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New desks help kids focus, burn energy, teachers say

When Emily Ramberg and Lydia Currier stand facing each other for an hour in Abby Brown's sixth-grade class at Marine Elementary, it's not because they're being punished. They're standing up for learning.

For the two 11-year-olds and their schoolmates in Marine on St. Croix, traditional school desks have been moved out to make way for adjustable-height, standing work stations - each with a swinging footrest, a stool and a plastic tote for supplies.

Brown and others say the stations don't just keep students fitter, allowing them to stand and move around, but they help them focus and improve their posture. Researchers from the University of Minnesota and other organizations are taking note.

"There are certain subjects that standing stations are much more naturally conducive to, like any artwork, math or science," Brown said. "But the kids do other things like reading their novels sitting down."

Brown said her students, who have been keeping journals since the stations were installed in late October, have been overwhelmingly pleased with the change. They especially like their ability to move around in their "dance area," or the space around their station.

"You get to stand up and work on your muscles, and it makes you a little bit more tired at night, so you actually sleep a little better," said Spencer Strubing, 12, as he swung his right foot on the footrest. Spencer said that even though he now spends as many as five hours standing up in school, his body doesn't feel sore at the end of the day.

Brown said parents and her co-workers were skeptical.

"At first they thought, 'That's cruel, you're making them stand all day,' but they didn't realize that students have the option to sit down," Brown said. "It just makes sense, and it's a healthy thing to do, and nobody really objects to it once they understand it."

Marine Elementary has since installed standing stations in the third-, fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms, too.

The initiative has received attention from the University of Minnesota's Department of Kinesiology, which plans to compare students' expenditures of calories with those of students who use traditional desks.

The proposed study, which researchers hope to begin in January, will include attaching small devices to students' waists at Marine and Withrow Elementary to measure movement.

The department also is working on a lab study to see how the brain is affected by energy expended standing and sitting at a desk. Researchers have begun studying themselves and hope to study college students in March before progressing to elementary students in the summer.

Each work station costs $250, and Brown said the project is funded by $33,000 in grants and private donations.

Nancy Wisniewski, who teaches fifth grade at Marine, said she has noticed her students have better handwriting and have been more focused on their tasks while using the desks.

Wisniewski also said that since she started teaching in 1969, she has noticed an increase in the number of children who can't keep their bodies still. She said allowing them to burn energy naturally will help them become more settled.

"These desks aren't a miracle," she said, "but it gives some of these children a better chance to learn."

Suzanne Sobotka contributed to this report.

http://www.twincities.com/education/ci_7786106