Students at Easley Elementary School in Durham don't know that they're part of a groundbreaking trend in physical education in North Carolina. They just know they're having a good time.

"I like the pedometers because you get to track stuff and I'm good at that in math," said fourth grader Cade Barnhill.

The kids use pedometers as part of a program called SPARK, an acronym for Sports, Play and Active Recreation for Kids. The program, piloted in North Carolina by the Alliance for Athletics, Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (NCAAHPERD), gives teachers specific curriculum ideas and training sessions to help kids reach individual fitness goals.

"SPARK helps me because it just gives me tools that add one more activity to something I might already have been doing," said veteran P.E. teacher Marie Flowe-Dawson. "Or it clarifies an activity so that the kids can stay right on task and keep moving the whole time."

Durham County schools were among the first in the state to participate in the SPARK program. NCAAHPERD found that after SPARK training, P.E. teachers increased the level of moderate to physical activity during their classes from an average of 17.8 minutes each week to over 40 minutes per student per week.

The program's potential to improve long-term health in North Carolinians won a $3.1 million grant from the Kate B. Reynolds Foundation. The grant will be used to expand the program to all 100 counties in the state.

"Obesity is such a huge issue right now, that everybody talks about it," said Judy Martino of NCAAPHRD. "But they are geared primarily toward adults. This is the first initiative that's statewide that really goes into the schools where we're going to try to stop obesity before it gets started."

Martino says the reality is that most kids don't have P.E. class but once a week, sometimes less. So SPARK advocates have a bigger agenda: to convince the legislature to mandate more physical education time during the school day.

"A lot of parents, a lot of us as educators, we think if we take kids out of the classroom and do more physical education, will that result in a decrease in academic performance," said Paul Rosengard, SPARK founder. "The reality is, and the data show, it doesn't."

Orange County will be the next in the Triangle to get started with SPARK later in 2008. The grant money will be used to train teachers in 25 new counties each year for the next four years. Wake County schools are scheduled for training during the 2009-2010 school year.

Hear Judy Martino discuss what the Kate B. Reynolds grant will cover for P.E. teachers in the state by clicking on the extra video link in the thumbnail images above.

For more information on the program, visit the SPARK website

Find out more about NCAAHPERD