THE EFFECTS OF PHYSICAL
ACTIVITY ON THIRD GRADE
MATH SCORES
CBSE 7202
Malia Jabeen
Professor O’Connor
STATEMENT OF THE HYPOTHESIS:
 To implement physical exercise for 10 students in third grade
five times a week, 1 hour a day for four weeks will increase math
achievement scores.
METHODS
Participants
• The participants in this Action Research Project are 10 3rd grade
students in high functioning urban public school x who are
identified by the teacher as needing math support.
• Participants are both male and female and range in age from 7
to 8 years of age.
• Classroom populations is racially diverse.
•
•
•
•
•
2 African American/Black students
2 Latino
1 Caucasian
4 Asian
1 South Asian students.
EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
 Pre-experimental design:
 This action research will focus on how exercise can increase math
test scores. This study will take place with 10 students in a
mainstream classroom setting. My research design is based on a
pre-test, intervention and post-test. After comparing the pretest and post-test I will be able to determine whether or not
exercise has an effect on cognitive ability primarily in math.
 Symbolic design
 OXO
 One-Group Pre-test Post-test Design.
 pre-test (o)
 Variable (x)
 Post-test (o)
VARIABLES
 Independent Variables:
Have children exercise 30 minutes before and 30 minutes after math class.
 Dependent Variable:
Scores in math tests.
 Participants:
In this research project, the participants will be a group of 10 randomly chosen students from a group
that needs a little more support in learning math skills and concepts. They are between the ages of 8
to 9 years old, and in a third grade class.
 Instruments:
 Math lesson, consent forms, tests, and a table of records.
 1) The Pre-test will be given before the concept skill is taught to get a better understanding of
what the children know and where they are.
 2) The Post-test that will be given will be the same as the pre-test. This is to see if the students
have mastered the topic after it is taught.
THREATS TO INTERNAL VALIDITY
 History: may be a threat to validity. A student may have test
anxiety, they may be distracted by a noise in the hall or they
may be ill.
 Maturation: Maturation will not be a threat to the validity to
this study because all of the participants are of the same age and
the research will only last for four weeks.
 Instrumentation: There may be a slight threat to the validity
even though the instruments used will remain the same. There
might be changes in observers or scorers that may produce
changes in the outcomes.
 Mortality: The chances of the students quitting the experiment
are limited. However some students may be absent during
testing dates.
THREATS TO EXTERNAL VALIDITY
 Pretest Treatment: A pretest treatment might be a slight threat to the
validity because it might increase or decrease a child’s responsiveness
to the experimental variable.
 Selection Treatment Interaction: The selection of the participants
may be a threat because we are choosing children who need help with
math skills and may not know how below they are from grade level.
 Multiple Treatments: This might be a threat because the participants
may receive other treatments/interventions in the form of Title I Math,
help from home, or from an after-school enrichment program. If other
or multiple treatments are given to the same participant, it can be
difficult to control the effects of the research intervention.
INSTRUMENTS:
 Consent forms
 Principal
 Teacher
 Parental
 Surveys
 Math test pre and post (Assessment)
SAMPLE SURVEY
PREFERENCES
Strongly Agree
1
Agree
2
Not sure
Disagree
3
Strongly disagree
4
5
1.
How important do you think it is to wake up early?
_______
2.
How often do you walk to school?
3.
I exercise at least 3 times per week.
4.
I watch TV every day for more than 2 hours. _______
5.
It is easy for me to pay attention when the teacher is teaching math.
_______
6.
Math is very easy.
7.
I always get above an 80 on my Math tests.
8.
I take extra time reading word problems.
9.
I choose to play outside with my friends over video games. _______
10.
Math is fun.
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
FREQUENCIES
1.How many hours a week do you watch TV, games, movies, etc.
30min
1
2
3
4
5
6
4
5
6
3hrs
4hrs
5hrs
2. How many hours a week do you do math problems?
30min
1
2
3
3. . About how many hours do you exercise per day?
20 min
30 min
1hr
2hr
4. About how many hours do you sleep each night?
4hrs or fewer 5-6hrs
Never
(0)
7-8hrs
Rarely
(1-2)
9hrs or more
Sometimes
(3-4)
Often
(5-6)
How often do you need help with your math homework?
_______
How often do you understand the math in school
?
_________
Always
(7)
DEMOGRAPHICS DATA
 Demographic Statistics
Race graph
This chart shows the racial breakdown of the classroom
4
3
2
1
0
Asian
Caucasian
African
american
race graph
South asian
Latino
GENDER AND AGE GRAPH
Breaks down sex of class
Shows the age of the students
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Boys
7 years old
Girls
8 year olds
FREQUENCY SURVEY RESULTS
Number of hours spent watching
videos, games, phones, etc
6
5
4
Number of
hours spent
watching
videos, games,
phones, etc
3
2
1
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Average
number of
hours is 3
hours per
day.
21 hours a
week.
EXERCISE FREQUENCY
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Time spent exercising in a day
Time spent
exercising in a
day
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Average
amount of
exercise
each day 37
minutes a
day.
CORRELATION BETWEEN TIME SPENT EXERCISING
AND PRE-TEST SCORES
y
20
65
90
85
30
60
20
70
60
75
30
80
20
65
60
80
20
80
20
70
Average score:
Correlation
73
Correlation between time spent exercising
and pre-test math scores
100
Pre-test scores
x
80
60
40
20
0
0
20
40
60
80
Time spent exercising
y
Linear (y)
0.6275398
Brief Analysis: This data shows a strong positive correlation (0.627)
between the hours a student exercise and the students’ math pre test scores.
In this graph we can see that the amount of time a student exercise may
contribute to higher math test scores.
100
PRE-TEST AND POST-TEST
RESULTS
Comparison: Pre-test and Posttest results
Post test
scores
Student 1
65
75
Student 2
85
90
Student 3
60
90
Student 4
70
95
Student 5
75
85
Student 6
80
90
Student 7
65
85
Student 8
80
85
Student 9
80
95
Student 10
70
80
Average:
73
87
Test scores
Pre test
scores
x
100
80
60
40
20
0
75
65
8590
90
60
95
70
85 90
75 80
95
86.5
85 8580 80
80 73.5
70
65
Students
Pre test scores
Post test scores
Brief analysis: We can see by these results that students did slightly better after
receiving the hour of exercise. Some students did better than others. According
to this data all students improved in their math scores.