Physical Activity and Academic Performance among Adolescents – An impact study using Active Science Mobile Application

Andres Lopez* and Manju Natarajan*

Received: November 28, 2018;   Published: December 10, 2018

DOI: 10.26717/BJSTR.2018.11.002169

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Abstract

Purpose: Obesity has been a significant problem in the United States and the availability for adolescent to participate in physical activity is limited by the reduction in physical education programs. In this study, we will evaluate the effectiveness of Active Science on academic performance and (PA) within a Physical Education (PE) program.

Methods: Twenty-five 6th grade students 10 years of age were recruited to participate in the intervention. Baseline activity levels were collected on all participants utilizing 3 days of PA. Prior to intervention participants took a pre-and post-assessments that measured attitude and science knowledge. The 3-week intervention included use of the Active Science mobile application. Participants wore accelerometers throughout the intervention and they performed PA within a PE program. At the end of the session participants imputed accelerometer data into AS app and completed science questions that were based of the Massachusetts STEM.

Data Analysis: Paired t-test will be performed to measure difference among groups

Results: There were improvements in average steps for both groups combined baseline steps were 966 and accumulated average was 1438. There was no significant finding among groups in PA. Improvements in science knowledge and attitudes were found for both groups (Group 1, 7% and 6% increase; Group 2, 22% and 14%) but there were no significant findings.

Conclusion: Although, the aforementioned research did not have significant data it is a great leading step to improve and validate the effectiveness of PE and its effectiveness on academic performance.