Prairie teachers test physical activity's influence on learning

Teaching a room of 12-year-olds right after lunch is a daunting task.

After 10 years of teaching, Prairie Creek Intermediate School literacy teacher Raney Kinsey-Thomas knows how difficult it is to reach her students during the post-lunch period.

"Normally, what I would see after lunch is a lot of heads on desks," she said.

So Kinsey-Thomas volunteered her class in the College Community school district when she got an email from physical education teacher Kelly Danilson in October. Danilson was looking for a colleague to collaborate on a project to possibly purge the afternoon doldrums.

Danilson's idea was simple: Kinsey-Thomas' students would spend their 20-minute homeroom period following lunch in the gym, exercising. They would go to literacy class after the workout, hopefully energized and ready for an afternoon of learning.

The experiment, which was part of Danilson's master's thesis, was inspired by research into the link between physical activity and academic performance.

A paper published by the Centers for Disease Control in 2010 looked at more than 50 studies in this area and found more than half showed positive links between exercise and classroom performance, said Carol Girdler, a clinical instructor at the University of Iowa College of Education. Less than 2 percent demonstrated a negative correlation.

"Physical activity prior to academic performance can have some positive influence, although it depends on the activity and also on the academic area," she wrote in an email.

Danilson was convinced by high-resolution brain scan images that show the human brain before and after physical activity. Before exercise, the brain is dark blue, indicating minimal mental activity. After a workout, the image becomes colorful with signs of increased thought.

"It makes sense. I always exercise in the morning before work, so I know I feel better afterward," he said. "How can I help my students, and how does that translate through the day?"

The experiment ran three days a week during the fall trimester. The 23 participants went straight from the lunch to the gym, where Danilson would run them through a variety of activities with a focus on cardiovascular exercise. Activities ranged from team sports, such as basketball, to spending time on exercise machines, such as treadmills.

Students then went to Kinsey-Thomas' literacy class, where she said the effects were immediately evident.

"Right away, they were more alert and energetic compared with the days they didn't go to the gym," she said.

The students agree. All participants said during exit interviews that they were able to focus better in class after the exercise, while 18 out of 23 also said they were more motivated to work hard.

Sixth-grader Meredith Bourgeous, 11, initially was skeptical of going straight into the gym after eating.

"I thought that after lunch I might get sick or something," she said.

She ended up enjoying the energy boost from being active before class.

"I felt like I was more alert and I could hear better," she said.

Jacob Welton, 12, was less certain the experiment affected his concentration, but he enjoyed the extra P.E. time.

The experiment ended last week with the end of the academic trimester, but both teachers are changing the way they approach their classes based on what they've learned.

For Danilson, that means breaking up the traditional structure of a P.E. class. The classic approach is to gradually cool down students toward the end of the period, leading to a break for giving students feedback.

"If you look at the brain scans and research, I shouldn't have them sit down at the end of class. I need to have them fired up. Oxygen needs to be flowing to the brain," he said.

Kinsey-Thomas is using more group work in her after-lunch classes, so students are not just sitting at desks. She also is introducing breaks of physical activity, such as the interlude dance popularized at University of Northern Iowa athletic events.

Prairie Creek Principal Sue Skala followed the experiment and is looking at possible ways of tweaking the school's schedule to take advantage of what's been learned. Nothing has been decided yet, but she hopes to possibly change the length and frequency of physical education classes in the future to take advantage of the brain boost.

"Anything we can do to get kids engaged in learning, we should be looking at," she said.