Abstract
Playgrounds without Borders: Mapping Physical Activity of Elementary Students
Track: Educational Research and Teacher Education
Author
The Playgrounds without Borders research project integrates GIS, outreach and advocacy by studying the levels and location of physical activity of elementary students in a midwest college town. Thirty-six fourth grade students from one public elementary school wore accelerometers and GPS data loggers. Researchers harvested this data, then used GIS to anaylze the spatial and temporal aspects of how active the students were and where that physical activity took place. The results of this geographically-based pilot study benefit the community at large. The data help identify open spaces in kids' neighborhoods that they do and do not use, and follow-up discussions with students helped the researchers understand reasons underlying the use patterns. Researchers shared these results with community agencies. This research may help in identifying underserved neighborhoods and planning for and advocating new potential activity spaces in the city.
Shannon White
University of Missouri
20 Stewart Hall
Department of Geography
Columbia, Missouri 65211
United States
Phone: 813.817.2592
E-mail: shannonhwhite@gmail.com