SBIR-STTR Award

Childhood physical inactivity is associated with a myriad of preventable health inequities among children, including greater prevalence and more severe childhood obesity, poorer cardiovascular and bone health and lower levelsof cognitive functioning, mental health, and self-esteem. Children from low-income, minority, and rural backgrounds areparticularly vulnerable for not meeting recommended levels of health-enhancing physical activity (PA) and rely moreheavily on schools to obtain quality PA opportunities than other children. While 40 states currently have laws mandatingelementary school physical education (PE) to promote student public health objectives, most underrepresented students donot achieve adequate PE participation because teachers (both PE certified and regular classroom teachers who teach PE)have limited or no access to easy to use and low cost programmatic resources for conducting effective, evidence-based, and standards-based PE. To address these needs, the Aim to Play™ digital application ("app") program will be designedinitially for 3rd-5th grade classroom teachers who are increasingly assuming the responsibilities of PE instruction. Teachersconsistently experience PE instructional challenges due to (1) inadequate facilities, planning and teaching time, andequipment limitations; (2) varied student skill levels and experience managing student engagement; and, (3) an overalllack of instructional knowledge and training in movement and activity skills for conducting effective PE. To address thesebarriers, Aim to Play™ will work across platforms and devices, and provide simple, easy to use, evidence- and standards-based PE lesson activities that can be tailored by time, instructional setting (classroom, indoors/outdoors), grade, studentskill level, and equipment resources, with an embedded data tracking feature to assist with state mandated reporting needs.The app will be low-cost and include brief teacher skill demonstration videos for each lesson, paired with adaptableclassroom- and circuit-based (i.e. rotating activity stations) lessons for 3rd - 5th grade students with embedded musicsignaling transitions to assist with classroom organization. Teachers will access the program via digital handheld tabletdevices, online or offline, increasing accessibility for settings with poor Wi-Fi. During this Phase I SBIR, we plan to (1)use an iterative process to develop a prototype (i.e. beta) version of the Aim to Play™ app, a cross-platform, digitalprogram application designed for 3rd-5th grade classroom teachers, providing easy access to tailored, engaging classroom-or gym-based PE activities that meet the needs of teachers and students, and (2) evaluate the usability, satisfaction, andacceptability of the Aim to Play™ program in school settings, as well as fidelity of implementation, with 9 elementaryschool teachers serving diverse classrooms of low-income, rural, and/or minority children, as well as direct observation ofstudent participation in activities. If our Phase I benchmarks are met, this will support the feasibility of Phase II activities.In Phase II, we plan to modify Aim to Play™ according to feedback obtained in Phase I surveys and exit interviews, create additional program modules, and evaluate the efficacy of Aim to Play™ via a short-term randomized control trialevaluating teacher PE knowledge, self-efficacy, practices and student engagement in under-resourced schools.

Public Health Relevance Statement:
Project Narrative While 40 states currently have laws mandating elementary school physical education (PE) for students, classroom teachers are increasingly assuming instructional responsibilities of certified PE teachers with minimal to no training or supporting resources. This contributes to inadequate PE participation by students and is negatively impacting the health of our nations' children, particularly among minority, low-income, and rural youth who rely more heavily on schools for quality physical activity opportunities than other children. This project seeks to develop the Aim to Play™ digital application, a cross-platform PE program designed for 3rd-5th grade classroom teachers. This app is a response to the training/instructional needs of elementary schools for an accessible program that can be scaled to reach teachers of low- resourced schools, and underserved student populations. Results of this project will inform a subsequent Phase II project to further develop the program and test efficacy with a diverse school-based sample in a randomized control trial.

Project Terms:

Childhood physical inactivity is associated with a myriad of preventable health inequities among children, including greater prevalence and more severe childhood obesity, poorer cardiovascular and bone health and lower levels of cognitive functioning, mental health, and self-esteem. Children from low-income, minority, and rural backgrounds are particularly vulnerable for not meeting recommended levels of health-enhancing physical activity (PA) and rely more heavily on schools to obtain quality PA opportunities than other children. While 43 states currently have laws mandating elementary school physical education (PE) to promote student public health objectives, most students do not achieve adequate PE participation because teachers (both PE certified and regular classroom teachers or paraprofessionals who teach PE) have limited or no access to easy-to-use and low-cost programmatic resources that address salient barriers for conducting effective, evidence-based, and standards-based PE. The Pocket PE 3-5™ digital app (initially conceptualized as Aim to Play 3-5TM) developed and piloted in our SBIR Phase I project, is designed for 3rd - 5th grade teachers and students and works across common platforms and devices, online and offline, and provides simple, easy to use, standards-based PE lesson activities tailored by time, instructional setting (classroom, gym, outside), grade, student skill level, and equipment resources. The app is low-cost and includes brief teacher skill demonstration videos for each activity, along with printable activity cards, music, and audio cues to signal transitions to assist teachers and students with class management in "˜real time' during PE. The program also includes embedded data tracking of PE minutes and completed instructional standards to assist with district and/or state mandated reporting. Pocket PE 3-5 offers a technology-driven solution to promote the adoption of Comprehensive School Physical Activity Programs (CSPAPs) by providing a scalable, evidence-based resource to underserved schools to promote high-quality physical education (PE) participation among students. Within Phase I, we showed that the Pocket PE 3-5 prototype met all benchmarks for program usability, acceptability, user satisfaction, consumer satisfaction, and fidelity of implementation. During Phase II, we plan to (1) complete the final development of the Pocket PE 3-5 digital app using an iterative development process with national experts, including the creation of 256 standards-based PE activities and associated demonstration videos and enhanced app functionality for curriculum planning, and (2) conduct a clustered randomized trial with 24 elementary schools involving 72 classroom teachers and their students to evaluate the effectiveness of the Pocket PE 3-5 program for improving classroom teacher PE self-efficacy and evidence-based PE instructional best practices, and student moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) participation in PE and PE enjoyment, and demonstrate program feasibility. At the end of the Phase II project Pocket PE 3-5 will be ready for national distribution. Wide-spread implementation from effective marketing will have a large impact on public health by addressing a prevalent need to support classroom teachers in PE instruction.

Public Health Relevance Statement:
Narrative Providing high-quality instruction and sufficient access to physical education (PE) in elementary schools is a national priority for improving health and educational outcomes for children. Innovative resources targeting elementary classroom teachers, who are increasingly assuming the roles of physical educators with minimal training or experience, are needed for them to deliver effective evidence- and standards-based PE. The project seeks to complete the full development of all digital app features and content of the Pocket PE 3-5TM program (begun in Phase I) for broad-scale commercialization and dissemination to elementary schools and to test initial effectiveness of the program with a diverse school-based sample in a clustered randomized trial. Terms: