Question: Are there any good resources I can use as a science teacher to try to encourage more physical activity in my students? Something that shows what the benefits are now and in later life?
As a side note my PhD research looked at the value of context for learning, so perhaps you could find ways of having the students collect actual data outside, for example I worked with a school who looked at flow rate & ph levels in a river so we walked around the local community taking river measurements, this means your students aren’t always stuck behind desks.
They might be interested to know the findings of a large study which assessed over 9000 people. Overall, physical activity in teenage years, rather than at other stages in life, was most strongly associated with lower probability of developing cognitive impairment in later life.
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SusannaMarie commented on :
As a side note my PhD research looked at the value of context for learning, so perhaps you could find ways of having the students collect actual data outside, for example I worked with a school who looked at flow rate & ph levels in a river so we walked around the local community taking river measurements, this means your students aren’t always stuck behind desks.
Masud commented on :
They might be interested to know the findings of a large study which assessed over 9000 people. Overall, physical activity in teenage years, rather than at other stages in life, was most strongly associated with lower probability of developing cognitive impairment in later life.
See: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3662219/
Of course, physical activity in late life can also be protective, but this work suggests starting early is best!