Standing for success at school

An elementary school in the prairie province of Saskatchewan is involved in an interesting learning experiment.

There are no chairs in the classroom for young students in Grade 1 at Delisle Elementary in the town about 43 kilometres southwest of Saskatoon

Their teacher was looking into methods to rehabilitate his own injuries and came across studies showing the benefits of standing, and thought he’d try it in his class.

According to a study from three schools in Texas, when kids are given the opportunity to stand during classroom time, they burn more calories and seem to have greater attention span.  In that experiment “stand-bias” desks were used, high desks  with high stools available, such that students could both sit and stand during class

The research, conducted by A&M associate professor Mark Benden, introduced the high desks to 480 students in three elementary schools in the College Station Independent School District. Each kid wore a sensor on their arm to record “step count” and “calorie expenditure” across five consecutive school days. That study found that the stand-bias desks significantly increased activity. The students burned 15% more calories than a control group that used traditional sitting desks.  Benden said the desks also improved concentration, according to follow-up interviews with the 25 teachers involved,

This summer at Delisle elementary near Saskatoon, a few of the teachers took some old desks from storage and added height to them to enable their use while standing. The idea was also to test whether standing improved students health and their performance in class.

This past September the experiment began at Delisle Elementary.

So far the Grade 1 teacher,Justin Sauer says results are very promising.

“Three different families told me how their kids were sleeping better, going to bed easier and sleeping through the night better,” he said. “About half of the parents made a point of mentioning how they were supportive.”

While the children have the opportunity to sit and move around during the day, they seem to like the new concept.

“It’s kind of fun and it kind of makes us listen more better and stuff,” six-year-old Dillon Wawryk said.

“When you stand, it gets your legs stronger, and I like the feeling,” seven-year-old Rowan Walker said

So far however, no other teachers have said they also want to try the experiment

related : RCI- prolonged sitting- risks 

with files from CBC