The In-School Prevention of Obesity and Disease (ISPOD) initiative specifically addresses health disparities in NC counties. It is designed as a comprehensive school prevention program to improve physical activity and eating habits in order to reduce obesity and the number of overweight children in grades K-8 through the utilization of specialized curriculum training offered to Physical Educators. Outside of the School Health Advisory Council’s, there is no other community infrastructure to address this targeted school health issue. ISPOD addresses this funding deficiency by providing for quality teacher in-service and staff development for those school districts with high percentages of students matching targeted health disparities. We will work with University/College current programs and teacher education programs to create change within the current educational system. These changes will specifically target obesity prevention in our state during a time policy changes around health needs for students is at its peak.
- We will provide the SPARK (Sports, Play and Active Recreation for Kids) curriculum to all physical education teachers in the targeted counties. This curriculum is a specialized, research-based physical education program which emphasizes: increased moderate to vigorous physical activity in students; fitness achievement; academic achievement; sport skills development; and enjoyment of physical education to name a few.
- Twelve hours of extensive training as well as two full curriculum manuals were provided to each teacher.
- We will also provide complex software, manuals, and training for the Fitnessgram, a program to measure fitness levels, including BMI, and report back to the students’ parents, classroom teacher, school, and district.
- We will select 4 or 6 teachers to become trained SPARK Trainers who can provide instruction for other North Carolina counties thus reducing the cost of bringing trainers in from San Diego, California.
We will also provide all teachers with FITNESSGRAM software. FITNESSGRAM was developed by The Cooper Institute in an effort to provide physical educators with a tool that would facilitate communicating fitness testing results to students and to parents. The assessment measures three components of health-related physical fitness that have been identified as important to overall health and function – aerobic capacity; body composition; and muscular strength, endurance, and flexibility.
FITNESSGRAM/ACTIVITYGRAM enables teachers to promote awareness about the importance of physical activity and fitness, assess the fitness and activity levels of children in grades K-12, and help them develop patterns of lifelong, health-promoting physical activity.
Teachers will be able to print out a FITNESSGRAM report for each student-and a special version for parents-that recommends physical activity program options to help students make it into the Healthy Fitness Zones for those areas where they need improvement. Plus, it explains in non-technical terms why physical activity is important and how regular physical activity leads to improved health and fitness. The FITNESSGRAM report is a tangible reminder of what students learn in class and a great way to enlist parents’ support in their children’s physical activity programs.
Learn more about IsPOD here.
