide

dedication to health and wellness and 3) Resources available at schools.

38

Figure 1.1 - Q-Sort Prompt Ranking

0 5 10 15 20147

10131619222528

Prompt # (see Appensix D)

Q-Sort Score

1)THEME: Physical activity as a tool for academic achievement

Interviews

Analysis:

Each of the three interviewees mentioned the potential correlation

between physical education, or just physical activity, and academic

performance. My first interview was with Dave Sanders, who is the

Physical Education Department Chair who initiated the Zero Hour PE

Program. Dave frequently mentioned brain research and the emerging

claims that physical activity affects learning. “One of the things we

learned from [a Harvard brain researcher] is that anytime you do an

aerobic workout you manufacture new brain cells. We didn’t know that

39

five years ago.” The Mathematics Department chair, Jim Richards,

discussed this as well. “More than a wellness awareness, it’s taking it

even a step further and seeing how can we increase academic

performance for these students who struggle…what we’re looking at in

the math class is more ways we can get students out of their seats…

create more blood flow to the brain.” Both Dave and Jim talk about

physical activity in terms of academic performance.

Dave talked about how physical education may relate to other

academic disciplines. He first stated that class scheduling matters.

Dave talked about changes being made to next year’s Townsville

schedule that will allow for students to take early hour PE classes, and

then follow those PE classes with subjects they are struggling in,

specifically Literacy this year and additionally Math beginning next

year. The school is targeting student who are performing poorly on

standardized Reading and/or Mathematics tests. The scheduling

concept is to provide at least an hour of very intensive cardiovascular

exercise throughout the week. Since the school provides heart-rate

monitors, the teachers can gauge the physical effort of the students.

Dave’s theory is that cardiovascular activity helps get students’ brains

working by providing additional blood-flow to their brain and throughout

their bodies, and helps them feel more alert and ready-to-learn in class.

Jim Richards also spoke about scheduling goals and referred to

next year’s Pre-Algebra class as a case study. “We’re looking at the

40

time of day they have physical activity and how it can affect their

performance in their academic class.” The Pre-Algebra teacher I

interviewed, Michael Davis, who also oversees the intramural program,

also suggested looking at the time of day students exercise in relation to

their learning. “Is there any way you can look at a student, or study a

student who does an intramural before school? To me, that’d be

interesting, because they have days that they’re doing intramurals and

they’re up in the morning and they’re active. So what happens the rest

of the day?” Dave reiterated these points, “Let’s not miss the

component of getting kids ready to learn. And that readiness is, again,

activity. Blood flowing to the brain. The more you sit on your butt, the

less there is.” All three teachers mentioned physical activity in relation

to learning in other subjects.

The second idea is that moving and learning can take place

simultaneously. Dave suggested that for math lessons, students could

do activities such as balancing on ladders, or playing activities that

require cross-lateral movements in order to stimulate the brain.

According to Dave, “Anytime you cross the mid-line of your body, and do

things opposite, then that makes synapses of the brain make those

connections across the lobes of the brain.” Michael also hypothesized

on a connection between movement and learning. “I think I’ve become

more and more aware of movement because my daughter is kinesthetic.

She has to be. For her to learn better, she really has to get up, she has

41

to be physical.” Michael talked about how he believes it is worthwhile

to try new teaching methods even if those methods only reach a few

students who were never engaged by other methods. Jim suggested

another idea that is still in its infancy. “We’ve talked about ways of

having some content video for Mathematics that students are watching

while they’re cycling.”

In all three discussions involving how physical activity could have

an effect on other content areas, all three teachers spoke mostly of

students who have been performing below average in the content area.

For Zero Hour PE, the school used the same test that they use to

identify students reading below average in order to test whether the

Zero Hour PE class was succeeding. Dave said the Literacy teachers

found “the Zero Hour kids improved half a year more than the grade

equivalent Literacy kids.” Jim said that standardized tests would be

used as assessment for the pre-algebra course next year as well. “Those

who are involved in the physical education class earlier in the morning

will be compared to the ones who are not.”

Interpretation:

These three teachers are suggesting that physical education be

used as a means to education, not necessarily an end. In other words,

physical education can be used to improve other subject performance.

It is not just about learning the subject of physical education itself. The

42

programs at Townsville High School were developed to not only teach

students about physical education, but to utilize physical fitness in order

to improve student performance. Dave continually mentioned brain

research, which leads me to believe that these programs are founded in

more than just what they observe in schools, but also in broader

research that may not have been previously applied to academic

settings. A lot of what they anticipate about the Zero Hour PE program

is not founded in educational research, but founded in brain research

that has not necessarily been tested in educational settings. This point

was also emphasized in my review of the literature on this subject. As

cited previously from Clark and McCormack (2006), “There is

considerable need to build the base of evidence-based knowledge

regarding school health programs and to provide an environment in

which school health research is of high quality, yet meaningful and

useful” (p. 38). It seems that Townsville High School and Dave Sanders

are in the beginning stages of this process, as they are trying to use

scientific research to alter an academic setting.

In addition, the Zero Hour PE program is expanding for next year,

and it is reaching out to the Math Department. This is not necessarily a

signal that the program was completely and absolutely successful for

the Literacy students. After all, the data set for the Zero Hour PE

students is only fifteen students from the fall, and seven students from

the spring semester. The fact that the concepts are expanding to math

43

classes simply shows that there are at least two additional teachers at

Townsville (the Math department chair, Jim Richards and the Pre-

Algebra teacher, Michael Davis) who are willing to try something new

and who believe that the ideas could be successful.

The improvements of students in Zero Hour literacy classes may

be actual evidence that students who exercise while learning vocabulary

can learn the vocabulary better. This may be evidence for how doing

physical activities in conjunction with other subjects may contribute to

increased retention. If this is the case, it could be due to Dave’s theory

in how physical activity “gets kids ready to learn”, or it could be a result

of what Oliver and Schofield (2006) referred to as a more general

academic benefit of integrating disciplines. In other words, simply by

introducing Literacy topics in a non-Literacy class, students might retain

more knowledge because they are learning the subject in a new and

innovative environment. However, it is also possible that the success of

the Zero Hour students in the Zero Hour PE class is a result of those

students’ intrinsic dedication. The fact that the students arrive early for

this class is evidence that they might be willing to put more effort into

their Literacy class than the students who do not arrive early. This

could account for some of their success.

I noticed that all three teachers were talking about getting kids up

and moving early in the day in order to enhance learning. Michael had

ideas about intramurals. Jim had ideas about getting students up out of

44

their seats. Dave was the one who labeled the concept by calling it

“learning readiness”. In analyzing these discussions, I’ve noticed that

none of these teachers were focused on teaching students the specifics

about exercise. When talking about “learning readiness”, the main goal

was how can exercise affect academic achievement. The goal was not

how exercise can affect students’ health. This is not to say that

educators are not concerned with students’ health, but it is simply to say

that in these programs and these ideas, the idea is that healthy students

perform well. The idea is not to simply encourage students to be

healthy. In the Eat Well & Keep Moving study that I read for my

research, the authors were emphasizing how integrating health and

physical activity into other curricula could reinforce healthy practices.

My perception at Townsville is that the teachers and administrators are

more concerned with improving academic performance outside of

physical education. No one ever implied that using physical education

in Literacy or Math would improve students’ attitudes towards health

and fitness.

Jim stated that they’ve talked about having Math content videos to

watch while cycling. I interpret this to mean that understanding the

Math content is the goal with that type of activity. The goal is not to

improve cycling skills. Dave mentioned working with ladders or

balancing while trying to learn Math concepts. Again, I interpret that to

mean that learning balancing skills is not the goal. The goal is to learn

45

complex Math concepts. Michael mentioned his daughter who has to

move to learn. Again, in that situation, she would need to get up and

move to improve learning, not to improve physical fitness.

What also sticks out to me in my interpretation of this interview is

that the students who are being addressed are typically below-average

performers in Literacy or Math classes. I wonder if the effect of

physical activity on learning is limited to only certain kinds of reasoning.

It is hard to interpret whether the Zero Hour program is addressed at

students who are performing below average in Literacy because those

are the students who need enhanced curriculum, or if it is because the

same effects might not occur with students who are doing higher

reasoning. I cannot tell from the Townsville program alone whether

students who exercise in the morning could then do higher-level math,

or use logic better. These are things that would be beneficial for

students who are performing at an average or above average level.

Observations

Analysis:

While at Townsville high school, I saw several things that related

to the theme of physical activity and physical education and its effect on

other academic disciplines. The first thing I saw was the Zero Hour PE

class itself. During that particular Monday morning, the students did an

eleven-minute scooter activity where they rolled around the gymnasium

46

and tried to match laminated vocabulary words with the word roots and

their definitions. The exact rules of the game were not clear to me, as

some students would occasionally stop to do either push-ups or sit-ups.

The students did not complain. I saw the words “pacify”, “satiate”,

“industrious”, and “acclaim” as examples. There were also sheets with

smaller words such as “peace”, “sate”, and “claim.” There was both a

physical education teacher and a Literacy teacher present in the

gymnasium. There were 5 students in the class that day. On this

particular day, the students did not match all the words with their roots

and their definitions. Bob Davies, the PE teacher, said that on their best

day, they can match them all in eleven minutes.

According to Bob, the students would ideally not have had their

test-day on those particular words yet, but one girl in the class had

already been tested. Bob said “not all the Literacy teachers are on the

same page.” Bob also mentioned that the most frustrating aspect of this

class this past year was that he did not have enough time with them (30

minutes). He said students were frequently late because of

transportation. Next academic year, Bob is supposed to instruct the

same class, but it will be for the entire first-hour and there will be 30

students.

During my day at Townsville, I had the opportunity to see some of

the equipment that Dave had mentioned in his interview. This included

a wall-tapping game where lights blink and the students run from a line

47

in order to tap the lights with their opposite hand (light on left, tap with

right). He said the speed of the game is the challenge. It is both

aerobic, and requires hand-mind coordination. Dave also showed me

the chairs that their school recently purchased for the reading lab. They

have 15 ball-chairs, which are stability exercise balls that are somewhat

flat on the bottom, but still require sitting with a straight spine in order

to avoid rolling off of them. Dave stated that student posture is

supposed to improve from these chairs and that some researchers claim

that posture directly affects the spine which in turn affects learning.

Dave said that some administrators initially thought students would just

bounce on the chairs all day. Dave’s response, “Good. Then they’re at

least being active.”

Interpretation:

The frustration that the Zero Hour PE teacher had with the time

restraint tells me that this was not the only day when time mattered. In

my interpretation, I would pinpoint the time factor as the biggest

drawback of the Zero Hour PE class. Quite interestingly, Bob also

mentioned that not all the Literacy teachers are on the same page. This

corroborates the limitation of curriculum integration outlined by Drake

(2004), “For secondary teachers, the organizational structure of the

department is a large obstacle to collaborating with others” (p. 18). The

time of day seemed to be another drawback, but also a benefit at the

48

same time. Bob said students often missed or were late because of

transportation issues. This gave them even less time some days. The

benefit of that time period is that it means that the only students who

were signed up were the students who were actually dedicated to being

there that early (or at least their parents were dedicated to them being

there early). The other benefit was that on the days of the week that

they did cardiovascular exercise for Zero Hour (at least two days a

week) their subsequent classes may have been affected by their

heightened energy.

What seemed to be the biggest advantage was the class size. On

this particular day, there were only five students. Ordinarily, for 2nd

semester, there were seven students. Each student had to participate

fully, and got individual attention during the vocabulary matching game.

Next year he said they would have thirty kids in the first hour of the day.

I wonder whether each student will be given as much individualized

attention, and therefore, if they will see the same level of improvement

in the students Literacy scores. The major advantage of having

additional students is that they will have a larger sample to study in

order to gauge the success of the program.

Seeing some of the equipment that the PE department and the

reading lab had that was supposed to physically enhance academic

performance, I interpret that to mean that a lot of integration between

physical education and other academic areas will always depend on the

49

availability of resources. “Resources” is one of my later themes, but it is

worth mentioning here as well. In terms of using scheduling as a way to

increase academic performance by putting physical activity prior to

subjects where students struggle, that concept requires no additional

resources. However, a lot of the ideas mentioned for integrating

physical education during other academic subject, or vice versa, would

require games or equipment such as heart-rate monitors. In the very

least, this kind of integration would require additions, if not major

changes, to curriculum. Teachers would need to be knowledgeable of

the equipment being utilized and also the topics, both in physical

education and the other subject areas.

Focus Group - QSort

Analysis:

In relation to the theme of physical activity and academic

performance, I think that at least one Q-Sort prompt is relevant. The

prompt “I get bored or tired during school” elicited a score of 13, which

was higher than 17 other prompts. One student answered “Never” to

this prompt. 5 answered “Sometimes” and 4 answered “Always” (Figure

1.1). Similarly, but worded differently, the prompt “I like to sit in class

and listen” (Figure 1.2) scored relatively low (sixth). 5 students

answered they never liked to sit in class and listen. 4 answered

Sometimes, and one student answered Always.

50

Figure 1.2 - I get bored or tired during class

10%

50%

40%NeverSometimesAlways

Figure 1.3 - I like to sit in class and listen

50%

40%

10%

NeverSometimesAlways

When I asked students in the focus group who agreed that they

get tired during the school day, one student immediately shouted

“ALWAYS”, and other students laughed. But my analysis is that most

students could tie their tiredness directly to a particular situation at

51

school. For example, one student said he always got tired in a

particular teacher’s class. His classmate laughed and added “ALWAYS.

Like, half the period [the other student] is sleeping, then out of nowhere

he wakes up and is like ‘what does this mean?’” She then added that

the class she gets most tired in is Biology. When I asked whether the

focus group thought they got tired based on the class or based on the

time of day, some said the class, some said the time and one student

said “it could be both.” At least 4 of the students mentioned morning

class periods as times they were falling asleep or tired. I then asked

whether any students felt tired after lunch, and they said “no.”

I also asked the students more specific questions about how they

would feel about incorporating more physical activity into their days.

Most students responded that they prefer to be active instead of sitting

and listening. One student answered that he thinks he is running

around too much already during the day, since he has to run up and

down stairs between classes. I also asked students what they would

think about incorporating Math into PE class. They responded “we did

that already,” and immediately started spouting off an inequality (which

they incorrectly called an equation) for determining your maximum

heart-rate zone. The inequality is 0.6(220 – a) </= R </= 0.85(220 – a)

which provides a target heart rate (‘R) based on age (a). No single

student could give the exact statement, but I heard bits and pieces of it

coming from several of them.

52

Interpretation:

Getting bored or tired during school could be a result of many

conditions. Students may not be getting enough sleep. Students may

not be interested in the topics being discussed. The tiredness may also

be a physical condition. Students may have low blood sugar from

whatever they did or did not eat. Students may be athletes and may be

overworked. Students may not be getting enough exercise. Despite the

reasons for students being bored or tired during class, it happens to a

wide-range of students. The biggest culprit for their tiredness may be

too much sitting. If students were up out of their seats during learning,

they may automatically be more engaged. Or course, students may also

be less controlled and more rowdy if they are up out of their seats.

Regardless, I interpret student-tiredness as a need to find more

engaging lessons for students to participate in.

When the one student went against the majority and stated that he

felt like he was running around too much at school, I think that an

important point came forth. There are some students who might

actually be turned off or less responsive to lessons that involve physical

activity. It is important to remember that not all students are the same,

and that it is easy to get caught up in the theoretical benefits of a

53

particular teaching style and not notice that there are students who do

not fit the theories at all.

The fact that the students had already done an activity in gym

class that involved Math told me that there are probably other examples

of integration out there. The equation that the students referred to was

also used in the sample curriculum that Jim Richards provided me at

Townsville (see Appendix D). This tells me that more of these kinds of

lessons may already exist, but that it is possible that these lessons are

not widely known. Research in the classroom could provide teachers an

outlet for presenting some of these types physical education lessons or

integrated curriculum lessons, and for replicating these lessons in other

classrooms and schools.

2) THEME: School-Wide Commitment and Student

Interest

Interviews

Analysis:

Initially, the need for improved or additional Literacy curriculum

at Townsville came from the administration. However, the new Literacy

class took the place of students’ electives, so the administration

approached Dave about doing PE before school, so that these Literacy

students had more room in their schedule to still take an elective. The

idea to incorporate the Literacy directly into the PE curriculum was

54

Dave’s idea. The administration supported him. According to Dave,

“I’ve been a department chair out here for 20 years, so they know I have

a track record that says prove it. Let’s see what he’s got. If it’s a

mistake, we’ll learn from it and we’ll move on from there.” Dave says

he’s seeing more instances of PE acting as the “tail wagging the dog” at

their school and that things are beginning to be structured around the

PE schedule instead of the other way around. Dave believes that he has

had luck with his administration because of his reputation, but also

pointed out that he is “not sure all of what we’re doing here we can

accomplish in some of the inner-city schools.”

In terms of departments collaborating on curriculum such as the

Zero Hour PE and the Learning-Ready Pre-Algebra, Jim suggested that

they were just going to start small. “Start small, see what positive gains

you can make and then work out a way of implementing that system-

wide.” He continued, “it’s really about finding ways we can help

students instead of it being about trying to work with integrating

teacher personalities.”

There is evidence that physical activity is a priority for students

both inside and outside of PE itself, and for the faculty and staff as well.

According to Dave “our kids, for the most part, are very active to begin

with.” Townsville leaves their weight room open from 3-5pm every day

for non-athlete students who wish to use the facility. My interview with

Michael also highlighted some ways in which students are active outside

55

of PE class. Townsville has high student-participation in AM

intramurals. According to Michael, a wide variety of students

participate in intramurals, ranging from kids who got cut from

basketball or soccer, to students who are just interested in competing in

non-varsity sports such as whiffleball. Michael stated, “Dodgeball is

huge. There are 120 kids involved. And the faculty have a team.” The

starting time for these sports is anywhere from 6:30am – 6:45am and

there is high attendance. “These are kids who just love to play. They

come in and they take it very seriously. Which is good. I mean it’s fun

for them to be able to do it. They come faithfully. I think if we had gym

space in the after-school time, I could fill it everyday until 5:00 pm. I

know I could.”

Teachers can also utilize the facilities, and they do. According to

Dave, “we’ll get staff members who will go down and use our aerobic

room or our weight room.” Dave stated that sometimes students and

staff battle each other for equipment. “It’s my job, I guess, to figure out

how to get more treadmills.” Dave says they want the students to see

adults working out. They want good role models. Their school librarian

lost “2 or 3 dress sizes in the past 3 years because she started working

out.” Another hall monitor has lost over 100 pounds in the past 2 years.

Interpretation:

56

I think that it is not surprising that the administration acted as the

catalyst for developing additional Literacy curriculum to aid low-

performing students. What I think is surprising is that the principal and

vice principals were so open to trying Dave’s ideas in integrating

Physical Education with Literacy. It seems that this school has faith in

this particular Department Chair and, because of his experience, he is

able to try new things that other schools may not be able to. I think the

fact that this class was offered before first-hour, at 7:00 am, is

significant. This left the administration with the flexibility to try out the

new curriculum integration, without sacrificing these students’ regular

Literacy classes. It is a way that the administration was able to support

the idea and the research without sacrificing too much. In addition, this

trial step in integrating Literacy and Physical Education avoided some of

limitations of integration highlighted by Oliver and Schofield (2006)

such as a lack of subject area content knowledge by the instructors.

Both the Physical Education teacher and the Literacy teacher were

present in the classroom, therefore, they did not need to teach a subject

which they were not familiar with.

By pointing out that the goals was to see positive student gains,

and not to successfully integrate teacher personalities, Jim Richards hit

on two points. One is that student success is the ultimate goal. The

other point, though he did not actually say this, is that teacher

personalities are a potential hindrance. The fact that Jim even

57

mentioned it tells me that he is aware of how it could become a potential

problem if these programs were to expand and were to involve more

departments and more teachers. But as he said, they are going to start

small, and focus on the program. They will deal with potential problems

in having teachers working together if they see success in the program

and ultimately decide to expand.

In my interpretation, the size and the strength of the intramural

program at Townsville is some of the biggest evidence that students at

Townsville are committed to being physically active. However, I do not

believe that their involvement is evidence that students see their

activities as directly relating to their health. The students at Townsville

who are relatively healthy have the opportunity to be active and they

have chosen to incorporate that activity into their daily lives. Those

students, however, are not forced by the school to take advantage of

those opportunities. Students participate in intramurals because it is

fun, because they are naturally competitive, and because they are

outwardly social people. Some students might also participate through

the encouragement of their parents. Students do not necessarily

participate in intramurals because they have been told that being active

every day will improve their overall health. I do not think that this

contradicts the literature on youth health. The report from Casazza and

Ciccazzo (2006) stated that less than 50% of adolescents are physically

active on a regular basis. Although I did not poll the Townsville student

58

population, from the surface, it appears that far more than 50% of their

students are active on a regular basis. Their physical education

department alone could be responsible for student activity, as, they are

required to take PE for seven of their eight semesters at Townsville.

The intramural program is also a likely contributor to their students’

activity. Getting adolescents up and active is the first step to changing

adult trends. These adolescents who are active are much more likely to

be developing healthy life habits than those who are not active in their

youth.

The people at Townsville who provide a big message about

exercising for health purposes are the teachers and staff who utilize the

weight room and cardio equipment in thief free time. I would interpret

this school-wide awareness of physical education as part of the reason

that Townsville’s physical education department, along with the unique

programs they develop, are able to thrive. However, it is also possible

that the dedication in the school comes from an already strong program

that inspires everyone else to act accordingly. It is hard to tell whether

the PE program is encouraging the school to value health, or if the

school’s value of health is what makes the PE program strong. It could

be a combination of both.

Focus Group/Q-Sort

Analysis:

59

Of the thirty prompts given to the students in the Q-Sort, the

lowest scoring (least agreement) prompt was “I feel stupid when I’m

playing sports,” (see Figure 2.1). Eight students said this was never

true. One student said it was sometimes true and one student answered

that it was always true. Another of the four prompts that had the least

agreement was the prompt “I use Math every day,” (see Figure 2.2).

Six students said Never. Four students said Sometimes. Zero students

said Always. Another prompt with a low score was “I like to do school

work.” Seven students stated they never liked to do school work; two

stated sometimes; one student stated always. In my analysis, I think

this prompt are relates to the theme of student interest. The prompt

that elicited the most positive feedback also relates to student interest.

“I like the way I feel when I’m active” (see Figure 2.3) had zero students

state Never, one student stated Sometimes, and nine of the ten students

stated Always. It is worth mentioning that after the Q-sort, one student

asked me what was meant by “active”. The other students decided that

their understanding of “active” was “not sitting around”. One last

prompt with a very high score was “I like to be active with friends,”

resulting in Zero who stated Never, three Sometimes and seven Always.

Other prompts relating to student interest included statements

such as “I watch a lot of TV”, “I like to play video games,” and “I like to

play team sports” and “I like gym class.” All of these prompts were

ranked in the middle or higher of the 30 prompts. “I like gym class”

60

scored relatively high (24th out of 30), with zero students saying Never,

five students saying Sometimes and five students saying Always.

Figure 2.1 - I feel stupid when I am playing sports

80%

10%

10%

NeverSometimesAlways

Figure 2.2 - I use Math every day

60%

40%

0%

NeverSometimesAlways

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Figure 2.3 - I like the way I feel when I am active

0% 10%

90%

NeverSometimesAlways

Interpretation:

Overall, these students like to be active. I found out after the Q-

sort that the term “active” had not been clearly defined for the students.

Therefore students may have interpreted that to mean that they liked

playing sports, or that they simply did not like to be sitting around not

doing anything. They also may have interpreted the term “active” in a

non-physical sense, meaning that they prefer to be engaged in activities

that do not require physical movement, such as playing musical

instruments or playing cards with their friends. Students may believe

that someone who is “active” is someone who is involved. Students who

62

are in school government, on the yearbook staff or do community

service are likely to perceive themselves as “active.” After analyzing the

focus group transcription I finally realized that the high number of

students who like to be active does not necessarily imply that these

students like to do physical activities.

In interpreting the question “I like the way I feel when I am

active,” I feel that this questions implies more specifically physical

activity. It is possible that students interpreted the term “active” to

mean any of the things above, but I believe that these students were

stating a preference for being physically active. But again, the

ambiguity of the term “active,” leaves a lot to interpret. When I look at

all the questions being analyzed, a general trend toward physical

activity appears, as is evidence in the fact that the students reported

liking gym class. There also was not much support for watching TV or

playing video games. If all the questions are taken together, I believe

that most students perceived the term “active” to mean physical

activity.

What did correlate with my topic is the fact that eight out of the

ten students stated that they do not feel stupid playing sports. This does

not mean that they like playing sports. It simply means that these

students might be more willing to try or to participate in physical

activity.

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Finally, the fact that the students did not believe that they use

Math every day leads me to believe that the students consider Math to

be a classroom-only activity. It is possible that these students have only

encountered a few methods for learning Mathematics. Perhaps if they

were to utilize physical activities in the classroom that dealt with Math

or if they were to take their Math lessons outside of the classroom, this

perception could change. Once again, this is a general reverse of what I

had found in literature such as the Healthy People 2010 initiative that

suggests that “essential nutrition education topics should be integrated

into science and other curricula to reinforce principles and messages

learned in health units (Focus Area 19). In my data collection and

interpretation, I have found more instances in which the desired

outcome and primary concern is to achieve better learning in the non

physical education subjects, such as Math. Integrating Math and

Physical Education might help students see purposes for Math in places

outside of school.

3) THEME: Resources

Interview and Observations

Analysis:

Townsville provides both physical resources, as well as

informational resources to its students. In terms of physical resources,

the PE Department has 5 gymnasiums, a weight-training room, a pool, a

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rock-climbing wall, a high ropes course, heart-rate monitors, VO2 max-

testing equipment, and scales that measure body-fat percentages and

basal metabolic rates. Body-fat percentiles give a general outline of how

much of a person’s weight can be attributed to fat, while the rest is

mostly water and muscle. Basal metabolic rates tell people, based on

their height weight and body-fat percentage, how many calories they

burn a day from just resting. When I was at Townsville, Dave let me use

the scale and gave me a printout of my report. There were several

things on the report that I did not recognize or understand, but Dave

said that each of his students are given that test twice a year, and are

provided with detailed information about what each reading means.

Each student at Townsville starts a fitness portfolio in junior high,

and they take part in what is called the Freshman Fitness Project.

According to Dave, the project begins with a freshman fitness concepts

class, where the students learn about “heart-rate monitors, training

heart-rate zones, different levels of burning fat more effectively, where

you’re burning carbohydrates etcetera. And so once we give them all

kinds of fitness information, we teach them how to set up a fitness

program for themselves. A weigh-training program, how to incorporate

flexibility, when to stretch, and we try to debunk the myths that they

have in their brains.” The PE department has an extensive website to

accompany the freshman fitness project, with information that can be

65

utilized by anyone. I personally used some of the information on the

website to add new weight-training exercises to my own workout.

In terms of resources, Dave compared Townsville to an inner-city

school he had heard stories about. He said he has a teacher who came

from an inner-city school and that the teacher would often go to use

equipment such as footballs only to find them all deflated and unable to

hold air. Dave talked about how all that school needed was enough

basketballs or footballs to keep all the kids active. A lot of schools face

challenges with class size. With 60 students in a PE class, Dave

suggested with 60 kids, “play 5 on 5. That’s 12 teams. Instead of giving

me 2 footballs, give me 6 that I can inflate, and I keep those 60 kids

engaged and active and there won’t be a problem.” Michael mentioned

a different situation that reminds me of this scenario. He talked about

how as the head of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at Townsville,

they have a love of Ultimate Frisbee games. Once they forgot their

Frisbee on a bike trip. “So at lunch at our break, we stopped at a park

along the way and we had a water bottle, so we played ultimate with the

water bottle. They just love to play.”

Townsville is unlike the school Dave described. Townsville

typically has a maximum of 30 students in each PE class, and they divide

the sports into 4 on 4. Dave compared his school to some schools that

have more financial resources but that in his opinion, despite their

resources, don’t have good PE programs. “I’ve gone to those high-

66

performing districts and I’ve seen their PE classes. Instead of 4-on-4

softball, there were 36 kids in a softball class, 18 on one team, 18 on the

other team, and the pitcher is the gym teacher. So you’ve got all these

kids standing around and waiting and not being active.” Dave

emphasized that Townsville PE classes always have high levels of

participation, and that they rotate through activities every four weeks.

Therefore, in the seven semesters of PE required for each Townsville

students, they take 28 activities. 20 of those activities are

requirements: 6 Fitness, 4 team-sports, 3 individual, 2 dance, 2

gymnastics, 2 aquatics and CPR certification. Therefore, in my

analysis, I am including the number of activities and variety of PE

classes at Townsville as a resource.

Interpretation:

Townsville has a unique wealth of resources in their physical

education department. I believe that these resources are paramount to

their success. While Dave told stories of inner-city teachers and how

they could benefit from just a few additional resources (such as

footballs), I do not think it is realistic to believe that a school that has

not built up their PE facilities and faculty could have the success of

Townsville. For one thing, they would not be able to offer such a variety

67

of classes if they did not have so many gymnasiums and so much

equipment. They would not be able to offer all of those classes if they

did not have such a large PE department faculty.

The literature on improving PE programs in high school suggests

that using the PE4Life program might be a viable option for schools that

do not already have adequate resources, and that might be low on

finances. Although Dave Sanders did not provide me with specifics on

where their finances came from, he did mention that the PE4Life

program played a role in enhancing their resources at Townsville. This

corresponds to the literature and the example of Tim McCord’s

Pennsylvania school district. McCord’s school is in a blue-collar district

and utilized PE4Life to enhance their PE program (U.S Congress, 2004).

In addition, McCord’s school provided an example of a district that was

not wealthy, yet utilized the community in order to enhance their

program. They received funding from a local health insurance provider.

Therefore, in my interpretation, I consider Townsville to be a unique

school district, but also think that school districts with less financial

resources could still utilize the resources that their communities could

potentially offer.

Conclusion

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According to the research in my literature review, there is a

problem. The health of Americans is declining, and people who have

bad health often begin to develop poor habits in their youth. My data

corresponds mostly to the issue of physical activity. According to my

observations and interviews, some schools are trying to do something

about it. In reference to my question, “How can teachers of all subjects

use lessons involving nutrition and physical activity to promote student

health,” Townsville High School provided insight by providing examples

of programs that have already been initiated, and the focus group at

Whitfield High School provided insight by getting student input.

There is no way to conclude that the students at Townsville will

live long lives of healthfulness. There is also no way to conclude that

the students’ health has been affected by the physical education

program at their school. Furthermore, there is no way to conclude what

exactly has caused their high school students to be active in intramurals

and athletics, or what has caused some of the faculty and staff to be

physically active at the school as well. What I can conclude, however, is

that high schools can, in fact, play a role in providing opportunities for

healthfulness to its students

From my research, I have found three key factors that could help

schools develop programs to enhance students’ awareness and

knowledge of health. First, physical education and physical activity can

be used in subjects other than health and physical education

69

themselves. Second, in order for a school to promote health and

physical activity, the school must provide opportunities for these things.

Finally, students must be interested in the opportunities that they have

in order to participate.

Even though the programs at Townsville have not been replicated

or tested enough to conclude that physical activity has caused the Zero

Hour students to perform better in Literacy, the school has shown that

there are places where curriculum integration can occur. Zero Hour PE

appears to have affected these students’ performance in Literacy, but

even if the PE class was not what caused their improvement, it at least

demonstrates that there is room in students’ schedules to add more

physical activity. I believe that taking physical activity outside of just

PE alone demonstrates to students that fitness is important and can be

utilized in various settings. Incorporating physical activity more into

students’ school day provides a positive example. And since there is

room in Townsville’s schedule to incorporate more activity, then there is

likely to be time in other schools’ schedules as well. In reference to my

question, I would conclude that the first step to figuring out how

teachers can promote student health in their lessons is finding places

where the curriculum integration can occur. When physical activity is

added in a students’ school day outside the standard PE requirement,

students can then see that physical activity is not for PE class alone, and

that its benefits could potentially reach farther into their lives.

70

The Zero Hour program has many implications for the field of

Mathematics. Adding physical activity to the Math classroom opens up

possibilities for students who may learn differently. The Pre-Algebra

teacher, Michael, touched on this a bit while talking his daughter as a

kinesthetic learner. This could be true of other students as well. In

Math, as with other subjects, students might struggle with traditional

teaching methods, and they may assume that they are not good Math

learners. Math educators look for new ways to reach struggling

learners. This research project suggests that physical activity before

Math class or incorporating physical activity into Math learning, could

reach some learners in a new way. This research suggests a different

approach, and although it is not tested, this approach could be worth

trying.

Part of the reason I chose to conduct research at Townsville was

because of the overwhelming number of opportunities that particular

school provides. By visiting their school, I discovered there were even

more opportunities for practicing healthy lifestyles there than I had

originally known. There is physical education itself, where students are

given seven semesters worth of required physical activity, where they

are given the most information about their own health and where they

are required to create physical fitness portfolios. Next, the students,

staff and faculty have opportunities to use their vast amount of

equipment and gymnasium space outside of the regularly scheduled

71

school day. The students in the Zero Hour PE class were also given the

opportunity to have additional physical education in their day and to use

it for the benefit of another subject. For students of all athletic abilities

the extensive intramural program provides an opportunity to play in

competitive sports. Finally, organizations such as the Fellowship of

Christian Athletes (FCA) provide an opportunity for students to combine

physical activity with something that is personally important to them.

There are more opportunities that I did not observe or talk to teachers

about, but these opportunities provide insight into the Townsville school

community and how the people there are working on a healthy school

environment and quite possibly promoting student health by doing so.

These opportunities would not mean anything if there was not an

interest amongst students to participate. The focus group at Whitfield

High School corroborated this point. Many of those students stated that

they liked gym class. They stated that they like being active with their

friends and they liked the way that they feel when they are active. Even

if these students took the word active to mean “involved” and not

necessarily physically active, it shows that a lot of students will

participate in activities, no matter what they are, because they like to be

active. This relates to the Zero Hour Program at Townsville because it

calls to attention to the fact that the students had to be willing to take

advantage of the class. Some of those Zero Hour PE students may have

registered for early morning course

72

at their parents’ command, but they still had to be active participators in

order to reap any benefits from the course. Those students had to come

to school at 7:00 am for a class that did not fulfill any of the core course

requirements. Therefore, a program like Zero Hour must be attractive

to students in order for students to participate and in order for them to

receive the maximum benefit from the program or course. In order for

students to fully benefit both in health and in any other academic

subjects in this type of program, the program must keep students

interested.

While there is a wealth of opportunity for physical activity at

Townsville, and while it appears that the student population is highly

involved in these activities, my research does not necessarily suggest

that students at Townsville are physically fit. Probably the biggest

lesson I learned while doing this research is that schools, teachers, even

parents cannot make high school students become fit. The physical

education department provides students with a wealth of information on

how to become physically fit, and the school provides many

opportunities for practical application of that knowledge, but that does

not imply that these students are perfectly fit. My research question is

about how schools can promote student health, but that does not mean

that the end result at a school such as Townsville is 100% physical

fitness amongst students. It simply implies that there is a greater

possibility that students may be healthy or may become healthy from the

73

lessons they have learned and the school environment they have been

in. Ultimately, personal wellness is something that high school students

will have to take upon themselves for the rest of their lives.

A second major lesson I learned while conducing this research is

that it is heard to generalize any my findings. A lot of the literature that

I initially reviewed pointed me to Townsville to collect data. While that

was ideal, it meant that my question was developed with Townsville high

school in mind, and it also means that a lot of my data pertains only to

Townsville. While it was interesting to observe that high school and

speak to some of the teachers, I feel like my question almost became as

if my question was a specific Townsville case study. It is hard to

generalize any of the results to other schools, when some of those

schools have not even begun to scratch the surface in terms of

resources and opportunities.

Since my research was very school-specific, it is hard to suggest a

model for any school that is not Townsville. Still, I think that the first

step is determining what resources a school does have. Any school that

is looking to improve overall health of its students, or at least health

knowledge, first needs to assess where it stands in terms of physical

education curriculum and equipment. Schools do not necessarily have

to have all of the equipment that Townsville has, but could benefit from

finding ways to enhance what they do have. A school also needs find

places in other curriculum or in student schedules where more physical

74

activity could be added. Before adding academic programs that include

physical activity or adding extracurricular activities to schools, there

must also be an assessment of what students enjoy. Surveys, focus

groups, and trial activities could help gauge what students will

ultimately decide to participate in. The difficulty in generalizing to

schools outside Townsville is one limitation of this study. A lot of what

is done at Townsville has been replicated at other schools, so it is hard

to know whether it could work in other environments and it is hard to

know to what degree the programs at the school are affecting student

behavior. Another big limitation in this study is that it is hard to

measure success. There is no way to know whether the students

presently at Townsville will go on to lead healthier lives than those who

are not. It is also hard to measure the success of specific programs,

such as the Zero Hour program. While the students in the class were

tested both before and part way through the course in Literacy, there is

no way to measure what was the exact cause in any changes in their

learning.

Probably the biggest limitation in my research is that it was mostly

oriented towards observations and teacher interviews. The focus group

was insightful, but I feel that I did not get enough information from

students in this study. Since the study is about how to influence

students to be healthy, I would have liked to have more information on

students’ current thinking, on what appeals to them, and on their

75

reactions to programs they participate in. Originally, I thought it would

be beneficial to have a focus group outside of Townsville, as I wanted

information on other schools. In hindsight, I think that this was not the

best way to collect data from another school. I think that I should have

done a focus group at Townsville specifically referencing the programs

that are referenced in my data collection. Any research done at another

school would have been more helpful if it could be directly compared to

what I observed and talked about at Townsville.

Given these limitations, I would change any future research by

conducting it in a school that does not have a strong physical education

program. Certainly, Townsville was very insightful, but it is hard to

draw conclusions based solely on that school. It would help to compare

Townsville to a school that does not have as many resources, and does

not offer as many opportunities for physical activity. Therefore, the

research could point toward suggestion as to where change can begin.

My research ended up gearing toward the direction of physical

activity in reference to health, and I think that this was the best

direction for this particular research project. However, I am still very

interested in the specifics of nutritional awareness of students, as a

great deal of my literature review focused on this aspect. I think it

would be interesting to do another study that focused more on nutrition

and diet, on health class instead of physical activity, and on school

lunches in terms of healthy school environments. Perhaps there is also

76

a way to integrate nutritional awareness into other subject areas. From

my experience, I can see that it is hard to isolate physical activity and

nutrition, but I feel like the nutrition aspect is where there was less

information available, and therefore more to search for!

Overall, this research was encouraging. Given the problem from

the start - that youth may be learning unhealthy habits at a young age - I

found a positive example of a school that is trying to teach healthy

habits. While the idea of integrating physical activity into other

classrooms is relatively unique, I find it encouraging that there was so

much information on the overall role that schools might play in students’

health. To me, this means that school administrators are beginning to

think about the problem more. Some of these schools have already

begun to take action. Hopefully, with more research, there will be

better evidence as to what the best course of action is for promoting

health and well being in high school.

References

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Moving: An Interdisciplinary Curriculum for Teaching Upper Elementary

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says study. Retrieved April 30, 2006 from

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increasing habitual physical activity in children: a feasibility study.

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16, 2006, from http://www.isbe.state.il.us/ils/pdh/standards.htm.

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09PhysicalActivity.htm

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http://www.healthypeople.gov/default.htm/.

Appendix A

Interview with Dave S., Physical Education Department ChairMay 22, 2006Townsville High School

Interview Protocol:

1) In your experience, what are the major changes you’ve seen to Physical Education over the years?

2) Can you describe the Zero Hour PE?

a) How would you describe the student’s attitudes?

b) What issues has this resolved?

c) What issues still remain?

d) Do you have any ideas for how to encourage more students to take advantage of this program?

3) Based on what’s been happening in Zero Hour PE, where do you see opportunities for advancement with other academic subjects?

a) Are the methods used in Zero Hour mostly drilling?

b) Do you have any specific ideas for subject integration with Physical Education, such as Math, Science or Social Studies?

c) If the PE can’t be integrated directly into the lessons, are there ways that you think teachers might still have a positive influence on students’ attitudes toward health?

4) In your research and your experience, what kinds of links have you found between exercising and mental activity?

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a) How long-term are the effects?

5) Can you tell me about the freshman fitness project?

a) What are the students’ attitudes?

6) Can you describe the kind of technology available to students in PE?

7) What evidence do you have that students in your PE Programs will take these lessons with them after high school?

a) Do students seem to be engaging in after-school activities?

8) How important is the attitude of the Naperville community at large?

a) What roles are parents playing?

9) What’s next for your program? Any major ideas for the future? Any major changes coming?

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Appendix B

Interview with Dave S., Physical Education Department ChairMay 22, 2006Townsville High School

Interview Transcription:

MS: So I was just wondering if you could talk a little about the zero hour PE?

DS: Sure. 2 years ago we identified students who were reading below grade level who were coming to our school from our junior highs. And at the time our principal and our assistant principal met with the English department and they created a literacy class. The literacy class is an additional class that kids attend, spend time reading, spend time learning, not so much the value of reading, I guess that would be, but some reading strategies; some organizational strategies; some study strategies; those kinds of things that would help those kids who were struggling. They had some good success with it and so they were going to run it again. And talking to the parents of those students those parents were glad that their kids had the opportunity to improve their scores but were disappointed that their kids did not have the opportunity to take an elective class. This took place of an elective class because they still had to take an English class. So my principal then came to me and said how would you like to run a Zero Hour PE class, an hour before school started? I said in a heart-beat. But you have to understand this: I have a couple restrictions:

1) It won’t be a regular PE class. 2) I would like an English teacher to use that as their supervision.

Teachers in [Townsville] teach 5 classes and have a half hour supervision.

So he said fine. That’d be good. I said well good then I have another restriction. I’d want those kids in the Zero Hour PE to follow it up with a literacy class. He said ok. I said you know in close proximity. So thus came to Zero Hour PE.

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I’d been doing some research. And last spring we had a gentleman by the name of [Dr. Raines]. He’s a Harvard researcher. Heard about our Phys Ed program. Came to see what it was we were doing. Was amazed and thought wow you’re on the right track. Then I explained to him about my Zero hour PE said it was something we would be doing. I said do you think it will work? I said I’m not a researcher. I don’t know, I said, I don’t know how many kids will sign up for it. He said it won’t matter. Many studies are done with few numbers of subjects and they do all kinds of great work with that. I said ok. I said, there’s gonna be a lot of variables. He says not to worry. That’s ok too. I said fine. So Thus came Zero Hour PE. Talked to [Bob]. Talked to [Literacy teacher]. And I said, I gave them some suggestions.

One of the things we learned from [Dr. Raines] is that anytime you do an aerobic workout you manufacture new brain cells. We didn’t know that 5 years ago. We thought you were born with X number of brain cells. You spend the rest of your life killing them off by doing bad things. Not true. So he talked about a lab rat research project that took place. 2 identical sets of lab rats. One set of lab rats they put in mazes and they had it solve complex mazes to get to their food. The other set of lab rats they ran on treadmills. At the end of the study, when they autopsied the rats, significantly more brain cells in the exercise group than the problem solving group. Therefore brain researchers came up with the idea, exercise to the brain is like miracle grow to plants.

So Zero Hour PE then we were gonna make sure they get at least an hour of very intensive cardiovascular exercise. And that happened. Now we have heart rate monitors here. And So we can tell whether or not we’re getting a good effort out of our students. Our normal students we ask them to exercise between 65 and 85% of their training heart rate zone. With our 0 hour kids, our expectation was 65 – 85%, now that is, so our heart rate monitors are set from 145 to 185 bpm. The 0 hour kids are set from 165 – 185 beats per minutes.

And so, that took place.

Had ideas about, ok, while kids are on the treadmills we have an aerobic room that has tv capabilities, monitor, you know, video capabilities, how about if the kids were to look at videos of the novels that they were reading while they were exercising? So for example, they were reading to kill a mockingbird, they saw the video movie to kill a mockingbird. Well, initially for English

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teachers that’s a tough stretch because that would be like someone giving you the cliffs notes and say, ok here, read this novel, well, like all of us, we’d all read the Cliffs notes, and not read the novel. Well the kids came back and told those English teachers, well, I can follow the plot line a lot better now, I can understand the characters and I can kinda see them in my head, which makes sense. And, started to do a lot better in the class and started doing a lot better on the tests as a result. So they took note of this. I suggested that we do something with vocabulary words and they came up with the game you saw and lots of other games. We have some other technologies that include cross-lateral movements of the brain, we have a technology that has lights on it and you strike the lights as they light up. So if a light lights up on your left hand side you hit it with your right hand and if a light lights up on the right hand side you hit it with your left hand. When it lights up in the middle you either…

Well they started doing that and initially the Zero hour kids were scoring in the 100’s of points. Now they’re into the 300’s points

MS: Oh wow.

DS: So that technology has come to play into the grand scheme of things. Cuz again, so any time you cross the mid-line of your body, and do things opposite, then that makes synapses of the brain make those connections across the lobes of the brain. Again. Brain research. Anywhere we could find brain research then we sought it out and we started to make use of it. I think there’s still more out there and I continue to look and I think I just found another site today.

So I said to the English teachers, we need to have some data. I mean we can’t just have anecdotal information saying this has happened that has happened. I said how about issuing them a test, they give a Nelson-Danning test before the kids come in that how we identify kids who are reading below grade level. I said let’s give that test again at the semester time. But it has to be given to all of the literacy kids. You know all 75 kids. They said fine they would do that. Well when they did the test and they compiled the data they found that the Zero hour kids improved half a year more than grade equivalency than the literacy kids. It works. Which was no surprise to the brain researchers and to anyone else. And I think it was the first quote “study” done on secondary education. Most of this movement stuff has all been done at the elementary grade school level.

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MS: Actually one of the people in my programs is doing a similar thing, for primary education.

DS: And again, if you talk to…believe it or not, there’s more to teaching phys ed these days than playing dodgeball, which is not allowed at [Townsville] High School.

[laugh]

MS: But I saw that you had an intramural dodgeball team I think or something.

DS: Intramural program, yeah…that’s the only way that…but I have nothing to do with it.

Anyway. Because of that, now, we’re going to take this to an all-together different level next year. We had a hard time getting kids to sign up for it because it involved them getting here before school. So next year, we’re going to have a first period PE class. I think we’re going to call it an LRPE, and that’ll be learning-ready-PE-class. And besides just reading we’re now going to bring in some math concepts as well. And in talking to the math department chair, he has a teacher (the intramural director of all people) who believes in movement when he’s teaching lower-level concepts to kids.

So, it’s a perfect move.

That particular low-level class that he’s teaching meets 3rd hour. So now we can have kids in first hour PE, learning-ready PE class, some can go over into a literacy class. Some may also be in this math class. We don’t know what this schedule is going to look like until we start to sort out the schedule. Or it may be an entirely different group of kids. But again I’ll have some literacy kids who won’t be in Learning Ready PE, I’ll have some of those lower-level math kids who won’t be in Learning Ready PE. They’ll just be in a regular PE class. And again, the lower-level teacher is going to incorporate some more movements. And I need to give him some of the information that we have. Use of ladders, for example, to walk down and you balance as you try to understand concepts. Because it really engages the brain more. As you’re concentrating walking in between the rungs or on the rungs of the ladder, and you’re looking down and looking at a math concept. It sticks into brain better. And again that research has been done at primary grades or elementary grades. So we’re going to try and adapt it at our level as well.

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So, basically, that’s how it was evolved. It was kind of a brain child of mine, but based on research. And [Literacy teacher] and [Bob] have done a great job of taking the ball and running with it . I mean, I get credit for getting an idea, but they get credit for doing the work. So…basically that’s 0-hour PE or how it came to be.

MS: Ok. Now have you noticed anything different with the students’ attitudes in the class? I mean, is it different than some of your other PE classes?

DS: Well, not really. You have to understand that PE at [Townsville] is really different than it is most other places in the United States. Different in most cases than some of the schools even in Illinois. Our sophomore, juniors and seniors get to pick their classes every 4 weeks. We restrict them to… we want them to fulfill so many requirements. So, over the period of 7 semesters with us…the only time they’re out of PE is one semester in their sophomore year when they’re in health. So, they’ll take 7 semesters of PE from us and they’ll take 4 classes each semester, so they’ll take 28 activities from us. And we have 20 requirements. 6 Fitness, 4 team-sports, 3 individual, 2 dance, 2 gymnastics, 2 aquatics, and CPR certification.

By the time a kid graduates from [Townsville], in most cases they’ll have a better background in a wide-variety of activities than most PE majors in college will have had.

We offer, you name it, we’ll offer it. Tap dance, social dance, swing dance. We do a square dance class with our freshman. Which is unique in and of itself if you talk to a [Dr. Raines]. The class, with the brain. We bring 3 sections of freshman. Most my period periods of the day have 3 sections. So we’ll bring 108 plus freshman in the gym for a square dance class. The class teaches elementary left and right, right and left. But that’s not the reason for the class. The reason for the class is to teach kids how to socially interact with each other and to learn social skills and respect that are an important fact at this level. Coming to us from the junior high where flirting is seeing how hard you can push the boy or the girl. In our freshman classes it’s designed where you meet somebody, you introduce yourself to somebody. Initially in the first go-round, first couple of weeks, we give them a question that they have to ask that person so that they are learning how to interact and carry on a conversation. When the dance is done, they thank that partner for dancing with them. We’ll rotate into

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the boys or the girls to another set. They have to introduce themselves a new partner. We give them a new question. The whole nine yards. We talk to them about treating each other with respect, you know, and understand that you don’t wanna be a boy, and you go to get a new partner and the girl gives you that oh, rolls your eyes look. Nor do you want your boys to go “oh, look who I got stuck with”. We need to treat each other with respect and we talk about those things.

As the class progresses, then into the last weeks of it, they’re given a time-length that they have to interact with that peer, or with that partner, once they meet them. So they introduce themselves now, interact with that person for 30 seconds. And then for 45 seconds. Finally, their final is to sit down on the floor and interact with that person for 5 minutes. Now for some kids, that’s an eternity. But at the same time, with a 108 kids, the chance that you’ll dance with you know, 30 or 40 different partners over the course of a 4 week time period is a wonderful thing to happen. And again, it kind of solidifies and brings that class together. Um and it’s a wonderful thing. When we get classes that have an imbalance of boys and girls, the upperclassemen flock, FLOCK, to get in there and balance off…because they all enjoyed it.

Now if you ask all our freshmen before they go into square dance, you know, “do you think you’re gonna like square dance,” and they “oh…no”. But then ask them when it’s all over. And you see them and they’re dancing and they’re smiling, and they’re having a good time. So that’s, we have that class.

But I mean, we’ll do, we have kayaking, we have high ropes, we have climbing walls, we do rollerblading. All of our team sports that we play, the traditional stuff, we try to break into small teams. So like we’re playing softball right now, it’s 4 against 4, rather than 11 on 11 where kids are just standing and there’s no right fielder. You all have to all be engaged, you all have to be moving.

And our kids, until they leave us, they don’t know what they have. Our kids will come back after being in college for a semester or 2 and they’ll say, you know, my college roommate is a couch potato, they won’t go to the rec center, they’ll never work out. They’re intimidated by going there. They says, I go, because we learned how to exercise, you know, we learned all the things we needed to know and understand. I just enjoyed myself. I kept myself, fit. I understand the value of exercise. And um, thank you.

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Right now, for them, they just think all PE classes are like this. They think every school is just like this. And I want to laugh and tell them, you have no idea. But, you know, that’s just the way it goes.

So, our kids, for the most part, are very active to begin with. There really isn’t. I mean, twice a year we test our kids. We test them in the mile. And we test them using a pacer. It’s a run across the gym for 20 meters, and after every minute, the pace picks up, until you can’t go any longer and can no longer meet it. It’s a test of aerobic capacity. And so, no one ever likes that stuff. But nobody every likes taking a test in science is difficult either. We have come to the conclusion that it is not our job to make kids fit. It is our job to give them as much information about everything, and then turn it over to them, but they have to keep themselves fit.

So in the spring of the year, we give them a printout that shows them every test that they’ve taken while they were in school, and we even have this software in our junior high. So we’re creating electronic portfolios on our kids from grade six through grade 12. So now we’re saying at least watch that you’re improving or at least maintaining, and that you’re not going backwards. And now if you’re going backwards, then you need to know why and what choices are being made or what have you not done to keep improving or at least maintaining. So ultimately we turn that responsibility over to them. So that’s a departure for a lot of us phys ed teachers. We’re all coaches. So as coaches, like all coaches; we’re control freaks. And we think the fountain of all information needs to come from us. And it’s not true. I mean we just, here’s some information. Do with it as you choose. If you choose not to do anything, oh well, but understand that this is the one and only body you have, and if you don’t take care of it, you know bad luck bad luck.

So, what we really don’t have, believe it or not, a lot of negative connotations. What we have noticed, with the Zero hour kids. I haven’t noticed it, but I English teacher have, is that these kids participate better in the classes. In the classes, like the literacy class, they become like the leaders of that class. Now the one young lady that’s in that 0 hour PE class. You have to understand that when she came to us she was reading at a 4th grade level. OK, Now, she’s improved since then. But when we had our breakfast, to reward the success of the Zero hour kids, we invited parents. And her parents came. And when the reporter said, you

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know, what do you notice about your daughter? They said she’s more disciplined. She gets up. She’s not hard to get out of bed. She knows she has to be there and she does it on her own. And the father said, last year as a junior high student, she was an average student. First semester here, she made the honor role. So she made the transition to junior high to high school, it’s a tough transition to begin with. But going from an average student to the honor role because your working, you feel good about yourself, you see the effect of exercise first thing in the morning. It works. So you know, that’s what happens.

Now, it’s our belief. See, in [Townsville], our test scores are comparable to any other district. The [suburban high school], the [suburban high school], the [suburban high school], but our per pupil expenditure is right about the state average. Whereas a [suburban high school] is almost twice sometimes almost 3 times what we are per pupil expenditure.

We’re overcrowded in both of our high schools. So really, this school is probably built for about 2500 students, we have 3200 students and growing. We have science labs built for 24 stations, we have 28 kids in our science classes. Our English classes are 27, 28, 29. A [suburban high school] and a [suburban high school] would not think of having that number kids in their school setting. They have the resources, they have the finances. They can hire another teachers and they’ll have 20 kids in a class. We don’t have that luxury. So the difference is, our kids are very very active throughout the day. I mean, moreso, and I don’t wanna say bad about other people. But I’ve gone to some of those other high-performing districts and I’ve seen their PE classes. Well, instead of 4 on 4 softball, there were 36 kids in a softball class, 18 on one team, 18 on the other team, and the pitcher is the gym teacher. So you’ve got all these kids standing around and waiting and not doing and not being active. Well, nobody likes to do that.

There’s a stigma, if you bat maybe once, twice if you’re lucky. Maybe if you’re the first batter on your team maybe you’ll get to bat 3 times during class. Well, if you’re successful 1 out of 3 times, you don’t feel good about yourself. And yet we play professional baseball players who bat 300 millions of dollars. But for a kid in a PE class at [Townsville] will bat 14, 15, 16 times. Who remembers how many times you hit the ball out of that? It was like the old days when we played as kids in the neighborhood. If we batted 100 times, nobody never knew what their batting average was.

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MS: I think we were 2 on 2 or something in my back yard.

DS: Exactly! I mean you just played all the time. We didn’t keep track. If you struck out, you knew you were coming up again in another 3 minutes or something like that.

Same thing here. So it’s not about creating athletic skills, even though, we’ll be skilled because we participate more. There’s more chances to hit a volleyball, there’s more chances to have to catch a baseball, there’s more chances to bat. Um, 3 on 3 basketball, you’re gonna have to use everybody, you can’t dominate. And everybody has to play defense, you can’t sit back there an lolligag. So all that’s going on.

MS: So basically our kids don’t mind coming to PE as opposed to some of those other places. I mean, I saw their classes. Big time difference. bIg time difference in philosophy.

So again, what people don’t understand, our phys ed programs lend themselves to the quality of education we offer here in the [Townsville] schools.

If you look at our country, a country like Finland. They have the highest literacy rate of any country in the world. If you do a web search, they say that nearly 100% of the people in Finland are literate. Ok. Their school system is mandatory through grade 9. And that’s it. There in their school system, every 45 minutes, they have to take an active break. Inside or outside. Break can be active or musical. They have to take an active break. Now we as Americans, we won’t study Finland because they’re not a world power. No, We’ll study China and Japan. We say they’re ahead of us educationally because they spend more time in the classroom. They go to school, their days are longer, they go to school year-round, so obviously the answer is more seat-time. No. In China and Japan, exercise is a big important component of their culture. Their whole country or their whole community will take time out in the middle of the day to do tai-chi. We don’t look at that. We just say why is their education system? Well it must be because there is more seat time. Not true. There’s a superintendent in New York State his name is Wendt, Mike Wendt. He was a principal before he was superintendent. In his school, kids who were identified with ADD and ADHD spent 15 minutes on a bike before school, a stationary bike. In one year, significantly reduced the amount of Ritalin that school had significantly. The worse case scenario, a kid had to take half the dose that he was on or she was on. In most cases kids got completely off of Ritalin.

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Because exercise gives you all of the same effect, serotonin, ..., all for the brain that Ritalin did. And they did it naturally through exercise.

So we learn from that. And I’m afraid No child left behind has forced administrators to say ok you’re struggling in Math Peggy, I think you need 2 math classes. You’re struggling in Reading, at [Townsville] we’ll create another class called Literacy class to help you with those skills. That’s fine, but let’s not miss the component of getting kids ready to learn. And that readiness is again, activity. Blood flowing to the brain. The more you sit on your butt, the less there is.

So again, I as a phys ed teacher, look at brain research differently than let’s say an administrator looks at it. Now I’m looking obviously from my point of view how activity and what not affects the brain. Administrators look at who’s the latest greatest wizard out there. You know, for years it was [researcher], and now there’s [researcher] and I say Friggins. And you know we’ll go through another. It’s amazing that people like Plato and Aristotle could be great teachers in the old days without any of these experts being around. Too many times administrators get…its’ the teachers, it’s the person that’s delivers the message. Not this philosophy and that philosophy. It’s the relationship between the teacher and the pupil. You also have to get those pupils ready to learn. I mean, we’re in an ideal situation. You know, we’re rich middle-class. Our parents are wonderful. They want all of their kids to succeed, they want their kids to go to Harvard and Stanford and Yale.

MS: And Northwestern

DS: And Northwestern. I mean, you know. I’m not sure all of what we’re doing here we can acoomplish in some of the inner-city schools. They have more problems than this. But at the same token, I know that at the inner-city schools they’re just throwing out a basketball at just letting kids play basketball at PE and as long as they’re not killing themselves, everything’s fine. Now, if you wanna go sit in the bleachers instead of playing basketball that’s fine too. Well, there’s gotta be a happy medium. Maybe you can’t replicate the entire program here, but you can replicate the philosophy. So if you’ve got…I’m gonna hire a new person this year, I’ve got one retiring. And the district he’s coming from, without mentioning any name he’s got 60 kids in his PE class. That by itself is…

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Me: Huge

DS: It’s ridiculous. Then, the activity he has to teach is football. And he’s given 2 footballs. And he goes to inflate them and neither one of them will hold air. Now, it doesn’t cost, the 60 kids if I play 5 on 5, that’s 12 teams. That’s, 6 different games going on all over. Instead of giving me 2 footballs, give me 6 that can inflate, and I can keep those 60 kids engaged and active and there won’t be a problem. And then, I don’t need to stand there an officiate their games. Because if I’m not around, and there’s a problem, all of a sudden, kids have to learn conflict resolution. Hello. Um, you know, like, I’ll be out at a baseball, I got 6 or 7 games of baseball going on, and they get in an argument, they say “Mr. Z was he safe or out?” I say, I dunno, I didn’t see it.

MS: Figure it out.

DS: Yeah, well see again, too many times as adults we want to step in, we want to solve the problem. No. I dunno. You know, and I think the more you have a question, which is again, that’s how Aristole and Plato talked. They didn’t give everybody answers. They posed questions and let them find and resolve the answers themselves. And that’s how people learn. You know. You would think we’d know from great minds in the past.

MS: Yeah, they’ve been around for a while, you’d think somebody’d figure it out.

DS: Yeah, but we don’t. I mean, sometimes I think, I hate to say it, when people become administrators, they forget what education is about. Then it becomes about them. They think I’m going to bring you, you know, they become the…you know there are a lot of administrators who are former PE teachers. I am the fountain of all wisdom, from me everything flows. Horse feathers. I’ve talked too much already.

MS: Well, I was just gonna ask, I mean, it’s pretty clear how committed this department is and this school, um, in terms of the rest of the school, in terms of the administration, other teachers, do you see much of an attitude of health or people being really committed to well-being beyond this program?

DS: Yeah. I mean we’ll get staff members who will go down and use our aerobic room or our weight room

MS: Oh! They can do that? That’s encouraging.

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DS: Oh yeah, because we want our kids to see adults working out. We want, that’s a good role model. Whether it’s a phys ed teacher or whether it’s an English teacher or it’s somebody from social studies or whether it’s our librarian. We’ve got a librarian who’s lost 2 or 3 dress sizes in the past 3 years because she started working out. We have what you call a campus supervisor, a hall monitor type thing , and she’s 60 plus years old and she’s dropped, I dunno, 100 plus pounds in the past 2 years because she just got on this exercise kick based on hearing everything we had to say, hearing the message that I send. We struggle through the Atkins diet and all these other stuff and I say, it’s a simple mathematical formula, it’s calories in, calories out. You wanna eat? Go expend them. You know it’s not carbohydrates, proteins. Calories in, calories out. It’s simple. And so, you know, it’s completely made some changes. So yeah, we have people that will work out during the day and jump on the treadmill next to the kids while they’re down in the aerobic room. Sometimes our teachers complain because they take up a treadmill and one of their kids doesn’t get one, so it’s my job I guess to figure out how to get more treadmills.

So yeah, attitude wise, the other thing is when we did this research in mid-year and I presented it to the administrative team, that’s all our department chairs and assistant principals and principal…people in the special ed department started saying oh wow…cuz now they’re saying…see if you know anything about special ed they normally put all their kids in the academic classes in the morning, then everything in the afternoon is resource and study hall. So now they’re saying we could schedule those kids in PE classes and then still schedule them throughout the day in academic classes. I say, yesss. So they’re looking at they’ll go around organizing their schedules.

I have counselors who, you know, their kids struggle with math or science. They will schedule the kids in PE a period or 2 before they have science or math. So all of a sudden, we’re the tail wagging the dog. And then in most schools, oh we can just always dump them into PE.

MS: That is really, very very cool. What else do I have? You answered all of the questions I already had. I had read a little bit about your interest in brain research. Now did you talk at all about your freshman fitness project, or is that something different?

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DS: That’s something different. Our freshmen take what we call our freshman fitness concepts class. Our freshman fitness concepts class we spend time in the class teaching them about heart-rate monitors and training heart rate zones and the different levels of burning fats more effectively there’s from 60-70% from 75-85% you’re burning carbohydrates which are sugars that are really carbohydrates that have been broken down. At 85% at above you’re starting to use protein as your source of energy and that’s when you start to break down your muscles and that’s ok for that kind of stuff. And we give them all of those different levels so that they know and understand what it is they’re trying to do and why marathon runners will carbohydrate load and things like that. And so we’ll teach them then how to set up a fitness program for themselves, a weight-training program, how to incorporate flexibility, when to stretch, try and debunk some of these myths that they have in their brains.

Me: I had to learn all these things from Runners World. I mean, it’s just funny, that’s the only place I’ve seen this stuff is in magazines and stuff, so it’s very cool that you have that in your curriculum.

DS: Yeah, and so once they’ve learned those concepts, and then we teach them how to use our exercise equipment, we take them up to the weight room, you know and show them how to do that. How to get their 1 rep max for their weight training and stuff like that. On our site they have a calculator they can go to and plug that information in.

Then we give them 2 fictitious characters. Johnny Jumper and Minnie Minor. And so, Peggy, you would do Minnie Minor. And I would be Johnny Jumper, and they need help in all fitness categories. And so they then have to create a fitness plan for them. They have to become the personal trainer for Minnie Minor or Johnny Jumper. And then we have a grading rubric to make sure they have everything thing, if you’ve visited our website.

MS: Yeah, I’ve seen it.

DS: So, you see, we ‘ve even highlighted it in red. This is what we’re looking for. We make no mistake about it. Because it’s not about “neener neener”, I got you, bad [smacks hand] you didn’t study. We want to make sure you understand the concepts. You know, if we give everybody an A, what difference does it make? It’s important for you to learn the concepts. If you don’t learn it from me, learn it from doing the project. Learn it from where ever you learn it. One of our websites strikes you as being, ok, I’ve learned

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something hear, you know if it’s learning about calories from going to Cooper’s café. Did you go to Cooper’s café?

MS: Uh, as in?

DS: On our website.

MS: Oh, no, I didn’t see that.

DS: Oh, it’s down near the bottom. However, you learn the information, it’s, um, it doesn’t matter, again, I’m not the fountain of all information, it doesn’t have to flow from me.

MS: I thought maybe you were talking about Kenneth Cooper because I’ve read so much about…

DS: Well it is. It’s from his…he created the website. All it is, down below, we have additional research and links. And here…it’s Cooper’s Café.

MS: HA! It’s him.

DS: Ok. So if you want chocolate cake, it’s 250 calories. You put it here on your tray. And this is pie and this is sweet-heart peach pie, and I put that and it’s telling me I have 550 and how many grams of fat, and you know I wanna come on over here and get a bunch of fish and …

MS: This is really cool.

DS: So, you know, my meal total is that much… I can’t get rid of it. There it is. So then again, whether you get the information from us, over here, you can click up here in the corner and get recipes from all kinds of stuff. This is again Cooper. This is our 1-rep max place. You plug in your reps that you did, you know, 15 at 75 lbs, and it calculates it thinks your 1-rep max is 108, so based on that you put your percentages in. If you’re gonna do muscle strength you do it by 85 to 95% of that, 3 sets of 5. If you wanna do muscle endurance, you do about 65 of that, 3 sets of 10, 3 sets of 12. And that’s the information that we give them. And again, they take that information, and again, it’s here for them and they know where to get these resources.

MS: I’m gonna start using it.

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DS: Please do. If you even wanna know like here, you say biceps, click on biceps, it tells you all the different exercises you can do to exercise the biceps.

MS: Well that’s really cool. I mean, I only got this kind of information from, like, high school track because I had, I felt like the coach was kinda like a personal trainer. But I felt like kids that didn’t do varsity sports never saw the weight room, ever, at my school.

DS: See, now that’s not the case here. As a matter of fact, our weight room is open every day after school from 3:30 – 5:00 for the average kid.

MS: Oh ok.

DS: So with the athletes in season don’t get in until after that.

MS: Oh ok.

DS: And again, there’s another website where if I’m doing sit-ups, what’s it worth, if I’m doing cruntches, I’m doing lunges, all the different muscles that it works. So it’s all there. We just want our kids to have access to all the information.

MS: Alright. Very cool. I was just gonna ask one more thing about health classes. How involved is the program here the department with the actual health curriculum.

DS: Again, PE, Health and Driver Ed are all under my auspices. We have our software from our fitness testing in our computer lab. So kids will go in there and do a meal-planner, and um, figure out how many calories they’ll need to take in or order to burn. Obesity is not a problem at [Townsville] High School. We tested our kids in the fall. 11% of our student population didn’t meet the expectations set by Cooper and the American college of sports medicine. We’re starting to find out that eating disorders are as big a problem here for us. So we want to make our kids aware that if, oh, by the way you’re an athlete, especially our runners, our girls, you need to take in you know about 2200-2500 calories because your activity is high. We try to show them that. We’ll use our same software with our health classes. They preach the same kinds of things. The one nice thing health is one of those what I call a graveyard subject. Anytime there’s a social problem in the world, we solve that by putting that into the health curriculum. So we’re gonna deal with drugs, we’re gonna deal with sex, we’re… it’s all in the curriculum. Well it’s a graveyard. We keep putting

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more things in but we never take anything out. Well for us, we took things out by taking CPR out of the health curriculum and putting it into the PE curriculum. We do a lot of physical fitness stuff in PE, then they can touch on it in health, but not nearly as extensively as some other schools would have to. So they’re very involved, I mean, and it’s a coordinated effort between what they’re doing and what we’re doing, we’re all saying the same thing.

MS: Cool. Just one more question. You said you’re a coach. Can you talk just a little bit about yourself personally? Just how you got here?

DS: Oh gosh. I’ve been fortunate enough, I’ve moved around. I’m in my 37th year of teaching. I love what I do. I started out in a small private school in [suburb]. Probably a great place for me to start because I was a terrible teacher and back in those days you could get away with murder. Almost literally. Started there, from there went to [suburban] High school, just south of here. Taught there for 9 years. When I was at [previous high school], and I got the job, the athletic director hired me, I was going to be the freshman football coach, and 8th grade basketball coach and the an assistant track coach. That athletic director left, went to York high school, new guy comes in, calls me up over the summer, I want you to come visit. Happened to be my high school line coach in football, he says, I want you to be my varsity line coach, I want you not to have anything to do with the grade school, so you’re going to be the freshman basketball coach. I want you to be the head track coach, so you’ll have no assistants in this first year.

MS: Oh my gosh.

DS: Well, I mean you’re looking for your first job. You want me to clean toilets too? No problem. You’d basically do that.

So, I did that. And I got outta basketball after one year, because you know, I decided…well, when I had seen my 1st track meet as a head coach, I had no, I mean I took a class in college, but other than that, so I’ve learned ever since. I went to Bolingbrook high school, they brought me over as an assistant track coach and a varsity line coach. After 5 years of football there, I got out of football. I was at the time the head track coach, and the cross country job opened up. I thought it was a very natural connection for me to be their head cross country coach and head track coach. I had both boys and girls in cross country and track, they were my 2 auspices.

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MS: Those were my 2 sports. If you don’t count marching band as a sport.

DS: No. Don’t count marching band as a sport. So I did that. They brought me over to [Townsville]. They brought me over to be a potential head track coach, though I knew I’d have to be an assistant for a while. But then the department chair’s job opened up, before that, the athletic director was athletic director AND the department chair for PE health and driver ed. But the job just got to be too enormous, so they created a department chair job. I applied for it and got it. So I said, ok, you know, I can’t be a head coach. Sao when I came here, I was supposed to be a football coach and a track coach. They hired a math guy who could coach football. They said would you like to be an assistant soccer coach. I said alright. So I was assistant soccer coach for 9 years here. I’ve been coaching track every since. I’ve always coached the sprinters as head coach. In my first 19 years here, 3 years ago, the new head track coach came in, a hurdle coach came in, he wanted to coach the hurdles and the sprinters, said, would you coach the pole vault? Call me a coach, I don’t care. So I’ve been coaching the pole vault for the last 2 years.

MS: Oh cool. My uncle was a pole vaulter. He almost qualified for the Olympics. I think back in the 60’s. But yeah, very cool.

DS: Oh wow.

MS: Ok. Thanks for your time.

DS: Ok

MS: We talked a lot. Answers a lot of questions for me. I’m really excited about your whole program, your whole school. It’s very…

DS: It is. You know I’m very lucky to be here. [knocks table]. I couldn’t be at a better place in a better time in my life than where I’m at. Lucky enough to be able to do things like this. I mean it’s one thing to have the idea, it’s another thing to be able to follow through on it, but I mean, I’ve been a department chair out here for 20 years, so they know that I have a track record that says prove it…let’s see what he’s got. You know, if it’s a mistake, fine, we’ll learn from it and we’ll move on from there. It’s not like I haven’t made mistakes in my life.

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Appendix C

Protocol for Interview with Michael D., Math TeacherMay 22, 2006

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Townsville High School

Interview Protocol:

1) Can you talk a little about the students you coach?

a) What are some of the different motivations they have for playing soccer?

b) How do they differ from the non-athletic students you teach?

c) Do you have both academically motivated and unmotivated soccer players?

d) From your experience, can you talk a little about the differences between he motivation for learning you see from students in sports versus the motivation for learning that you see from students in the classroom?

e) From what you see of your soccer players, would you describe your soccer players as healthy students?

2) Can you describe the intramural atmosphere at Naperville Central?

a) Do these students differ significantly from your soccer players?

b) Is there a large amount of participation? Are there both varsity and non-varsity students who participate in intramural sports?

c) How much energy and enthusiasm is there in these students toward intramurals?

d) Which sports get the most participation?

3) Can you tell me a little about the FCA?

a) Are members only athletes, or are there members who don’t play sports?

b) Can you describe some of the ways that the FCA teaches young people to value their health?

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4) In what ways are student’s attitudes toward their health apparent in the classroom?

a) Can you generally tell whether a student is active outside the classroom or not?

b) Most research suggests that students who eat well and are physically active are more attentive in class. Do you find this to be the case?

c) How do your classes vary throughout the day, in terms of attentiveness? Are students more alert in the morning or afternoon? Is there not really a difference?

5) In your math classes, have you ever covered subjects or topics outside of Math that you have seen as being important?

a) Can you describe those lessons, whether they were planned or unplanned.

6) In what ways do you think healthy attitudes can be taught?

a) Do you see any ways in which healthy attitudes could be taught in academic subjects such as Math?

b) Do you see ways in which health can be made a priority in the classroom?

c) Do you believe that there is room in the math curriculum to integrate some interactive lessons?

d) I’ve sketched a few generic ideas for integrating health curriculum and math curriculum based on your syllabi for Algebra and Precalculus? What is your best guess as to how do you think the lessons in general would be affected by this integration?

7) I read that you enjoy biking. Can you talk a little about your own personal experiences and commitment to health?

8) I came across the district 203 Vision on the math department webpage. I really liked the term “Self-directed learner”. How do you

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think that applies to students in sports and how do you think that applies to students in Math classes?

Appendix D

Q-Sort and Discussion PromptsJune 7, 2006Whitfield High School

I use Math every day

I use English and Reading every day

I use Science every day

I use Social Studies every day

I like to do school work

I play sports for school

I like to run or jog

I think about exercising for my health

There’s a difference between exercising for fun and exercising to be healthy

I like to play video games

I like to be active with my friends (for example: ride bikes, shoot hoops, run/jog, play tennis, swim, rollerblade)

I like to be active on my own (for example: ride bikes, shoot hoops, run/jog, swim, lift weights, rollerblade)

I watch a lot of TV

I like to play team sports

I like to be outside when it’s nice

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I would rather stay inside

I like junk food and candy

I know how to tell the difference between junk food and healthy food

I like healthy food

Health class has taught me how to take care of myself

I like gym class

When I get older, I think I’ll need to exercise to take care of myself

I like the way I feel when I am active

I feel stupid when I am playing sports

I wish we didn’t have gym class during the day

Gym class has taught me how to exercise safely

I am an active person

I think being active is important

I like to sit in class and listen

I get bored or tired during class

I get hungry while at school

The best way to learn Math is to practice problems from the book

The best way to learn Math is to use it in real-life problems

Math is about numbers

Math is about word problems

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Appendix E

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