This document discusses the benefits of exercise for brain health and cognitive performance. It summarizes that regular exercise that gets the heart rate up to 65-75% for 20 minutes has been proven to improve learning and make people smarter. It advocates incorporating daily physical activity into school through activity stations and exercise to help increase test scores and attention. The intervention is needed because obesity, sedentary screen time, and physical inactivity have been rising sharply in youth while physical education classes have declined.

1. Spark: by John J. Ratey MD

2. The Revolutionary New Science of
Exercise and the Brain
 Help Beat Stress
 Sharpen Thinking
 Enhance Memory
 Supercharge Mental Circuts

3. What is it?
 Groundbreaking exploration of the connection
between exercise and the brain’s performance
 Proving that exercise improves our ability to
learn and in fact makes us SMARTER!
 Getting our heart rate up to 65% to 75% for 20
minutes increases brain power and attention.

4. What is it?
 Incorporate daily exercise into your school day.
 Evolving PE from the old to new.
 Activity stations with jump ropes, arobic steps, running
outside, treadmills, eliptical, use your imagination
 A way to increase test scores and kids attention in school

5. Why do we need this
intervention?
 65% of our nations adults are obese (Spark)
 30% of U.S. schoolchildren are overweight – six times more than 1980
and another 30% are on the cusp (Spark)
97% of the Freshman in 01 and 02
 10% have type 2 Diabetes (Spark) were at a healthy weight according
to their BMI in Naperville, IL.
 Students in grades 3-12 spend an average over six hours plugged in to
some type of media each day. (www.edutopia.org 2009)
 Take a look at P.E. classes now there is a lot of inactivity
 Less than 3% of adults over the age of 24 stay in shape through playing
team sports. (Phil Lawler)

6. Why do we need this
intervention?
 10,000 hours playing video games
 200,000 emails and instant messages
 20,000 hours of watching T.V.
 500,000 commercials seen
 At the very most 5,000 hours book reading
In there Lifetime…..
NO

7. Why do we need this
intervention?
They will do this before
leaving for College!

13. Naperville Central High School

16. 

19. What if…
52 million children from K – 12 who
attend public and private schools in the
U.S. Just think if all of them had the
benefit of Naperville-style physical
education, our next generation of adults
would be healthier, happier, and smarter.