Exercise and the Brain: The connection between learning and movement

Lisa Fluckiger Final Project, EDGR 535 Concordia University Online

The Mind-Body Connection

In order for man to succeed in life, God provided him with two means, education and physical activity. Not separately, one for the soul and the other for the body but for the two together. With these two means, man can attain perfection. -- Plato (Cited in Ratey, 2008)

The Mind-Body Connection

As a nation, we move less and less, but evolutionwise, we are born movers. (Medina, 2011). The more we learn about the brain, the more we know that physical exercise makes the brain function at its best (Ratey, 2008). Obesity and diabetes were once afflictions of the middle-aged, but are now epidemic among children Were literally killing ourselvesand what virtually no one recognizes, is that inactivity is killing our brains too physically shriveling them (Ratey, 2008).

Neurogenesis the birth of brain cells

You may remember learning that Not true! you are born with all the brain cells that you will ever have.

In the 1998, research showed that the adult human brain does produce new brain cells (neurogenesis) through the hippocampus (Erikkssen et. al., 1998).

The Brain Can Change and Grow Brain plasticity describes structural changeable, The brain is much more plastic, orchanges in the brain as it adapts to new experiences and than we knew before. learning changes in cells, molecules, and connections (Cotman, C., & Berchtold, N., 2002).

Over the last 20 years, research has shown that neurogenesis actually occurs in adults. (Society for Neuroscience).
One reason for the brains plasticity is (brain-derived neurotrophic factor).

BDNF

BDNF is Brain Fertilizer

BDNF is a protein that

Improves the function of Encourages growth of neurons neurons Strengthens and Heres the next miracle:protects neurons exercise increases the production of neurons and also increases levels of death that helps neurons grow against cell BDNF (Medina, 2011). Appears to be Is a crucial link between emotions, cognition, and important for longmovement (Ratey, 2008) term memory

If we are looking for a metaphor, BDNF is Miracle Gro for the brain. Its the Master Molecule of learning (Ratey, 2008; Medina, 2011).

How does exercise affect learning? Exercise improves learning in three ways: It puts the brain in a state of alertness, attention, and motivation (Jensen, 2005; Ratey 2008).

It prepares and helps neurons to connect to each other (Ratey, 2008)

It initiates the creation of new neurons from stem cells in the hippocampus (Erikkssen et. al., 1998). Once new neurons are created, they need something to do at this point, you need to use it or lose it (Ratey, 2008).

A New P.E.
Over the past decade, thousands of schools in 39 states have switched to a new kind of P.E. that focuses on fitness, rather than competitive athletics (Ratey, 2008; PE4Life)
This shift toward daily, active exercise has had a remarkable effect on academics and behavior.

In our department, we create the brain cells. Its up to the other teachers to fill them.
-- Paul Zientarski, Naperville High School P.E. teacher
(cited in Ratey, 2008)

A New Kind of P.E. Its about enabling each student to maintain a

eliminates practices that humiliate students. And it assesses students fitness goals. A [quality] program exposes kids to the its really that simple. on their progress in reaching personal physical activity and

physically-active lifestyle forever. It means emphasizing fitness and wellbeing, not athleticism. It

fun and long-term benefits of movement

(PE4Life)

-- Phil Lawler, Naperville High School P. E. Teacher

The next 7 slides highlight four schools that utilize the link between exercise and learning.

Exercise Improves Academic Performance Naperville, Illinois School District 203 integrated a new Learning Readiness PE (LRPE) class in 2005. This program found a link between physical education and improved math and literacy scores when offering physical activity daily before reading and math classes.

Significant improvements were seen from the first year. Students enrolled in a PE class immediately before math increased their algebra readiness by an average of 20% compared to only 4% in the students who took PE several hours after math class. (PE4Life Results)

Exercise is most beneficial right before academics Naperville, IL High School In one semester, those with LRPE immediately before literacy class increased their reading and comprehension scores by 1.4 years on a grade level equivalency scale. Students enrolled in LRPE an hour before reading class scored nearly twice as high as those who had a longer time frame between the classes. (PE4Life Results)

More Data from Naperville School District 203

has remained at 3%, compared to a national average of 18% or more (Ligon & Cowart, 2009, Ratey, 2008).

As an added bonus, the schools obesity rate

In 1999, Naperville Middle School students took the TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study). They scored 1st

in science and 6th in math, while as a whole the U.S. ranked 18th and 19th (Ratey, 2008).

in the world

Effect of Exercise on Behavior

Decreased Discipline Incidents Decreased Disciplinary Incidents Elementary School, in Woodland the urban core of Kansas City, Woodland Elementary Missouri, also changed from School, week school in the once a a K-5 PE to daily aerobic urban core of minutesCity,day) PE classes (45 Kansas per Missouri, integrated 45 year. in the 2005-2006 school minutes of daily aerobic exercise one year, the After just in 2005-2006. number of out-of-school suspensions After just one year, the dropped 67%. number of out-of-school suspensions dropped from The number of discipline 1177 to 392 (67%). from incidents droppedThe 228 to number of discipline incidents 94, a 59% drop. dropped from 228 to 94 (59%) (PE4Life Results). (PE4Life, Results)

Long-term effects of exercise in school Sustained Discipline Decrease The number of out-ofschool suspensions and discipline incidents have been markedly lower over the past four years since Woodland Elementary implemented daily active PE. The average number of suspensions has decreased 51%, and discipline incidents have dropped 31%. (PE4Life, Results)

Transformation in Titusville, PA
Titusville school district decided to implement what they saw in Naperville. Heres what they did: Installed fitness centers in secondary schools. Bought heart rate monitors Local hospital helped fund diagnostic equipment.
Added 10 minutes to the daily schedule, shaved time away from core classes.

Implemented daily aerobic PE classes (Ratey, 2008). The Results? Reading test scores went from below the national average to 17% above it. Math test scores went from below the national average to 18% above it.

In the junior high school, not a single fist fight among the 550 students since the year 2000 (Ratey, 2008).

City Park Collegiate School Saskatoon, SK, Canada Allison Cameron, a teacher at City Park Collegiate, read about the academic gains of the students in Naperville, and asked her principal if she could incorporate exercise into her special education classroom (Brain Gains, 2009). City Park is a last-chance alternative high school. Camerons students were mostly boys, many with ADHD, who had an average grade 4 reading level (Brain Gains, 2009).

The students began using the treadmills for 20 minutes every day, and immediately began to see both academic and behavioral gains (Brain Gains, 2009).

City Park Collegiate School, contd.

In 4 months, Camerons students made an average gain of one years growth in Reading, Writing, and Math; furthermore, some students began to read for the first time (Brain Gains, 2009)!

More About the Effect of Fitness on Academics A study at Virginia Tech showed that cutting gym class in favor of academics did not improve test scores (Ratey, 2008).

In 2001, The California Department of Education (CDE) compared their students state test scores with their scores on the FitnessGram a pass/fail test that measures overall strength, flexibility, percentage body fat, and endurance (Ratey, 2008).

Fit kids scored twice as well on academic tests as peers who were unfit (Ratey,
Results? 2008).

A Review of 850 Studies Confirms It After reviewing 850 studies of effects of physical activity on school-age children, thirteen noted researchers concluded

that school-age youth

should participate daily in 60 minutes or more of moderate to vigorous physical activity (Strong et. al., 2005).

This panel supported the CDE studies, and also reported that physical activity has a positive influence on:

concentration

memory

classroom behavior
(Strong et. al., 2005).

Now what? Take 15 minutes and watch Brain Gains

(Leishman, 2009; see link on Reference page)

Consider how you can integrate movement into your methods.

Brain Rules Website

Practical Applications Educators can purposely integrate movement into classrooms by

Daily stretches (Sroka, 2004; Kirsch, 2008) Walks and brain breaks Michigan Dept. of Education (2005) Active and collaborative learning (Reed, J.; UdvariSolner, A., & Kluth, P., 2008) Movement and dance (Skoning, 2008) Drama daily or weekly role plays (Bany-Winters, 1997) Recess - important for everyone! Physical education (http://www.pe4life.org/)

Summary

Strong evidence supports the mind-body connection. Movement increases the number of brain cells. By causing production of BDNF, movement increases learning.

As a side benefit, it also decreases obesity and improves behavior.

We need to use our resources to take advantage of the hidden power of movementIts time for educators to catch on (Jensen, 2005, p. 67).

References
Bany-Winters, L. (1997). On stage: theater games and activities for kids. Chicago, IL: Chicago Review Press.

Cotman, C. & Berchtold, N. (2002). Exercise: a behavioral intervention to enhance brain health
and plasticity [Electronic version]. TRENDS in Neurosciences, Vol.25 No.6 June 2002. Retrieved from http://resulb.ulb.ac.be/facs/ism/docs/behaviorBDNF.pdf Erikksson, P., Perfilieva, E., Bjork-Erikksson, T., Alborn, A., Nordborg, C., Peterson, D., & Gage, F. (1998). Neurogenesis in the adult human hippocampus. Retrieved from http://www.societyns.org/runn/2009/pdfs/Bednarsept2109Neurogenesis1998.pdf Jensen, E. (2005). Teaching with the brain in mind (2nd edition). Alexandria, VA: ASCD Kirsch, J. (2008) Classroom Exercise Makes Learning Lively [Video]. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/classroomexercise-video

Ligon, L., and Cowart, C. (2009). One School Tackles Obesity Statistics. Retrieved from
http://www.fox10tv.com/dpp/news/OneSchoolTacklesObesityStatistics Leishman, Joan (2009, April 23). Brain Gains [Video]. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/thenational/indepthanalysis/story/2009/10/06/national-braingains.html Medina, B (2011). Rule #1: Exercise. Retrieved from Brain Rules Website: http://www.brainrules.net/exercise Michigan Dept. of Education (2005). Brain Breaks. Retrieved from: http://www.emc.cmich.edu/brainbreaks/ PE4Life (n.d.) Results. Retrieved from http://www.pe4life.org/about-us/results/

References, contd
Ratey, J. (2008). Spark: the revolutionary new science of exercise and the brain. New York, NY: Little, Brown, and Company Reed, J. (n.d.). Integrating Movement into the Classroom. Retrieved from http://www.moveintheclassroom.com/ Society for Neuroscience (2011). Adult Neurogenesis. Retrieved from http://www.sfn.org/index.aspx?pagename=brainbriefings_adult_neurogenesis Skoning, S. (2008). Movement and dance in the inclusive classroom [Electronic version]. TEACHING Exceptional Children Plus. Vol. 4(6). Retrieved from: http://journals.cec.sped.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1512&context=tecplus&seiredir=1#search=%22Skoning%20Movement%20Dance%20theInclusive%20Classroom%22 Sroka, B. (2004, October). Take a 5-Minute Yoga Break. Instructor [Electronic Version]. Retrieved from http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/instructor/Oct04_yoga.htm Strong, W., Malina, R., Blimkie, C., Daniels, S., Dishman, R., Gutin, B., Hergenroeder, A., Must, A., Nixon, P., Pivarnik, J., Rowland, T., Trost, S., Trudeau, F. Evidence based physical activity for school-age youth [Electronic Version]. The Journal of Pediatrics, 146:732-7. Retrieved from http://www.healthywv.com/shared/content/page_objects/content_objects/ pdf_documents/youth_pa_recs.pdf Udvari-Solner, A., & Kluth, P. (2008). Joyful learning: active and collaborative learning in inclusive classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.