For a month, sixth-graders at Oak Crest Intermediate School have been walking with pedometers and keeping track of their steps daily. They bring the pedometers to their physical education classes, where they log how many steps they have taken in the past 24 hours. It is called the “Pedometer Challenge.”
Their teachers and school nurse have incorporated materials from the Positively Aging® curriculum, developed at the Health Science Center, into the Pedometer Challenge to show how to make healthy choices to prevent chronic diseases later in life.
Oak Crest Intermediate School is in the East Central Independent School District at 8004 New Sulphur Springs Road. The Pedometer Challenge is part of East Central ISD’s efforts to promote student wellness with the goal of decreasing childhood obesity and preventing chronic diseases.
The project received Positively Aging® materials free of charge. Positively Aging®, and a separate project, Minority Opportunities in Research Education (MORE), provide middle school science and math teachers with curricula based on gerontological research. MORE centers on cardiovascular and pulmonary health. The projects are funded by the National Institutes of Health.
The principal investigator on both projects is Michael Lichtenstein, M.D., M.Sc., professor of medicine at the Health Science Center and director of the General Clinical Research Center at the Audie Murphy Hospital Division, South Texas Veterans Health Care System.
