Action Research Questions

1. What is the title of this project?
Its More Than Throwing Out The Ball

2. What is the problem?
Students are less physically active, partially due to budget cuts for physical education programs, therefore, students are achieving lower academics scores.

3. Describe the instructional intervention.
By recognizing the importance of physical activity and mandating physical education as a necessity for school curriculum, students can achieve a higher academic level; because studies show that physical activity promotes neurogenisis which improves cognitive abilities, increases self-esteem, reduces stress, and increases energy levels.

4. What kind of strategy is the instructional intervention?
Simulations and games

5. What evidence is presented that the strategy will work?
Studies that show exercise reduces stress, and increases energy levels, therefore physically active students will be more alert during class time and less disruptive. Statistics are also included showing that overweight students perform at a lower academic level due to low self esteem and more frequent illness. Also due to a drop in students receiving physical activity, the student population is getting heavier and therefore performs below classroom expectations. On the contrary, students who participate in regular physical activity perform at better academic levels and are less likely to get sick, which improve absentee rates. There are also studies that show students who achieved at high levels on the fitnessgram also scored high on academic tests.

6. How will data be collected to determine if the strategy will work?
The data will be collected in three different ways. First, student surveys will be given asking students how they felt and performed in academic class after participating in physical education class. The next form of data collection is student/teacher observations. Ten sophomores and 10 juniors were randomly selected and teachers were to observe the students and note if they acted differently or performed better in class on days they participated in physical education class prior to class. The final method was a comparison analysis of students GPA’s between their fall semester when they were in physical education and the semester where they didn’t have physical education class.

7. How was the data analyzed?
The student surveys were analyzed by students who had positive responses about physical fitness and those who felt no change. The teacher/ student observations were analyzed by teachers who saw a change or increase of physical activity to those who saw no change. The comparison analysis compared the GPA of the students when they had physical education and when they didn’t. This was done to see a correlation between physical education and better academic achievement.

8. What were the results?
The student surveys showed that 54% of students had positive responses about physical fitness during the school day, while the others felt no change. The teacher/student observations showed that 42% of the teachers involved saw changes in their students and the others saw no change. The GPA analysis showed a positive association between students being physically active and achieving a high GPA. Of the 171 students analyzed, 88 students had a higher GPA the semester they were in physical education class. The research project strongly shows a positive correlation between students who are physically active and students who achieve at a high academic level.