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Treadmill Desks Coming to Wellspring Academy of the Carolinas

By Jess Clarke

The students will be walking in place, but administrators want their brains to take off. Officials at Wellspring Academy of the Carolinas hope that with the planned addition of new treadmill desks, the classes that walk in step will keep their minds on the same page. Wellspring Academies in California and North Carolina offer a renowned approach to weight loss, fitness and a healthy lifestyle for children and young adults.
    
Six desks will be used initially at Wellspring Academy outside Brevard, N.C., in the classroom of academic director Billy Porter, who teaches social studies. School officials say the desks might boost cognitive functioning for overweight students and reinforce improved academic performance already documented by Wellspring Academies.
    
Some studies have shown that physical activity, especially for overweight and obese people, enhances cognitive ability by increasing oxygen levels and blood flow to the brain, Porter says. And for students with attention-deficit and hyperactivity issues, the desks will “keep them occupied, which actually allows them to concentrate more. You’re giving a kid an outlet for that energy so they can concentrate,” he says.
    
The desks, standard-size treadmills with a desk attachment where the controls are, can accommodate docking stations for laptop computers. Porter will use a stationary bicycle during classes, “so the students will feel we’re all invested in the same thing,” he says.
    
The desks may help address academic underperformance among some overweight kids. Comparing grade point averages at Wellspring Academies with a recent semester at home, Wellspring officials found that the average GPA had increased 27.5 percent while students were at Wellspring.  
    
Several factors may be involved with improved academic performance at Wellspring. For some overweight students in public school, “Kids are downright mean. In this (Wellspring) environment, they don’t have to worry about ridicule, so they can focus more on academics,” says Dan Barney, director of Wellspring Academy of California.
    
“Due to our small size, we’re able to focus more on their individual needs,” he says. “And they’re right here on campus, so they can’t not go to school.”
    
The individualized attention at Wellspring Academies can include one-on-one tutoring, quieter work spaces if needed, meetings with the academic director and academic structures or schedules tailored to a student’s needs, Barney says.
    
Wellspring Academy of California doesn’t have treadmill desks, but if they’re effective in North Carolina, the California campus probably will use them, Barney says.   
“If (students) are more alert and active, they probably have better retention, and at least they’re going to stay more focused rather than sitting sedentary at a desk and gazing off or falling asleep.”
    
Another way Wellspring Academies keep kids alert and active is through experiential learning.
    
As a year-round school, Wellspring-California focuses on hands-on education outside the classroom especially during summer. “If you’re out of the classroom and moving around, you’re a little more active and probably a little more interested in what’s going on with the lecture” Barney says.
    
Every summer, students take a rafting trip with science, math and English components and similar hiking trips.     “We want to specialize that, get them out of the classroom, do some things different, so they don’t feel like they’re sitting in class six hours a day,” he says.
 

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