ONCA Awards Ceremony 2025

Author: Juan Lemus | Major: Public Health & Biology | Semester: Spring 2025

Over the course of the 2025 Spring grant term, I worked alongside my research mentor, Dr.
Howie, to continue developing evidence-based support to reform current recess policies
and increase participation in vigorous activity during recess periods for elementary-aged
children. My goal was to attempt to find a correlation between the level of vigorous activity
and specific playground landscape and structures, as it could oSer an accessible
approach to addressing childhood obesity in Arkansas. I found this area of research to be
scant in existing literature, despite recess time being the only guaranteed segment of
unstructured play and socializing in a child’s day. Providing an answer to this knowledge
gap could play a role in the development of future playground design and establish
standardized metrics behind recess policy reform.
Through my tenure on the Recess team within the Exercise is Medicine team, I developed a
desire to address one of the biggest problems that Arkansas children face: childhood
obesity. Nationally, Arkansas scored 47th in a survey in 2021 for childhood obesity, and
according to studies by the CDC, 20% of school-aged children were classified with a BMI of
obese. My project aims to bridge the gap between wellness and accessibility by observing
the guaranteed time for unstructured play in a child’s day: Recess. Specifically, my project
is searching for a potential relationship between specific playground structures and higher
levels of vigorous activity. Using a modified app that captured SOPLAY and SOCARP data,
we can observe recess periods of partner elementary and manually transcribe the intensity
level of exercise for every corresponding individual in a zone/structure of a playground. The
practical application and clinical significance of this project are evident in the evidence for
intervention methodologies through policy changes that have an impact on the rates of
childhood obesity in the state of Arkansas.
Working on this project this semester has been a unique experience because there wasn’t
a blueprint for the direction, I wanted to take my research in, which gave me flexibility but
proved to be a challenge. In the developing stages of my project, it wasn’t easy to pick a
specific variable to measure and an area of focus that was specific but could also tangibly
be beneficial for determining future policy. Addressing this circumstance meant immersing
myself into the current literature and pool of knowledge regarding the determination of
recess policy, paired with a cooperative eSort with Dr. Howie to brainstorm what hadn’t
been done that could be impactful.
Dr. Howie played an instrumental role in directing me through the process of literature
review while keeping me mindful of the resources to construct a tangible research
proposal. This sparked continuous conversation with my corresponding graduate student,
Christopher Murphy, and greater overall connectivity within my research lab as I was able
to find my sphere within the discipline of Exercise Science, where I could make the most
notable impact.
After data collection for both Spring 2025 & Fall 2025, the data will be refined to remove
anomalies, and qualitative data will be transcribed into a visual model. Utilizing this data, I
will draw conclusions on the presented quantitative and qualitative data to begin the
investigation into this subdiscipline within Exercise Science. Even though one paper is not
impactful, beginning the pursuit for an answer for childhood obesity through recess
research will allow future researchers to continue dissecting the question and determine
whether it is valuable enough to continue observing. A poster will be created for a
presentation at a future American College of Sports Medicine conference in 2026, where I
hope to disseminate my findings and spread awareness for this new wave of research in
Exercise Science.