This document summarizes research on promoting physical activity in Orange County schools from an interdisciplinary perspective. It examines the issue through the lenses of health psychology, social psychology, leadership, and business. It discusses both agreements and conflicts between disciplines in addressing children's physical activity. The document also reviews Florida's physical education mandates, benefits of physical activity for children, and parental and teacher support for daily physical education. Finally, it proposes several programs and strategies Orange County schools could implement to increase students' physical activity.

1. Dedication
This project is dedicated to my
Godfather, who has a family that
struggled with obesity. Now we are in
the process of opening As I Am
Community Center and desire to
implement this information in the
workings to help children be healthy.
One step at a time to change of lives of
children day by day.
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2. I, Ashley Hampton, am an
interdisciplinary studies student
that loves children, desires to make
a difference, and enhance the life
of others. Graduating in this field
has given me a new way of seeing
life.
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3. What can the Orange County
School district do to promote
physical activity?
by
Ashley Hampton
IDS4934
7/31/2012 3

4. What disciplines are examined for this
research question?
• Health psychology
(How physical activity affects the body)
• Social psychology
( How the environment can play a factor)
• Leadership
(What leads or motivates children to
participate)
• Business
(Funding and structure of the programs)
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5. What is interdisciplinary research?
• Combining or involving two or more
disciplines to while looking for or analyzing a
question and/or problem.
• Basically this type of research goes beyond
one perspective and looks at the same subject
from various points of view.
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6. How are all of this disciplines in agreement?
(Common ground)
• Yes, children need exercise, but what dictates these habits or where children learn
certain traits vary?
• Social Psychology theorizes that children learn from their surrounding
environments.
• Health Psychology deals with gene-environment interactions and eating behaviors.
• Leadership is in the realm of who will direct the children to exercise which can
stem from the school, friends, family, and eating habits.
• Business, as far as schools are concerned, would work with the school board to
rearrange teaching techniques to incorporate physical activity and/or making time
for recess and gym.
• The basis of the common ground between the disciplines is the agreement that
children should exercise and do need to be healthy.
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7. What are the conflicts between these
disciplines?
The main conflicts within the disciplines
mostly deal mostly with leadership. Many
people believe that the initiation of children
participating in physical activity should come
from home and through the school system. Is
helping children be healthy the responsibility
of parents, the schools, or both?
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8. What’s wrong with the physical
education that already is in schools?
• Physical education in schools are flexible but they don’t
have detailed guidelines.
• Physical education classes can be taught by teachers that
aren’t licensed or certified.
• Most physical education requirements can be met online.
• There are no exams or testing to measure what the
students are learning.
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9. Cost/Injurie
• A lot of physical activity programs have been cut
or suspended due to a lack of funding. The cost of
a gym facility, equipment, and upkeep was big
enough to be taken out of some budgets. Schools
would rather spend money on books instead.
• Along with add physical activity is injuries, the
need for nurses, more supplies, and
precautionary measures. All of these needs add
to the cost of having physical activity programs.
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10. Florida’s Mandates on School’s
Physical Activity
• At least 150 minutes of physical education per week (average of 30
minutes per day) in grades K-5, but it does not require daily recess.
– Everyday physical activity is not required (NASPE 27)!
• Mandates physical education in grades 6-8, but does not specify minutes
per week.
– So any amount of time is ok?
• The state does not require the use of specific curricula for elementary or
middle school/junior/high (NASPE 29).
– Other subjects have specific curriculum, why is physical education any
different?
• The state allows required physical education credits to be earned through
online physical education courses (NASPE 31)
– How is it truly physical activity if you only have to sit in front of a computer to
complete it?
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11. Florida’s Mandates on School’s
Physical Activity Cont’d
• The state does not require student assessment in physical
education physical education is not included as one of the
subject areas on student report cards (U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention 10).
– Why would children take a school subject seriously if they are
not tested on the information and activities that they learn?
– If there is no type of assessment, then how can you measure
what children have retained?
• Certification or licensure of physical education teachers is
required only at the high school level (NASPE 30).
– So teachers that may have no knowledge of physical education
can be over a class at the elementary and middle school levels?
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12. Why is physical activity even
important?
• The U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS) has noted a direct correlation
between regular physical activity and health
among children and adolescents (U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, 7-10).
• Aids in preventing childhood obesity and chronic
disease(P-J, Naylor 11).
• If the First Lady of the United States, who has
several issues to contend with, is traveling around
our country and implementing ‘Let's Move’ after
school programs, that really does speak volumes
about the need for physical education!
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13. What can physical activity develop in
children?
• Muscle strength, coordination, and a new way
of interacting with social skills through
physical activity.
• Children learn how to make decisions,
cooperate, compete constructively, assume
leader/follower roles and resolve conflicts by
interacting in play (Barney 10).
• Play is an essential element of children’s
physical and social development.
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14. What information states that parents
and teachers support physical
education?
• According to one survey, nearly all parents (95%) think
that regular daily physical activity helps children do
better academically and should be part of a school
curriculum for all students in grades K-12 (NASPE 15).
• Three out of four parents (76%) think that more school
physical education could help control or prevent
childhood obesity (NASPE 9).
• The majority of parents believe that physical education
is at least as important as other academic subjects. The
percentages range from 54% to 84%, depending on the
subject being compared (NASPE 10).
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15. Is physical activity the schools
responsibility?
• Some say parents should start habits of exercise at home.
Schools should have to take school time for
recess, sports, P.E., and gym.
• The school’s responsibility is to give children a good
education, not giving them time play and be active.
• These activities should be done during the rest of the day
while the child is out of school.
• If healthy habits and traits are enforced at home, those will
over flow to when the child is at school as well. There
aren’t enough hours in a school day to spend it on playing
around.
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16. Shouldn’t schools spend time teaching
children instead of giving them time to
play?
• Daily physical education has a positive correlation
with academic performance and attitude toward
school.
• There are several significant patterns of
interaction between body motion and speech
that demonstrate a role for the body in cognition.
ideas of embodied cognition and demonstrates
how students can use their own embodied
experience to understand the world (Noble 10).
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17. What can Orange County do?
• Incorporate Action Schools (AS)
– Action Schools an active school model that provided
schools with training and resources to increase
children's Physical Activity (Mackey 340).
• Planned instructional program with specific objectives.
• Child care providers, recreation staff and coaches
need training to provide developmentally
appropriate, safe and enjoyable activities (AHA
12).
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18. What can Orange County do? Cont’d
• Include programs such as:
 Health education
 Elementary school recess
 After-school physical activity clubs and intramurals,
 High school interscholastic athletics,
 Walk/bike-to-school programs, and
 Staff wellness programs
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19. Backing of this effort!
• School initiatives must be supported and
reinforced in other community settings(P-
J, Naylor 11).
• With the backing of the White House and the
First Lady, more resources can and probably
will be dedicated to this issue.
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20. Have these programs been successful?
• A 2007-08 study of more than 2.4 million Texas students found that
students who were physically fit were more likely to do well on the
state’s standardized tests than students who were not physically
fit(Texas Education Agency 15).
• In 2009, the New York City Health Department and Department of
Education reported that physical fitness was associated with higher
academic achievement among their public school
students(Sherman, Clay P., Cynthia Tran, and Alves 12).
• 2010 CDC report analyzes a large body of evidence linking physical
education and school-based physical activity with academic
performance, including cognitive skills and attitudes, academic
behaviors and academic achievement (Sun, Haichun 220).
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21. Works Cited
• Barney, David, and Joe Deutsch 'Elementary Classroom Teachers Attitudes
And Perspectives Of Elementary Physical Education' Physical Educator 66.3
(2009): 114-123. Academic Search Premier. Web. 27 July 2012.
• H A McKay, et al. "An Active School Model To Promote Physical Activity In
Elementary Schools: Action Schools! BC." British Journal Of Sports
Medicine 42.5 (2008): 338-343. Academic Search Premier. Web. 10 July
2012.
• "Increasing Physical Activity." Solving the Problem Of Childhood Obesity. 5.
(2011): 65-85. Web. 29 Jul. 2012.
<http://www.letsmove.gov/sites/letsmove.gov/files/TFCO_Increasing_Phy
sical_Activity.pdf>.
• Journal Of School Health 75.6 (2005): 214-218. Professional Development
Collection. Web. 10 July 2012.
7/31/2012 21

22. Works Cited Cnt’d
• National Association for Sport and Physical Education. (2001). Physical
education is critical to a complete education.
• Noble, Tracy. "Body motion and physics: How elementary school students
use gesture and action to make sense of the physical world." Dissertation
Abstracts International Section A 68. (2007). PsycINFO. Web. 10 July 2012.
• P-J, Naylor. "Prevention In The First Place: Schools A Setting For Action On
Physical Inactivity." British Journal Of Sports Medicine 43.1 (2009): 10-13.
Academic Search Premier. Web. 11 July 2012.
• Turner, Lindsey, Frank J. Chaloupka, and Sandy J. Slater 'Variations In
Elementary School-Based Physical Activity Practices' Journal Of School
Health 82.7 (2012): 307-310. Academic Search Premier. Web. 18 July 2012.
7/31/2012 22

23. Works Cited Cnt’d
• Shape of Our Nation. Reston: National Association for Sport, 2010. Print.
• Sherman, Clay P., Cynthia Tran, and Yara Alves. "Elementary School
Classroom Teacher Delivered Physical Education: Costs, Benefits And
Barriers." Physical Educator 67.1 (2010): 2-17. Academic Search Premier.
Web. 10 July 2012.
• Sun, Haichun. "Exergaming Impact On Physical Activity And Interest In
Elementary School Children." Research Quarterly For Exercise & Sport 83.2
(2012): 212-220. Academic Search Premier. Web. 08 July 2012.
• Texas Education Agency. (2009). Physically fit students more likely to do
well in school, less likely to be disciplinary problems. Austin, TX: Texas
Education Agency.
7/31/2012 23

24. Works Cited Cnt’d
• U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
(2010). Physical activity, physical education and
academic performance: A review of the literature.
Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services. 2010.
• Vecchiarelli, Stephanie, Michael Prelip, and Wendelin
Slusser. "Using Participatory Action Research To
Develop A School-Based Environmental Intervention To
Support Healthy Eating And Physical Activity."
American Journal Of Health Education 36.1 (2005): 35-
42. Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 12 July
2012.
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