Assessment of student engagement, physical activity levels, and body composition in third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade physical education classes

The purpose of this research study was to examine levels of physical activity participation in elementary-aged school children who participated in at least a weekly 40-minute physical education class. In doing so, the contribution of physical education classes to daily accumulated physical activity levels among children was determined. More specifically, this research study examined the amount of time children were physically active within 40-minute physical education class sessions. This research study also described the types of activities in which children were involved in during and after school. Finally, the link between BMI and physical activity levels were examined.;Conclusions. Based on this study's findings the following conclusions were made: (1) Overall, it was found that students spent less than half of their instructional time in being physically active. Much of the inactive time was spent listening to the teacher and waiting to engage in an activity. However, when grade level was considered the amount of motor activity somewhat increased. (2) Teachers differed in terms of the way they organized their instructional time. Woodson's teacher instructional time was organized in a way that more than half of the time was spent in non motor engaged activities. Students at Mercy and Richmond Elementary School spent the higher amounts of instructional time performing motor activity. (3) The third-graders at Richmond Elementary School spent the highest amount of instructional time in performing motor activity, while the fourth graders spent the least amount of time in performing motor activity. The third-graders and fifth-graders at Woodson Elementary School spent the highest amount of time in performing motor activity. The fifth-graders at Mercy Elementary School had the highest amount of time in performing motor activity. (4) Females at Richmond Elementary School spent the same amount of instructional time as males in performing motor activity. However, differences between male and females were more prevalent when examining individual schools. At Woodson Elementary School males spent a higher amount of instructional time in performing motor activity than females. Lastly, at Mercy Elementary School females spent more instructional time than males and they both spent over half the instructional time in performing motor activity. (5) It was found that males took more average steps per minute than females. It was found that third graders took more steps per minute than the fourth- and fifth-graders. Lastly, it was found that students at Mercy received the highest among of steps per minute, while Richmond received the lowest. (6) It was found that a grade by school interaction was significant (p < .05). It was reported that third-graders at Richmond were greater than fourth- and fifth-graders at Richmond. It was reported that fifth-graders at Woodson were greater than third- and fourth-graders at Woodson. Lastly, it was reported that fifth-graders at Mercy were less than third- and fourth-graders at Mercy. (7) When ranking the preferences for physical activity outside of physical education classes for all schools and all grades it was found that students spent their average time in this ranking order: (a) Jogging, (b) Walking, (c) Dancing, (d) Playing Tag, and (e) Skipping. (8) When correlating the physical activity level and BMI for all 120 subjects, an inverse correlation was found to be significant at (p < .05). It indicated that the higher the levels of physical activity, the lower the BMI scores. When compared across gender, the relationship was different in males and females. In males the linear inverse relationship between BMI and physical activity was much stronger. However in males, BMI and levels of physical activity did not appear to be significantly related. (9) There was also an inverse relationship between BMI and physical activity levels at each of the three schools in this study. The correlation was significant only at Richmond Elementary School. This was because of the artifact of a smaller sample size at the other two schools. (10) There was an inverse linear relationship between BMI and physical activity at each of the three grade levels. Although statistically significant in grade five the inverse relationships in the other two grades were weak and non significant.