Development, Feasibility, and Acceptability of Aim to Play, a User-Friendly Digital Application for Teacher Skills Training and Physical Education Activities for 3-5 Grade Elementary Students

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ABSTRACT Childhood physical inactivity is associated with a myriad of preventable health inequities among children, including greater prevalence and more severe childhood obesity, poorer cardiovascular and bone health and lower levels of cognitive functioning, mental health, and self-esteem. Children from low-income, minority, and rural backgrounds are particularly vulnerable for not meeting recommended levels of health-enhancing physical activity (PA) and rely more heavily on schools to obtain quality PA opportunities than other children. While 40 states currently have laws mandating elementary school physical education (PE) to promote student public health objectives, most underrepresented students do not achieve adequate PE participation because teachers (both PE certified and regular classroom teachers who teach PE) have limited or no access to easy to use and low cost programmatic resources for conducting effective, evidence-based, and standards-based PE. To address these needs, the Aim to Play™ digital application (“app”) program will be designed initially for 3rd-5th grade classroom teachers who are increasingly assuming the responsibilities of PE instruction. Teachers consistently experience PE instructional challenges due to (1) inadequate facilities, planning and teaching time, and equipment limitations; (2) varied student skill levels and experience managing student engagement; and, (3) an overall lack of instructional knowledge and training in movement and activity skills for conducting effective PE. To address these barriers, Aim to Play™ will work across platforms and devices, and provide simple, easy to use, evidence- and standards- based PE lesson activities that can be tailored by time, instructional setting (classroom, indoors/outdoors), grade, student skill level, and equipment resources, with an embedded data tracking feature to assist with state mandated reporting needs. The app will be low-cost and include brief teacher skill demonstration videos for each lesson, paired with adaptable classroom- and circuit-based (i.e. rotating activity stations) lessons for 3rd – 5th grade students with embedded music signaling transitions to assist with classroom organization. Teachers will access the program via digital handheld tablet devices, online or offline, increasing accessibility for settings with poor Wi-Fi. During this Phase I SBIR, we plan to (1) use an iterative process to develop a prototype (i.e. beta) version of the Aim to Play™ app, a cross-platform, digital program application designed for 3rd-5th grade classroom teachers, providing easy access to tailored, engaging classroom- or gym-based PE activities that meet the needs of teachers and students, and (2) evaluate the usability, satisfaction, and acceptability of the Aim to Play™ program in school settings, as well as fidelity of implementation, with 9 elementary school teachers serving diverse classrooms of low-income, rural, and/or minority children, as well as direct observation of student participation in activities. If our Phase I benchmarks are met, this will support the feasibility of Phase II activities. In Phase II, we plan to modify Aim to Play™ according to feedback obtained in Phase I surveys and exit interviews, create additional program modules, and evaluate the efficacy of Aim to Play™ via a short-term randomized control trial evaluating teacher PE knowledge, self-efficacy, practices and student engagement in under-resourced schools.