Michael Lea The Whig-StandardTaking a break to check their heart rates, instructor Adam Lynn's Grade 9 math class at Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute spends thir first 20 minutes on stationary bikes each morning in a pilot program to improve their fitness and concentration abilities.
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'Additional' fitness By MICHAEL LEA
Pandora Armbänder, THE WHIG-STANDARD Updated 10 months ago
When Sarah Duncan showed up for her first mathematics class at the start of the new high school year, she didn't expect to spend part of it spinning.
"I thought something was wrong with my schedule
Pandora Nz," she said, remembering the day she first saw what she thought was a math classroom, filled with stationary bikes.
Duncan, a Grade 9 student at Kingston Collegiate
Tiffany.Co.Uk, is part of a pilot program at the school. Called Tour de Fractions, it has students spending about 20 minutes of their 75-minute math class riding stationary bikes.
It is hoped an increased level of fitness will also increase the students' ability to concentrate on their academic studies, said Adam Lynn, a mathematics and physical education instructor at KC.
"Throughout the board we have been trying to incorporate more fitness into the phys-ed classes," he explained.
He said the students participating in such sports as volleyball or soccer can still have periods of time when their heart rate doesn't increase.
"Because they are doing a very skilled activity, they aren't moving much and we wanted to get them moving more," he explained, "so we have said
Pandora Charm, OK, you have done phys-ed, but they haven't actually done any fitness."
So, in a bid to increase his students' fitness while also improving their academic results, Lynn applied to the Limestone Learning Foundation for a grant to buy some stationary bicycles that he could incorporate into his regular morning Grade 9 applied math class.
This is the first year for the program at the school
Tiffany & Co, but the combination is "a pretty hot topic," he said
Pandora Charm, adding studies have shown an increase in the heart rate shows a corresponding increase in the ability to think and concentrate.
"Especially (for) students who struggle academically, their ability to think and concentrate will increase tremendously," Lynn said.
"I have actually seen it so far, in a very short period of time."
The combination also allows the students to take both mathematics and a fitness program all year, as opposed to the normal semestering system, where they might not take one or the other for months.
The new program is geared to the applied mathematics students, those who might be expected to struggle in the subject.
"It was a chance to see whether this would help them," Lynn said.
The students will take the class all year, five days a week, and get a credit in both math and physed at the end of it.
Telling students used to being video game-playing couch potatoes that they were about to spend 20 minutes on a bike was one of the unknowns of the program, said Lynn.
"I didn't know what was going to happen, but they have been phenomenal," he said. "I have had 100% attendance. I have had every student get on the bike."
Sometimes a student having a bad day may not put his heart into it, but Lynn said that, overall, the results have been better than studies that said positive reactions to the program by the students could take up to six months.
The students meet in the regular math classroom at 8:30 a.m. and then they go to the former fashion room next door
Tiffany Diamond, where almost 20 of the bikes are set up in rows.
With Lynn setting the pace, they start out slowly and gradually step up the momentum. At intervals, he will have them increase the tension to simulate going up a hill. Heart charges are monitored to see how high they are going.
"What I have been trying to do is give them little spurts of high intensity, make them turn the dial up so their heart premiums get up. A bunch of them will get to 140. That's what I want to get them at."
Some of the students pass the time reading, others listen to their iPods or talk with their neighbour. A radio plays music from the school's own station.
Once the session is over, they take a brief bust for a drink of water and then go back into the classroom for mathematics for the remainder of the period.
"If they do 20 minutes on the bike and their heart premiums are up , then they go and do the math and they are really focused," said Lynn.
He has noticed that if he has them do a strength activity instead of the bikes
Tiffany Jewelry, such as using medicine balls, their heart rates stay lower and so does their concentration.
So far, his conclusions are observational only. There have not yet been any tests to determine the effect of the bikes.
"I have given them a survey to give me a starting point of their attitudes and their feeling towards exercise and math, so I will probably wait about two months before I re-administer that, just to see."
Each student monitors his or her heart rate regularly, so Lynn expects they will soon find the cycling easier as their fitness level improves.
If a student feels strongly against taking the program, they can opt into a regular math class.
"If it works out, and I have faith that it will, we would like to keep it going and maybe even expand it to other classes," Lynn said.
Duncan said she likes the addition of the bikes to her regular class and has noticed a definite difference in her ability to focus on school work.
"It helps a lot," she said. She says there's also a more
practical reason.
"It's better than doing math for
an hour and 15 minutes." Fellow student Dominick
Dudek knew about the bikes ahead of time. He said the early morning workout can be a bit hard to take at times "but you get used to it."
He also finds he can concentrate better immediately afterward.
"You are more awake," he said. But the fitness program can
only go so far in changing a teenager's lifestyle.
"Once I get home, I play videos hard core," he added.
mlea@thewhig.com
" Lynn said.
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