Recess Risk: Adding physical activity back into schools
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Childhood obesity is one of the biggest health problems facing kids today. The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention says nearly 20 percent of kids between the ages of six and 11 are obese and a lack of physical activity is a big contributor.
As kids spend the majority of their day in school, 24-Hour News 8 looked into what local districts are doing to keep them active.
Over the last decade, increasing education requirements from the state have forced schools to spend more time on instruction and less time on recess.
“It’s tough and a lot of them have been put in this spot of ‘do they choose more reading and math or exercise and recess.’ I think that’s a really difficult spot because most experts will tell you they need both,” says Tami Silverman, President & CEO of the Indiana Youth Institute.
The average length of recess for elementary school kids, nationally, is about 26 minutes per day, although that varies from grade to grade. In central Indiana, some of the largest school districts, like Lawrence Township, give kids as little as 15 minutes of play during the day. IPS and Noblesville give at least 20 minutes, while Hamilton Southeastern and Washington Township schools give between 20 and 30 minutes of recess daily.
At the same time, obesity rates are soaring among kids as 21 percent of 12 to 19-year-olds are obese. All totaled, the CDC estimates more than one-third of kids and teens in this country are overweight.
“Obese children will grow into obese adults if we don’t change something soon,” says Melissa Dexter who manages the Strong Schools grant program through IU Health aimed at addressing community health needs.
In the last three years, the Strong Schools grant program has awarded $60,000 to central Indiana schools with ideas to keep kids active. The grant is only available to schools deemed “at-risk,” where 50 percent of its students qualify for Free & Reduced Lunch.
“There are many factors that influence a person’s health,” says Dexter. “You can look at heredity and some of those traditional factors — but we are really finding that some of those social determinants of health are really an indicator of a person’s health and their future health, things like education and socioeconomic levels.”
Stout Field Elementary in Wayne Township is considered an “at risk” school and applied to receive the Strong Schools grant three years ago. A committee of teachers chose to use the money to fund standing desks and the very competitive “Pedometer Program” where teachers go head-to-head with students every day to see who can get the most steps.
“We decided to set a goal of 5,000 steps for students and 6,000 steps for adults and we just started tracking it and taking the data every month and having school-wide competitions between grade levels,” says 4th grade teacher and Strong Schools committee member, Paige Stuhrenberg.
Each teacher wears a fitness tracker and the classroom pedometer is worn by a different student every day. The steps logged by the teacher and students are recorded on a clipboard hanging outside the door of every classroom.
Tyah Willhoitte is a 5th grade student at Stout Field Elementary who says the program helps the whole school be more healthy.
“It helps you track your steps during the day. Right now, I have 715,” says Willhoitte.
When asked about the highest number of steps she has ever logged during the school day, Willhoitte responded by saying “14,000 [steps]. I just ran at recess, the whole time.”
The teachers use their own fitness trackers, often a Fitbit, and compete against each other through an app.
“We have weekly competitions,” says Stuhrenberg. “Some people are really active on the weekends. [The kids] are realizing ways that they can be moving more and that took a couple years for them to realize what would help them get more steps in a day.”
The grant program that funded the Pedometer Program is funding dozens of other projects around central Indiana. At the beginning of each calendar year, schools can apply for either a $1,500 grant or $3,000 grant through the Strong Schools program. Earlier this school year, IU Health awarded a $1,500 grant to 18 schools and $3,000 to 11 schools to address the lack of physical activity. Schools can apply for the next round of funding when the application becomes available in January, 2017.
“Indiana is among the Top 10 most obese states and we want to start addressing that,” says Dexter. “We know that when students learn something really exciting at school, they take it home to their parents and their siblings. So, we want to teach them those healthy habits so they can hopefully spread those healthy habits to the entire family.”