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Playstation 2 and Xbox! Kids these days seem to prefer video games to physical activity.
Obesity rates among today’s youth have soared to crisis levels and the impact is being felt in classrooms across the country. Can we as educators do something to turn the tide? We think we can!
Exercise contributes to physical fitness. People who are more physically fit tend to have fewer stress related health problems. A combination of low fitness and high stress levels can leave you vulnerable to getting more illnesses. Better fitness can improve both physical and mental health. Physical activities are helpful in improving cardiopulmonary fitness and in reducing anxiety.
Paula Bruchhaus, a fourth grade teacher at Prien Lake Elementary, started a running club for fourth graders. Fourth grade was chosen because it is the elementary grade in which the LEAP test is administered. Research shows that the most immediate method of stress reduction is exercise time. Exercise improves the ability to relax and sleep, promotes self-esteem, enhances energy, concentration, and even memory.
The growing concern about childhood obesity, and the lack of time allotted to physical education, helped drive the decision to initiate a running club. The goal was to take a simple concept, running, and motivate kids to participate with group interaction and prize incentives for encouragement.
Letters were sent home to all fourth graders with seventy-seven out of one hundred six students joining the Prien Lake Running Club immediately and three students later coming aboard. Bruchhaus supplied each child with a personalized folder and forms to record their miles run. Using the weekly form, they set goals, kept track of dates, miles run, time, location, and comments. Parents verified the recorded information with their signature. Every Monday the folders were checked by the teacher. Students graph their miles with stickers on large incentive charts. For each 25 miles completed, students received a prize incentive including water bottles, towels, armband radios with headphones, stopwatches, backpacks, travel cases, chairs, and trophies. All prizes have the Prien Lake Running club logo imprinted on them. Responding to the benefits of involving the community in education, Bruchhaus decided to ask for local businesses to sponsor the club. Because of the great concern about the physical fitness issues effecting today’s youth, EVERY business leader approached agreed to help. When 16 businesses had given over $4,000, the tee-shirts and prizes were ordered. The tee-shirts say, “Prien Lake Running Club, LEAPing to the Finish Line”, with the sponsors listed on the back of the shirt.
Students meet every Monday after school for one hour. During the first 30 minutes students meet in the library and discuss upcoming races in the area, recognize those who participated in recent races, give prizes to students who reach 25 miles, and listen to guest speakers. Guest speakers include community leaders such as local pediatricians and triathletes. The last 30 minutes the club members hit the playground and run together. To enable the students to keep track of laps run and since the running area is limited in size, wonderful parent volunteers use markers to mark students’ hands as they run by each time.
This first year was a huge success. It was very exciting at the first meeting to see the huge group of kids READY to run and the word “Go” brought quite a stampede. All the local races had Prien Lake Running Club members who participated. The announcers at a couple of the races kept asking if all the kids at the starting line were aware that it was a 5K (3.1 miles) and not a 1 mile fun run. They weren’t used to seeing large numbers of kids able to run a 5K. The club even had a 9 year old, Clay, who ran a 13.1 mile half marathon. Thirteen of our students participated in the GatorKids Triathlon. On May 13, 2005 many of our students participated in the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life. Several dedicated students even walked into the wee hours of the morning to show their support.
The Lake Charles American Press and the local TV station asked to come visit, so they could find out more and do a news story on the newly formed running club. Once the story had run on the local station, NBC asked for the rights to air the story nationwide.
On a world map in Bruchhaus’s classroom, students tracked total distances run by the club. They started with a dot in Lake Charles, LA and within a few weeks had reached Florida. Between December 13, 2004 (the first meeting) and May 31, 2005 the running club members ran 4,831 miles, and came within an inch of crossing the Atlantic Ocean and touching land in Africa.
Another positive benefit to the running club is the family involvement. Many parents have expressed their appreciation because the entire family is now exercising together being motivated by the students pushing for their miles.
The running club is financially feasible because of the great community support. Over 75 % of our fourth graders were impacted by this program. Our PE instructor timed the fourth graders when they ran a mile in the fall, (before running club) and he timed them again at the end of the year. The members improved their times by 132 hours and 39 minutes which averaged over 1 ½ minutes per child.
Many schools are de-emphasizing physical education with the pressing academic needs and testing pressures. As a society we think it is important that students learn about topics such as Phythagorean theorem, the Bill of Rights, and the works of Shakespeare, but we apparently do not care whether they know how to stay healthy enough to benefit from this knowledge. According to the American Academy of Family physicians, recent studies in the U.S. , Sweden , Germany , and Australia have all demonstrated that there is a positive correlation between being physically active and improved cognitive abilities. In other terms, if you want to get smarter, get fitter.
In summary, the running club is a simple idea that created a very cost effective way to motivate students to become physically active. It has been able to impact 80 kids and their families with tremendous community involvement in the program. Any school that can find a teacher who understands the importance of physical fitness and has an interest in running can easily begin a school running club.
Prien Lake Elementary LEAP test scores this year were better than ever. Could it be the research is correct? We think so! If you want to get smarter - get fit!
KPLC TV Story	Parent Letter	Slide Show

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