Not all children are erupting volcanoes of unrelenting energy. If you teach a physical education class, you might be looking for a way to bring along the less-dynamic students, demonstrating a way to help them monitor themselves to achieve a higher activity goal. Schools use pedometers as an affordable and acceptably accurate means of increasing fitness for students.
Background
In the 2000s, electronic pedometers used to count the number of steps taken by a student emerged as a tool for schools to "motivate students and track their physical activity over a specified period of time," writes Georgia State University kinesiology professor Jacalyn Lea Lund in "Performance-Based Assessment for Middle and High School Physical Education." The goal is to build on federal recommendations for Americans to accumulate 30 minutes or more of moderate-intensity activity, such as a brisk walk, on most days of the week, as endorsed by the President's Council on Physical Fitness in 2007.
Daily Activity
Pedometers costing $10 to $30 per unit allow an affordable means to collect data on activity levels. While the president's council recommends a universal activity level of 10,000 steps per day, Lund reviewed the scientific literature and found agreement that children ages 8 to 10 need to average 12,000 to 16,000 steps per day, and adolescents also need an age-specific level of 11,000 to 12,000 steps per day. Individual students might need a personalized goal that takes into consideration sustainability from day to day, she advises.
Physical Education
Physical education teachers use pedometers to encourage students to increase and track their physical activity. You explain to your students how to use the pedometer, what it measures and why, and the importance of regular physical activity to a healthy lifestyle. Students set a goal for the physical education unit or semester and log their steps per day so they can assess progress, Lund writes. Learning activities can use the pedometers to track activity. Financial constraints can prevent getting a pedometer for each student, so you might need to select a single class to use the pedometers, or rotate their use among students. Once the students see the benefits of their use, they might be inspired obtain their own to continue the program.
Considerations
Be prepared to note a paradox in student affinity to the devices. Nate McCaughtry of the Wayne State University Department of Kinesthesiology and coauthors of a 2008 study published in "Human Kinetics" found that more-active students wanted to get straight to running around during an activity without fooling with pedometers. Less-skilled and more-sedentary students by contrast appreciated using the pedometer to track their activity and spent more time talking about them with enthusiasm to teachers. They appeared to appreciate the pedometers as a challenge and chance to be good at something related to activity.
Member Comments