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Building Strong Brains and Bodies | Send Feedback
I'm a word guy. If I see a word that I don't know the meaning of, I immediately grab a dictionary or go to Google and find out what it means. Then...I hate to admit this...I show off by using it a few times. I know. I have issues about words. Putting aside my intellectual insecurity which is wrapped in erudition, one of my current word faves is "counterintuitive."
Basically, this word means that something is contrary to intuition. If most people would think that something is thus and such, but it's really the opposite, that my friend makes it counterintuitive.
This brings us to a couple of recent studies on physical fitness and learning.
Most people intuit that scheduling more time for academic subjects and less time for physical fitness activities should enhance the learning process in kids. Well, in a classic case of counterintuitiveness, it ain't necessarily so.
A few months ago at the annual meeting of the "Obesity Society," Catherine Davis, an associate professor of pediatrics at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta presented research that suggests that kids who play hard every day, may be making their brains stronger. USA Today picked up the story on November 11th and those of us who favor more and better physical education enjoyed a self-satisfied group nod.
Professor Davis and her colleagues worked with 163 sedentary, overweight children, ages 7 to 11 for three months. The children were divided into three groups: a control group that did no physical activity after school, a group that did 20 minutes of vigorous physical activity five days a week after school and a group that did 40 minutes of vigorous physical activity.
The kids played high-energy running games, jump rope and modified basketball. They wore heart rate monitors and were given rewards for maintaining a high average heart rate (notice...nobody got rewards for scoring goals). These children were then given cognitive-function tests at the beginning and end of the study. They were tested for their math and reading achievement and something called "executive function." I think we can safely assume that this "executive function" was not buzzing an assistant for more coffee.
So, what happened?
The kids in the 40-minute activity group had significant improvement on an executive-function compared with the control group. They increased by about 4 points on a cognitive performance scale. Those kids in the 20-minute group show about half this improvement.
There was a small improvement in math achievement for both exercise groups but no signs of improvement in reading.
No surprise...the exercise groups also lost about 1%-2% of body fat.
Most interesting, the researchers performed brain scans and found that kids who were exercising appeared to have more neural activity in the frontal areas of their brains, and important area for executive function. Prof Davis noted that the "animal literature tells us that exercise stimulates the growth of blood vessels and neurons in the brain, so we think the same thing may be happening in the children."
Not too long back, a study that followed a group of 200 sixth graders found that children who engaged in physical activities such as soccer, football or skateboarding performed about 10% better in their math, English, science and other classes. This study was published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise. It further noted that students who regularly exercised enough to elevate their heart rate and breathing did show better school performance. They speculated that physical activity helps alleviate boredom and increase attention span.
After reading these types of studies, the school boards around the country will hopefully realize the benefit of innovative physical education. Then strong bodies and strong brains will not be mutually exclusive and physical education that enhances academics will no longer be seen as counterintuitive.
So, do you have a big word that you would like to submit to our readers? Have you got a clue about physical education? Post it here.