Author: Shea Fitzgerald         Major: Kinesiology

Shea Fitzgerald

My name is Shea Fitzgerald. I recently graduated with a degree in Kinesiology from the College of Education and Health Professions. This past semester I completed my thesis researching physical activity in elementary-aged children. I worked with a team under Dr. Erin Howie-Hickey. Dr. Howie works under the Department of Health, Human Performance, & Recreation. After this, I am headed on to Texas to pursue either a master’s in exercise science or PT school.

My thesis involved studying the impact of different playground environments on physical activity levels in elementary students. My aim was to determine whether or not the playground environment had a significant impact on moderate to vigorous activity levels in children in order to better understand how we can increase activity levels in students. My team and I went into four different schools across Northwest Arkansas, comparing the moderate to vigorous physical activity levels between the schools.

When trying to decide what research I should pursue my thesis, I knew that I wanted to study physical activity levels in a specific population. I knew that Dr. Howie studied elementary children, so I reached out at the beginning of the fall semester to see what projects she was going to be working on during the school year. Dr. Howie-Hickey already had started forming a team of students wanting to study how different variables impacted physical activity levels in elementary-aged students. I joined the team in the fall and started my research in the spring.

My original plan was to study the difference in PA levels in children during recess and PE, but some scheduling difficulties occurred and I changed my research to study the differences in PA levels between schools with varying playground environments. I had also originally planned to study the cognitive effects on the students by giving them short mEMA assessments before and after recess. This would tell us the extent to which elementary students benefit cognitively from exercise breaks. The IRB approval for the assessments was delayed and I ended up cutting this from the plan. Overall, we encountered several delays in our research. I overcame this by being flexible and allowing my research question to change as plans changed.

Dr. Howie-Hickey played an integral part in the research. She gave me and my teammates a preliminary list of schools to reach out to. She accompanied us to all four of our research schools and gave us counsel and guidance during the whole experience. I was a part of a team of four students. We all had different research questions that revolved around the same set of data. We went to all the schools together, learned how to use our research methods together, and figured out scheduling together.

My future plans involve moving back to Texas and getting a job while I take the GRE and apply to grad schools. I will either be applying to get my master’s in Exercise Science or applying to PT school. Either way, I will be continuing on the kinesiology/ exercise science path!