Funding:<\/strong><\/p>\n– State and Federal Grant Funds<\/td>\n
– The Daily Wind-Down: 60 minutes of student choice-based physical activity at the end of every school day, 5 days per week for all students.<\/p>\n -Student Incentives for positive participation in Daily Wind down.<\/p>\n -Morning Announcements and school cafeteria bulletin board about healthy eating.<\/p>\n – Lesson plan creation for Physical Activities that meet Physical Activity Guidelines for Adolescents.<\/p>\n -School cafeteria staff offers breakfast and Lunch meals that are within standard calorie guidelines<\/span><\/p>\n-School cafeteria staff presents more options for vegetable and fruit consumption at breakfast and lunch meals <\/span><\/p>\n-School cafeteria staff decreasing high-sugar and nutrient poor breakfast and lunch options.<\/span><\/p>\n-Training for PE Teachers who will head up The Daily Wind-Down at each middle school.<\/p>\n -Training for Non-PE Teachers who will implement the initiative with their home room class at the end of the day.<\/p>\n -Weekly Parent and Support System Website Updates, including nutrition information and weekly healthy but affordable recipes.<\/p>\n -Parent Incentives for interacting with the intervention website<\/p>\n – Quarterly Weigh-Ins and BMI checks.<\/p>\n -Completion of Pre-Survey and Post-Survey.<\/p>\n -Student’s Support System (Family) Quarterly Field Day.<\/p>\n -Tracking of Daily Physical Fitness on Fit Bit fitness tracker.<\/p>\n -Tracking of Daily Food Consumption on Fit Bit Fitness tracker.<\/td>\n | -Daily Wind-down, every in-session school day (except for standardized Testing days and mock test days) = 165 daily wind-downs.<\/p>\n -4 Trained PE Teachers per middle school.<\/p>\n -48 Non-PE Teachers trained in the initiative.<\/p>\n -School Cafeteria staff trained to decrease calories and sugar offered at meal times while increasing vegetable and fruit offerings.<\/span><\/p>\n-More nutritious breakfast and lunch options for students on every school day.<\/span><\/p>\n-Fewer calorie dense and nutrient poor food options offered at school meals times.<\/span><\/p>\n-2 unique and new PE lesson plans every week and 3 “back by popular demand” repeats = 68 Unique Physical Fitness Activities\/Games.<\/p>\n -4 Unique Family-Support System Field Days.<\/p>\n -4 Quarterly Weigh-Ins (BMI checks) \u00a0per student.<\/p>\n -Fit Bit, BMI, and pre-test\/post-test survey Data for school year<\/p>\n -42 weekly website updates<\/td>\n | – Immediate Benefits of increased exercise<\/p>\n – Improved student self-esteem<\/p>\n -Increased Family knowledge of physical fitness importance<\/p>\n -Increased Student knowledge of physical fitness importance<\/p>\n -Increased Family knowledge of Nutrition<\/p>\n -Increased student knowledge of nutrition.<\/p>\n -Improved health that results from more nutritious foods.<\/span><\/p>\n-Improved school morale<\/td>\n | -Increased Family Social Support for Physical Activity (was MOVED)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n -Increased Family Social Support for Nutritious Eating (was MOVED)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n-Increase in adolescents who are physically active at least 60 minutes per day on 5 or more days per week<\/p>\n -Increase in adolescents whose food consumption is within standard calorie limits\/goals.<\/span><\/p>\n-Increase in adolescent consumption of fruits and vegetables.<\/span><\/p>\n-Decreased Obesity rates at target schools<\/p>\n <\/td>\n -Improved Health Status of adolescents at intervention schools.<\/p>\n -Cardiorespiratory Fitness<\/p>\n -Stronger Muscles<\/p>\n -Potential Reduced Symptoms of anxiety and depression<\/p>\n -Increased chances of healthy adulthood.<\/p>\n -Lower risk factors for long-term chronic diseases later in life.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n \n- Explain the logic of why this intervention may work. For example, why would teaching children about healthy eating change their actual eating behaviors? Or why would adding sidewalks increase physical activity for transportation or recreation? (15 points)\n
\n- Think about the \u201cField of Dreams\u201d problem \u2013 if you offer the intervention, will it actually change behavior?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
This intervention increases physical activity through a school-wide Daily Wind-down Campaign in which 60 minutes at the end of every school day are set aside for physical activity. \u00a0Teachers use lesson plans to implement fun physical fitness activities that provide adolescents with an opportunity to engage in aerobic, muscle-strengthening, and bone-strengthening Moderate to Vigorous Physical activity. \u00a0This school wide campaign emphasizes fun and school-wide morale boosting involvement, producing \u00a0a level of excitement that makes students want to participate! \u00a0Using positive peer pressure, students will engage in daily physical activity because “everyone is doing it”. \u00a0Because students will have the ability to choose between at least two activities during every daily wind-down, this will decrease the likelihood that students will not feel forced to participate in certain activities. \u00a0By placing the daily wind-down at the end of every school day, the physical activity is also therapeutic, allowing students to work out\/off the events of the school day, positive or negative, through physical activity. \u00a0Not only does this benefit students through physical activity but it will also teach students to utilize exercise to deal with stressors. \u00a0 By placing the daily wind-down at the end of the school day, students will be less concerned about exercising early in the morning or mid-day and being sweaty or un-kept for the remainder of the day as a result of morning exercise (as experienced when students have PE classes throughout the school day).<\/p>\n Incentives will be used to encourage students to participate in the daily wind down physical activities. \u00a0For example, positive participation will earn a student “Wind-Down Dollars” that can be used to “purchase” healthy or helpful incentives. \u00a0For example, Six Flags\/White Water Season Passes, Subway Meals, Yogurt or smoothies at local shops, school supplies, and Weekend and School Break Field Trips to places like Stone Mountain, The Georgia Aquarium, or The Fox Theatre. \u00a0Most of the incentives will be donated by local sponsors who understand that healthy students = a future healthy work force = a healthy community. \u00a0This community involvement will also open doors for sustainability from community partners.<\/p>\n Family-Based Social support will be utilized through the intervention’s website where parents and family members will be able to find information on the week’s daily wind-down activities, the daily nutrition announcements, and healthy recipies. \u00a0Each student will be allowed two intervention website accounts for parents or family members. \u00a0These accounts will function like a “members only” area of the site where parents will be able to receive additional information about how they can support their student’s physical activity and healthy eating. \u00a0Parent log-ins and interactions with the “members only” area of the website will be tracked and parents will be eligible for free grocery give-aways based on the frequency of their interactions with the website. \u00a0These free grocery give-aways will be donated by local grocery stores and will feature all of the ingredients for a parent and student to make a healthy recipe together. \u00a0The Family Field Days will also encourage family physical activity and increased involvement from parents and family members.<\/p>\n The PE Teachers and the County Intervention Director will be key staff members in delivering a successful intervention. \u00a0Since all students will receive PE daily through the Daily wind-down at the end of every day, PE teachers will be able to use the school day to plan intervention activities.<\/p>\n Through website access to the intervention website, parents will be presented with tools that will aid their ability to support their child in physical activity and healthy eating. \u00a0Parents will be able to post on message boards on the website where they can receive input from other parents as well as intervention staff. \u00a0Parents will be encouraged to interact with the website and gain this information through the use of the mentioned incentives.<\/span><\/p>\n\n- Discuss limitations of the selected strategy, and things to look out for\/be mindful of along the way. Examples may be limitations of resources, community capacity, or anticipated effect of the intervention. (15 points)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Technology Limitations<\/strong>: \u00a0Most Fit Bit devices require a smart phone or a computer to input food intake. \u00a0Students without smart phones will be able to enter their food intake using a computer. \u00a0If students do not have computers at home, they will have to recall more food information when they have the opportunity to enter their food intake information in the computer at school. \u00a0Some students without phones may not enter their information in the computer at all. \u00a0Students with Smart Phones may not be willing to enter their food intake information in their cell phone’s Fit Bit app. \u00a0There will likely be limitations on when students can use phones during the school day since most schools do not allow students to use cell phones at-will. \u00a0Some parents may not have internet access to interact with the Intervention website. \u00a0Most middle schools offer a parent resource room where parents can come and use the computer but it is unlikely that all parents will be able to come to the school.<\/p>\nStudent Unwillingness to Participate in the Intervention<\/strong>: \u00a0There will likely be some students who do not want to participate in the Daily Wind-down. \u00a0The students who do not want to participate may negatively impact the participation desires of other students. \u00a0It will be important to make the program seem “exciting” and “cool” to students so that they will want to participate. \u00a0Most students today love to dance so dance contests are one way that physical activity can be made fun for students. \u00a0Even with all efforts, there may still be some students who do not want to participate and the school and the program must have a policy on how they will handle students who do not want to participate in the activities. \u00a0Since the program is collecting data, informed consent may be necessary and if so, no students can be made to participate. \u00a0At the same time, the Daily Wind-down is still a school PE activity and students who do not participate in school activities often face school consequences. \u00a0The realms of what is allowable and what is not allowable in the environment of the intervention must be discussed to ensure that the rights of each student as a research participant (for those whose parents consent to their research participation) are respected. \u00a0All teachers and school staff will need to be trained on how the intervention works to ensure that they are respecting the rights of the students to participate in the program.<\/p>\nStudents Not recording their Food intake in the Fit Bit<\/strong>: \u00a0Students may forget or just choose not to record their food information in the Fit Bit. \u00a0This will result in missing data and the intervention will need to decide how to handle the missing data.<\/p>\nLack of Community Support<\/strong>: \u00a0Some members of the community may grow tired of providing free student incentive donations to the program. \u00a0Since incentives are an important part of the program, this could become problematic, especially if students are used to receiving incentives and the incentives resources begin to run low.<\/p>\nTeacher Unwillingness to Participate in the Intervention<\/strong>: \u00a0Teachers in the public school system have a lot of responsibilities. \u00a0Some teachers may not be excited about participating in this initiative and they may see it as an additional responsibility that they do not have time for. \u00a0This could directly affect the success of the intervention as enthusiasm from teachers will be be an important part of a successful intervention. \u00a0It may be worth considering if there is enough funding available to bring in intervention staff members to run the Daily wind-down.<\/p>\nParent Unwillingness to Participate in the Intervention<\/strong>: \u00a0Some parents may not be interested in participating in the intervention, may feel that the intervention is unnecessary, or may want to participate but may not have the time or resources. \u00a0As students enter middle school, some parents begin to take a less-involved role, believing that their students are old enough to do many things for themselves.<\/p>\nSchools and the School-System may be concerned about time and resource requirements of this intervention<\/strong>: \u00a0It is very important to maintain good will with the school system, since the school system directly impacts the ability of the program to operate.<\/p>\n\n- What data would you collect to know if you are implementing the strategy the way it was intended (process evaluation\/implementation monitoring)? Refer back to your logic model and the Logic Model module as needed. Be sure to cover dose, reach, fidelity, and implementation. (40 points)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
To determine if the strategy is being implemented as intended, it would be important to collect information reflecting the implemented program components and then check those components against what should have been implemented to determine any gaps. \u00a0 I would begin by considering if all the intended resources had been available in the intervention. \u00a0I would determine if any resources were not present. \u00a0For example, if the intervention was unable to obtain the Fit Bit Fitness Trackers or unable to launch the website, these would be major changes to the intervention.<\/p>\n Next I would look at the activities. \u00a0Were all of the intended activities implemented as planned? \u00a0For example, did the students at the target schools receive the intended dose of 60 minutes of physical activity per day? \u00a0Was time allotted for students to transition to the physical activity area and also to dress out so that they still had a full 60 minutes for physical activity or did students spend 15 minutes transitioning and dressing out so that they actually only received 45 minutes of physical activity? \u00a0It would also be important to track incentives and makes sure they were used properly and determine if the incentives were helpful for encouraging participation. \u00a0I would track the morning announcements to determine if they were completed on every intended morning and if the intervention bulletin board was updated as planned. \u00a0It would be important to consider the lesson plans and make sure that they met the standards set for aerobic, muscle-strengthening, and bone-strengthening physical activities.<\/p>\n Staff training goals and objectives and possibly staff feedback (via training evaluation surveys) about the trainings would be important to collect to determine if the trainings taught and imparted the intended information. \u00a0It would be important to see how many times the intervention website was updated. \u00a0Was it updated every week as intended. \u00a0Did family members log-in to the members only area of the website? \u00a0Since this is a big component of the family-based social support, did parents and family members engage with this component? \u00a0In addition, did the Family Field Days take place as intended and did family members participate in the Field Days?<\/p>\n In regards to the outputs, were the output goals met? \u00a0It is important to consider each output goal and determine if the goal was met. \u00a0If any goals were not met, this may affect the intervention dose. \u00a0For example, the intervention calls for the offering of two\u00a0unique PE lesson plans every week as well as 3 “back by popular demand” repeats to make 68 Unique Physical Fitness Activities\/Games over the course of the school year. \u00a0If unique lesson plans were not offered and the Daily Wind-down became basket ball in the gym every day or walking around the track, then students may not have been as excited about the Daily wind-down time and may not have achieved moderate to vigorous physical activity. \u00a0Another example demonstrates dose. \u00a0The program was expected to provide 165 doses of daily wind-down. \u00a0The first thing to consider would be how many doses were actually provided. \u00a0165 doses out of 180 days of school allows for 15 days in which students did not receive a dose, possibly because of testing or an end of the day school assembly. \u00a0Did the students receive the intended dose? \u00a0In addition, what was school attendance like. \u00a0Were there some students who missed a lot of school and didn’t receive the intended dose due to missing school days? \u00a0It is not anticipated that students will have 100% attendance at school. \u00a0Therefore, it is important to consider what dosage most students received. \u00a0If the process of the intervention was conducted properly and as planned, then the program should achieve the desired outcomes.<\/p>\n It is also important to consider reach. \u00a0Did the program reach the students? \u00a0Did most of the students participate in daily wind-down? \u00a0The Fit Bit data as well as the school attendance data should demonstrate this. \u00a0Fidelity is also important to consider. \u00a0Did the teachers teach the lessons as intended? \u00a0Were there some teachers that made unauthorized changed to the lesson plans? \u00a0Were fidelity logs kept to demonstrate if teachers made changes to any lessons? \u00a0Fidelity is a very important issue since it demonstrates if the program was taught as it was intended to be. \u00a0All of these items determine if the program was implemented as intended which is a very important question to answer in a process evaluation.<\/p>\n Part 3 References:<\/p>\n \n- 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans.\u00a0Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee. \u00a0Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, October, 2008.<\/li>\n
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 1991-2015 Middle School Youth Risk Behavior Survey Data. <\/cite>
\nAvailable at http:\/\/nccd.cdc.gov\/youthonline\/<\/a>. Accessed on October 31, 2016.<\/li>\n- \n
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