It鈥檚 the era of students in motion. Gone are the days when they had to sit still until gym class or recess. Enter some K-12 classrooms across the country and you鈥檒l find exercise balls instead of chairs, standing desks instead of sitting ones, and movement welcome, even in math class.
For example, at Wilder Elementary in Louisville, Ky., a privately-funded effort called 鈥淟et鈥檚 Move Wilder!鈥� added and bouncy bands (which strap to a desk so students can stretch their feet back and forth while sitting) to classrooms for the new school year. And a 3rd grade teacher at Wetumpka Elementary in Wetumpka, Ala. has raised money over the last two years so her and sit on exercise balls during lessons.
The increasing trend to add kinesthetic or movement-based equipment to schools is a push to keep students active while they learn. A study by researchers at Texas A&M University, released this week, shows that standing desks can .
After observing 24 classrooms in Texas over two years鈥攈alf of which used stand-biased desks (which allow students the option to stand or sit on a stool), the other half traditional desks鈥攔esearchers found that 3rd and 4th grade students who used the standing desks decreased their BMI by an average of 3 percent. Even students who spent one year without a traditional desk had lower BMIs than those who sat.
Exercise has also been linked with , such as direct correlation to reading fluency and memory, according to EdWeek blogger Bryan Toporek in a recent Schooled in Sports post. And after a one-year pilot program that used pedal and standing desks at Oakridge Elementary School in Arlington, Va., teachers and cooperation, principal Lynne Wright told CNBC. Two public school teachers in West Caldwell, New Jersey, found similar results with their students after they received a grant to purchase standing desks.
鈥淭hings like talking when you weren鈥檛 supposed to be talking, fidgeting with some kind of object on your desk, standing around the room and moving at not great times鈥攁ll of those by incredible amounts,鈥� Jennifer Emmolo, who teaches at Wilson Elementary in West Caldwell, told CNN.
That some teachers and parents are trying to increase activity in the classroom shouldn鈥檛 necessarily come as a surprise, as many schools have cut back on gym class. The 2016 Shape of the Nation report found that only two areas nationwide鈥攖he state of Oregon and the District of Columbia鈥� in schools (150 minutes per week for elementary students and 225 minutes per week for high school students). And only 37 percent of states demand a set amount of time for physical education in elementary school.
The push for exercise in the classroom is often independently shaped by teachers, parents, and community members鈥攁nd the initiatives are not cheap. At Oakridge Elementary, parent Heather Sauve joined with the school to from a company called Kidsfit, according to CNBC. She estimates that the cost is about $1,700 per classroom. A nonprofit called , founded by Juliet Starrett, a parent in California, is working to get every public school student nationwide a standing desk within 10 years.
But teachers don鈥檛 necessarily need equipment to get students moving. Educator Susan Griss, the author of Minds in Motion: A Kinesthetic Approach to Teaching Elementary Curriculum, wrote in a 2013 article for Education Week Teacher that any type of movement during academic lessons鈥攑hysically engaging with the content through acting or other creative body motion鈥攈elps students develop confidence and teamwork skills, and visualize what they are learning.
鈥淔or the sake of awakening and engaging our students in today鈥檚 stressful, high-stakes academic climate,鈥� she wrote, 鈥渢eachers can find new inspiration by embracing kinesthetic teaching.鈥�
Image source: Texas A&M University Health Science Center