Children who spent more time doing moderate or vigorous physical activity during school hours did not compensate for their extra exercise by reducing their activity levels at home, according to a study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Previous research has suggested that kids have a built-in "activitystat" that regulates the total amount of energy they expend (see Reuters Health story of May 7, 2009 here: reut.rs/iGDVdO…

In 1990 the state of Georgia introduced a statewide physical education requirement.

A recent study indicates that state laws mandating physical education minutes matters. "One study of kindergarteners to fifth graders across the U.S. found that physical education (PE) classes lowered body mass index (BMI) scores and reduced the probability of obesity among fifth graders. An additional hour of gym time lowered BMI for all children in th…

It has been well documented that physical activity enhances fitness and cognitive functioning.  A new study points out that we begin to lose some of  the benefits of exercise within a week of being inactive.  After 3 weeks of inactivity the brain benefits have faded even more.

These findings were presented at the 2012 annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in New Orleans.

This supports the notion of a healthy mind and healthy body are i…

Contributed by Andrea Bossenmeyer


Studies show that play reflects more of who you are than your work. When you're engaged in activities of "personal expressiveness," ones that are self-chosen and that reflect intrinsic goals, you're operating from the "true self," says Alan Waterman of the College of New Jersey.

As a self titled seeker, I love hearing about anything that helps me discover more of the truth. The trut…

Contributed by JC BoushhA recent article in Newsweek magazine blamed the decline of children's creativity on two likely factors. The numbers of hour’s kids now spend watching TV and playing video games and the lack of creativity development in our schools. The most optimal outdoor learning environment not only incorporates developmentally appropriate playground equipment, natural landscape features for exploration, but also the novelty and c…

Contributed by Andrea Bossenmeyer

Have you heard of Playreport? It's a new global research project on children and play. Ikea wants the world to play more so they sponsored and international survey of over 11,000 interviews in 25 countries.

The most notable discovery was that 9 out of 10 children would PREFER TO PLAY WITH PARENTS AND FRIENDS, rather than TV or Internet. The sad thing in the report was that parents reported they were too busy,…

Yet another study is showing that school recess plays an important role in school success for children. Recently a research focus has centered on the connection between recess/physical activity and academic performance. A study released February in Pediatrics documented the positive relationship between recess and improved classroom behavior.

A new report released by the Centers for Disease Control indicates that lack of parks and places to play is effecting children, their weight and contributing to childhood obesity crisis.

The report called the State Indicator Report on Physical Activity 2010 points out that about 1 in 5 children have a park within a half mile from their home. Teens face a similiar obstacle to exercise as fewer than 1 in 5 have daily physical education in their h…

by Travis Saunders Obesity Panacea

In most developed nations, kids get far less physical activity than they did just a few generations ago. Given the strong links between physical inactivity and health risk (and given that we're now seeing "adult" diseases like heart disease and type 2 diabetes in children and teenagers), this has become a very real public health concern. Unfortunately, when it comes to increasing childhood physic…

Study author Lesley Cottrell, an associate professor of pediatrics at West Virginia University, in Morgantown stated that, "Children's physical fitness is associated with their academic performance," according to a two year study completed recently.

In general, the fitter the student, the better the test scores, Cottrell's team found. The researchers evaluated almost 1,200 students, assessing their fitness in the fifth grade and…

Alarming new study indicates that children burdened with overweight and obesity were twice as likely to die before 55 compared to their thinnest counterparts. Most effected were the children with the pre-diabetes diagnosis.

The study, published Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine, analyzed data gathered from Pima and Tohono O’odham Indians, whose rates of obesity and Type 2 diabetes soared decades before weight problems became widesp…

Who knew that principals thought recess was so important? In fact, according to a research report entitled, "The State of Play", released yesterday, an overwhelming majority of principals (96%) conclude that recess has a positive impact on social development and (97%) of principals believe that recess has a positive impact on general well-being. But that's not all, 80% of them said recess has a positive impact on academic achiev…

This was a blog posting by my friend Bonnie of Bonnie's Fitware.

Online Learning Study Looks at Research

By Bonnie

Online learning is one of the fastest growing trends in educational uses of technology, according to the recently-released report Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Develo…

Great podcast on the ASCD Blog. The topic is Eric Jensen's new book, Teaching with Poverty in Mind: What Being Poor Does to Kids' Brains and What Schools Can Do About It.

I met Eric more than 20 years ago when I picked him up at the airport for a conference in which I was on the planning committee. He was the keynote speaker at the California's State Summer PE Conference. Listening to him talk about brain research is a rare treat …

Pardon my slight deviation from our typical topics...... I must confess I'm the ultimate Olympic Fan. I watch about 14 hours a day of Olympic coverage. No kidding. When I worked the 1984 Olympics in LA they were even better than I imagined. So here's a story on Vancouver games which start in exactly 20 days. But who's counting?

Economist Daniel Johnson is remarkably accurate at making Olympic medal predictions. As a matter of fact…

Play enthusiasts check out the Children's Play Information Service(CPIS).

(CPIS) is a specialist information resource providing information on all aspects of children’s play, focusing on school-age children. CPIS is funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Big Lottery Fund through Play England.

Play England has released a new report called, "Play for Change." It is a review of play, policy and practice in England. Play for a change, by Stuart Lester and Wendy Russell of the University of Gloucestershire, is published in three formats: a 270-page full research report, a 60-page summary, and a 4-page introductory briefing paper.

A copy of the report can be downloaded for free from the Play England website.

Interested in more inf…

If you are writing grants and need health and fitness statistics then check out the Play Think blog by J.R. Atwood. His post on Data Mining: We've got your numbers cites two such data banks.

playthink

Exercising the mind and the body-J.R. Atwood

* Kidsdata.org offers a tremendous amount of data from all counties, cities, and school districts in California related to the health and well-being of children. Bonus: all information on the site…

A child’s attention span begins to wane after forty minutes of intense instruction. “Recess provides children a chance to refocus,” according to study’s author, Catherine L. Ramstetter, a doctoral candidate at the University of Cincinnati.

A comprehensive review of published literature on recess throughout the United States showed that recess breaks as short as 10 minutes improve children’s learning efficiency and the teacher’s aptitude during …

Photo Leah-Anne Thomps

After school let kids play. Young kids shouldn't struggle with homework for academic purposes. Research suggests that kids better off playing than doing homework in early years.

The Sydney Morning Herald ran an interesting article on homework on Monday. The article points out something that teachers have know for a long time, "there is no evidence that homework benefits achievement during the early school years.…