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Get Outside!

Posted in Health, Parenting, tagged , , , on July 3, 2015| 1 Comment »

outside

I am typically not a fan of organizations using the “Report Card” device as a way to draw attention to their reports. Usually, I see organizations produce a report lamenting the work in a specific areas, looking to generate headlines like, “Organization X Gives Y Failing Grade.”

The recent ParticipACTION Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth  does do some of that, but is far more nuanced.  While yes, it does give a D- to overall physical activity, there are good grades for a number of areas including youth participation in sports, support of parents, government and non-government investment and the role of schools.  The report lauds the physical education curriculum in each province, with special mention of Manitoba.

The most powerful part of the report was the focus on getting kids outside and letting them play.  Quoting the report:

We may be so focused on trying to intervene in our children’s lifestyles to make sure they’re healthy, safe and happy, that we are having the opposite effect . . .  We overprotect kids to keep them safe, but keeping them close and keeping them indoors may set them up to be less resilient and more likely to develop chronic diseases in the long run.

The report relies on a variety of studies that have a number of conclusions that, while not surprising, run counter to many current practices including:

  • pre-schoolers spend twice as much time being active when play is outdoors
  • students take 35% more steps when physical education class is held outdoors
  • Canadian kids who play outside after school get 20 more minutes of heart-pumping activity per day than those who don’t

One conclusion that I found particularly striking is that children and youth are less likely to engage in higher levels of physical activity if a parent or supervising adult is present.

With my Superintendent view, some of the takeaways for me include:

  • We are on the right track in our district (and others in BC) with outdoor learning programs – and we need to continue to encourage their growth
  • The growth of urban agriculture courses and school gardens is an important trend – outdoor learning does not just have to be about physical activity
  • We need to be careful that safety and liability concerns don’t unnecessarily block wonderful outdoor learning opportunities
  • We need to be sure that recess and other outdoor learning opportunities are valued and we need to remind parents that kids should get outside even when it is cold or rainy
  • There is going to be increased emphasis on natural elements in playgrounds moving forward
  • The urgency around physical literacy is inclusive of doing a better job with structured opportunities and also ensuring kids have unstructured free play opportunities

The report takes the bold position, “Access to active play in nature and outdoors – with its risks – is essential for healthy child development.  We recommend increasing children’s opportunities for self-directed play outdoors in all settings – at home, at school, in child care, the community and nature.”

My hesitation in reading the report is that some will suggest that we just have to go back to the “way it used to be when we were young”.  I am always concerned with this view.  The world today is different for kids than the one their parents grew up in – it is not as simple as turning back the clock; we also often have a habit of romanticizing our youth.  The answer around getting kids active is not telling people we just need to go back to how things used to be it is about building something new rooted in our current reality.

The entire report is worth reading, and there are some great resources to share with teachers, parents and others in the community (e.g. this Infographic and this tip sheet) .  Reading the report, and reviewing the data there is a strong case for broadening our current thinking about how we encourage  young people to be active.

And as we embark on summer it is a good reminder that we need to model the way with our kids and get outside!

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Kids Today . . . Some Good News!

Posted in Change, Health, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on May 12, 2014| Leave a Comment »

health

There are observations often made about young people today. Young people today are “taking more risks” or “using more drugs”.  The observation becomes generalized that young people today are “just not as good” as young people of the past. The observations are insinuated quietly and, as isolated incidents emerge, they become referenced through the media in a way to punctuate the negative narrative. More observations are then made about why the incident has happened; maybe it is all the video games, or a shift in societal values, or that we are raising a generation of young people who are just not quite up to standard of those before them.

Well, this is where the latest survey results from the McCreary Centre Society  become interesting.  The McCreary Centre Society “is a non-government, non-profit organization committed to improving the health of B.C. youth through research and community-based projects.”  Since 1992, they have had students complete surveys on a range of topics related to comprehensive school health. The latest results published this year are the fifth such set of results based on the surveying of about 30,000 students in Grades 7 to 12.

Unfortunately, the media release which accompanied the results from the McCreary Adolescent Health Survey did not seem to generate a lot of discussion. Quoting from the release:

Results show that youth are generally making better choices about risk behaviours than they have in previous years. For example, a lower percentage of students reported having tried tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, or other substances than their peers five and ten years ago. They were also more likely to engage in injury prevention behaviours, such as wearing a seat belt and not driving after drinking.

These choices may also be reflected in better health outcomes: students were less likely to have had a sexually transmitted infection or to have been pregnant or caused a pregnancy, and a smaller percentage reported serious injuries than in previous years.

Other encouraging news from the survey included a decrease in the percentage of students who had been physically or sexually abused, as well as in the percentage who had been sexually harassed.

Now, that is a story that just doesn’t fit in with the observations. In fact, the kids today are actually doing pretty good.

The McCreary data is exceptionally useful for school districts in our planning processes. We have already spent quite a bit of time dissecting data and there is more time that will be spent still to come.  With thanks to Maureen Lee, our District Administrator (all data charts and graphs below are Maureen’s) we are looking at current areas of strength, concern and noticeable trends.

There has been tremendous work around school safety over the last decade. From the province’s ERASE Bullying Strategy, to numerous local school and community initiatives, there has been a sustained focus in this area.  Our data is trending in a direction that shows these efforts are paying off:

 

safety in schools

The “%” listed is for 2013 and the “%” bracketed is for 2008.  In all areas of the school, students are reporting they are feeling more safe and the numbers reporting they feel safe “Usually” or “Always” is over 90 per cent.

As we look at substance use the statistics are flat for marijuana, with three in 10 young people every having used it; tobacco use is slightly less with one in four having tried smoking. Of other drugs, it is prescription pills that still standout — although down from 17 per cent in 2008, the number is still at 10 per cent.  This has been a concerted area of work in our community with the school district working with West Vancouver MP, John Weston, the West Vancouver Police Department, as well as other partners to raise awareness on this issue.

The alcohol data shows the number of students who have tried alcohol has dropped by about 10 per cent and there has been a slight increase of students who have not “ever tried alcohol”.  It is also interesting to note, of those who have used alcohol, the age of first use has risen — so, young people are choosing to drink in lower numbers and are also choosing to drink later:

 

alcohol

In looking at the foods our young people are consuming, some of the messages around fruits and vegetables seem to be sticking.  Our young people are also drinking more water than when previously surveyed:

food

 

One final chart, which really struck me, was the one on Internet safety (below). Over the last five years, technology use in the hands of young people has exploded; it has become increasingly mobile and we are also encouraging students to bring their devices to school. In spite of this quick and huge growth in technology, students are reporting they feel safer with fewer feeling unsafe online and fewer reporting they have been cyber bullied.  Again, this is an area of huge investment between schools and communities and it does appear to be paying off:

 

cyber safety

As with learning outcomes, we have to be careful when we talk in percentages. If four per cent of students are feeling unsafe, these numbers represent real children and anything below 100 per cent (feeling safe) tells us we still have work to do.  We should be pleased with the story our young people are telling us and we can also take this as a clear message we need to keep doing what we are doing — our interventions are working.  There are also other areas we must continue to focus on including mental health, a lack of sleep and physical activity.

The Provincial BC Adolescent Health Survey is available on their website here.  The McCreary Centre Society will also be producing documents for each of the 16 health service delivery areas.

Of course, there are areas we still need to focus on and even in areas of strength, we must remain diligent. But, we do need to tell the story of our young people today and their health — it is a good story, an improving story and not just an observation.

 

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Physical Activity Training is Going Digital

Posted in Assessment, Health, Personalized Learning, tagged , , , , , on February 20, 2014| 8 Comments »

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As I walked into our Soccer Academy class, the students were getting ready for their workout and part of that process is to adjust their heart-rate monitors.  The teacher, Jesse Symons, had an iPad to monitor the heart rates of all students in the class.  As he reviewed the live data, it was interesting to see what he was looking for.  As the intensity of the workout increased, he was looking for students who were raising their heart rate to a place where they were pushing themselves.  He could review the data of the entire class and see how much time each student spent in each “zone”.  Based on a colour scheme, red was the optimal zone for high intensity workouts. Also interesting to see was how quickly students’ heart rates would recover to a resting heart rate during breaks. This, as he pointed out, was usually a sign of strong athleticism, of an athlete who could quickly raise and lower their heart rate. Students who struggle to lower their heart rate (as activities slow down) are often not in as strong a condition.

Jesse Symonds reviews the live data

Jesse Symons reviews the live data

Of course, the next step is for students to understand the data.  Students are able to login to see their specific data and, as Jesse joked, the data doesn’t lie. It is early days yet, but there has already been some interesting findings.  For example, with Grade 8, high-level soccer players, there was a gender difference with many of the top female athletes not seeing their heart rates push to optimal levels for extended periods of time.  The fitness monitoring in the soccer academies is part of an Innovation Grant Program through the West Vancouver School District, with similar efforts also being made with Hockey Academy students.

Jesse talks about how heart rate monitors are being sourced with the Vancouver Whitecaps and the National Team. Combined with a GPS, the monitors give a full picture of their activity levels.  It is clearly a growing area in the science of sports and physical activity.

Personally, I’ve become convinced of the power of digital health tracking over the past few months since I started wearing my Fitbit. Actually, four of us have similar devices in our house — my wife and two older kids (ages 12 and 10) are also wearing these devices.  My Fitbit Force tracks my steps, distance, calories burned, minutes of vigorous activity and even my quality of sleep. There are dozens of these type of devices on the market with many more being promised this year. A report last week on wearable tech devices suggests these devices may see a 350 per cent growth in sales in 2014. I also think they have a huge potential to benefit students. For decades we have been encouraging students to keep logs and diaries of their physical activity.

Currently, in BC, through the Daily Physical Activity mandate, students track vigorous and sustained activity.  Anyone who has tried to keep an activity log is aware of its challenges. Logging the physical activity in a log book, or a computer is difficult to do (if not time-consuming) on a regular basis.  On the other hand, if all this data could be automatically collected, synced to our computers, iPhones, etc., we would be able to spend more time analyzing the data, rather than entering it.

In our house, we have become much more aware of our physical activity, how much of it is really vigorous and the role that sleep (or lack of it) is playing in our lives.  These are great conversations to have in our PE classes. Just as we want students to take greater ownership of their learning in Science and English and we see that technology as part of this overall plan, the same should be true for health education and physical activity.  We want students to own their own data, set goals, not in efforts to compete with others, but to better themselves.

There are concerns about wearable technology — that these type of devices, as well as others like Google Glasses and Samsung Smart Watches, are once again pushing technology into all aspects of our life.  I am always interested in technology when it can help do something we have always wanted to do but have not been able to without it.  I see the tracking of our health and physical activity in this category.  We want students to own their own learning and education and this includes owning their own physical activity and health. So, we need to find ways to integrate this emerging technology into our schools.

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3pm to 6pm

Posted in Change, Health, tagged , , , on June 2, 2011| 3 Comments »

After school activities have always been a major concern for parents. Over the last two decades, this has been a growing concern with both parents often working, and young people having reduced supervision after school.   The latest Active Healthy Kids Canada Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth paints a disturbing picture about physical activity for children and youth between 3-6 p.m., and suggests the problem is not the same problem as lamented in the past, but a growing and more concerning challenge.

Quoting from the report:

“Right now, kids are spending over 40 hours a week in front of screens,” says Dr. Mark Tremblay, Chief
Scientific Officer, Active Healthy Kids Canada, and Director of HALO. “These alarming numbers equate to a
very sedentary child, so we must transform the after‐school hours into healthy, active living time.

In part, some of this “healthy, active living time” has been diminished because of parental concerns about supervision and safety around after-school activities like running, biking, and playing outside with friends. This time is now often filled with watching television, or playing video and computer games. Increasingly,  students are attending after-school programs with little or no physical activity.  We see this with the rise of businesses catering to or offering more “school” after school for students — whether that be additional language training or, very often, math support.

And what do the report authors see as some of the solutions?

Getting kids outside:  those who are outside take about 2,000 more steps than those who stay indoors after school

School-Community Partnerships:  finding ways to offer recreational programs in school facilities, or nearby facilities after school

Youth Leadership:  have students assist in the development of programs for their peers

Policy and Investment Support:  target resources for the promotion of physical activity in the after-school hours

This time period is particularly challenging as there is no one group with a solution to the challenge.  There are, however, roles for policy-makers, parents, early childhood educators,  recreational and health professionals, and schools to play.  There is overwhelming research indicating youth who are physically active improve their mental health, academic performance, contribute/maintain a healthy body weight, and develop physical literacy.

This being true, communities will need to work together to reverse the growing after-school trends.  The efforts to increase physical activity during the school day are laudable. Now, we need to figure out on how these efforts can be supported between 3-6 p.m.

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