Hey everyone,
For my first round of research I will be giving a general introduction on the physical aspects for the first cycle of “How does the Educational System Affect Teenagers?” Without recognizing it, sometimes we overlook the impacts school has on teens because an education is a stepping stone to starting a successful life; however, we need to evaluate the situation to determine if grinding until 2am is a suitable lifestyle for several years. The education system does provide beneficial aspects to students lives such as the required physical education course but one must ask themselves if the pros outweigh the cons.
Therefore, within this first round of research, I will be investigating…
- What does physical mean?
- How does it differ from mental and emotional aspects?
- What are some positive and negative physical aspects of school?
What does physical mean?
From a dictionary standpoint, physical is any “physical qualities, actions, or things that are connected with a person’s body, rather than with their mind.” Within the real world, it can be touched or seen, rather than words spoken or heard. (1) For example, a person’s hand is a physical object that can be held and examined with some of your senses such as touch, smell, sight and taste if you wish (2) whereas a scream can’t be measured with touch or smell because it’s a noise. In terms of health, physical is the overall condition of your body and it can be altered by diet, genetics, environment and health care. (3)
How does physical differ from mental and emotional aspects?
Although there are 3 different aspects within the body; physical, mental and emotional, they are all connected and affect each other. As mentioned above, physical is the condition of the body, (3) whereas mental can be defined as “a condition that affects how you think, feel or interact” and it can take a variety of forms. For example, some forms of mental health include depression, anxiety, and even suicide. (4) Mental health also determines your ability to handle stress and relating to society which demonstrates the importance of taking care of your health through all stages of your life. Although it may not appear serious, mental health problems are frequently related to biological factors like genes, life experiences such as trauma or family history of mental health issues. (5) Emotional health is very similar to mental health since they can have the same result of depression and anxiety but other factors could include the amount of income the family receives. Even though money shouldn’t be a deciding factor in happiness, children appear to have better mental health when a steady of income is available as well as having 2 parents as caregivers. (6) By definition, emotional health is a balance between all aspects of your life and it can be quite subjective because it varies for each individual based on culture or experiences that we have been through. For some it’s easier to express their opinions and feelings towards a topic, but it could also include learning from mistakes and bouncing back from the issue. (7)
What are some positive and negative physical aspects of school?
*For this section, the positive and negative aspects were chosen based on research of “what are positive and negative impacts teens have” and I have related it towards education*
Positive aspects of school include…
PHYSICAL EDUCATION
- Inclusion and participation parents have been educated to increase children’s physical needs at home (8)
- Providing after-school programs to increase both physical and mental skills (9)
HEALTHY FOOD OPTIONS
- Food within the cafeteria have taken a healthy approach by having a salad bar, lots of wraps and sandwiches
FUN WATER FOUNTAIN
- At Best, there is frequently a line in front of the water fountain however, not in front of the vending machine which demonstrates students are choosing to be healthy (11)
Negative aspects are…
REDUCED SLEEP
- Students have endless amounts of homework and other afterschool activities such as a job or sport which results in no time for their homework, other than late nights (13)
FATIGUE
- Due to students not always having the best sleep and lack of nutritious meals, constant tiredness becomes frequent and unhealthy
PROMOTION OF UNHEALTHY FOODS
- Although we do have a salad bar, the number of fries being purchased are still significantly more than any other healthy option
AMOUNT OF SITTING WITHIN CLASSES
- Over ¾ of our school day is spent seated within classes and don’t meet the daily physical requirements (12)
Although the positive and negative aspects can be quite similar, there is always a pros and cons side to both sides of a story.
That’s all for this round of research, and here is the project plan for the next round.
Research Round 2 – Positive Impacts
- How has school positively impacted teenagers physically?
- Physical Education, etc
- How / Why has It impacted students lives? (Educationally, personally)
- Suggestions on improvements (even though it is successful)
- Physical Education, etc
Citations
- https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/physical
- https://www.livescience.com/60752-human-senses.html
- https://www.eupati.eu/glossary/physical-health/
- https://www.healthlinkbc.ca/mental-health
- https://www.mentalhealth.gov/basics/what-is-mental-health
- https://web-b-ebscohost-com.bc.idm.oclc.org/ehost/detail/detail?vid=2&sid=0619f117-a19b-4160-9058-4fdaad445536%40pdc-v-sessmgr04&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=128482292&db=c9h
- https://www.catie.ca/en/practical-guides/emotional-wellness/1/1-5
- https://web-a-ebscohost-com.bc.idm.oclc.org/ehost/detail/detail?vid=6&sid=18e6473f-7b02-47c3-9dd8-522836167ae4%40sessionmgr4006&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=11246744&db=f5h
- https://web-a-ebscohost-com.bc.idm.oclc.org/ehost/detail/detail?vid=7&sid=18e6473f-7b02-47c3-9dd8-522836167ae4%40sessionmgr4006&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=130439576&db=f5h
- https://safesupportivelearning.ed.gov/topic-research/environment/physical-environment
- https://www.unitedway.org/blog/five-steps-to-improved-physical-health
- https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/313657.php
- https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/sleep-and-tiredness/why-lack-of-sleep-is-bad-for-your-health/
Comments, opinions and suggestions are always welcome and I look forward to getting to know all the new members of Butterfly Effect!
Hi Lauren!
I loved your post! It was extremely well done and organized. I liked how you started off your post with an overview before dividing up your research round and adding photos. Furthermore, I agree with you that education is often viewed as a steppingstone to a successful life. Last year, I did a topic similar to yours. I investigated the relationship between intelligence, success and education. What was determined from my investigation was that every individual has their own perspective on what success is, and sometimes education isn’t involved on that perception. Therefore, it’s often stereotyped that school is a necessity for success. For your future research rounds, one suggestion could be for you to investigate the influence of the school system on their students’ beliefs. Because you were mentioning the effect of Physical Education, perhaps you may also be interested in delving into how there seems to be a lack of creative courses people are taking at school. Personally, since I’m trying to take all the courses required to get into programs I want in university, I find it hard to make time for classes such as Art Studio. What are these possible effects on teenagers?
Another concept you may be interested in investigating is the effect of sleep on our study habits. In other words, is it better to sleep or study? Is it better to wake up early or sleep late? I did some research on some websites (that I’ve linked below), and I discovered that there was a tendency for high school students to sleep less as they advanced in school. In a study written for Child Development, they tracked a group of high school students in grades 9, 10 and 12 using diaries. They found that grade 9s slept an average 7.6 hours whereas grade 12s slept 6.9 hours. It was later also determined that these students had developed their school skills over the years. Therefore, I would also suggest that you could do a survey on butterfly effect website. I know that multiple people had some set up last year, so I think it could be educational and possible. By doing this, you could compare the data from professionally done experiments from online to data from our school.
Websites that could help:
https://www.sleepfoundation.org/articles/backgrounder-later-school-start-times
http://theconversation.com/mental-health-crisis-in-teens-is-being-magnified-by-demise-of-creative-subjects-in-school-102383
https://parents.au.reachout.com/common-concerns/everyday-issues/school-education-and-teenagers
All the best,
Alison
Hi Lauren,
Great post! I really like how you went into detail about everything but still made it easy to understand, it’s obvious you are very engaged with your topic which is awesome! To me personally, I feel like the education system can try to improve the negatives, however it is understandable that not everything can be perfect. Some things can be very dependent on the individual. For an example, one student might have sports everyday and another student may only have a weekend job. The student with sports everyday has significantly less time to do homework because of certain aspects in their life, which shows everyone has different situations. Every student has different paces at working too. One assignment might take one student an hour and the same assignment might take another student half the time. However, I feel like if there was a reduction in the amount of homework given, it would improve most students’s lives for the better.
Here are some sites to help you next round:
https://educationbusinessuk.net/features/positive-impact-learning
https://borgenproject.org/effects-education-has-on-society/
Hope this helps!
Hi Lauren,
As soon as I read the topic of your post I immediately became intrigued and excited to continue reading. I think this is because the information you go on to discuss is related to me directly. In fact, I drew connections to many of the things you talk about. For example, you mentioned that we are seated for most of the school day, which results in a lack of physical activity. This made me reflect on the fact that it is mandatory for grade 9 and 10 students to take physical eduction classes, however it is not required in grades 11 and 12. Instead, for the senior grades, it becomes optional. This lead to to wonder: Should physical education classes be made mandatory for all grades in high school in order to ensure we maintain daily physical activity? (Grade 9-12) You may consider answering this question with the support of research to back up your opinion. This question might also help you dive deeper into the negative aspects of school you touched on, and possibly create some effective ways we can help turn these negative aspects into positive ones!!
Here are some links that talk about physical education classes and their importance in high school:
http://www.phitworld.org/Benefits_of_P_E__in_School.htm
https://www.healthlinkbc.ca/physical-activity/health-benefits
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/health/canadian-schools-must-put-more-emphasis-on-physical-education-and-get-kids-moving/article36309280/
I am eager to learn about how school has positively affected children in your next post!
Until then,
– Madison Ciulla