Research & Sponsored Programs Report ResearchAnnual201819-electronic | Page 9

As part of the pilot program in 2015, Vinci
and Wirth trained 16 child care providers.
Undergraduate and graduate students from
UWF were on hand to demonstrate how to do
each activity.
Wirth said a subsequent roundtable discussion
gave teachers the chance to discuss how they
could implement the ‘Let’s Wiggle with 5-2-1-0’
program in their curriculum.
“The teachers were throwing out ideas – ‘I can
do this with math; I can do this with science,’”
Wirth said.
While some of the teachers initially wondered
whether encouraging children to be more physi-
cally active in the classroom would lead to more
behavioral problems, the results of the program
showed that students were actually more on task
in the classroom because of it.
“Because (the teachers) were able to get the
kids up, and they did get their wiggles out, and
then they were able to use the different activ-
ities,” Vinci said. “Some of the activities would
allow them to do counting and colors. And so
they were able to use the activity as part of their
lesson plans.”
During the second year of the program, UWF
researchers trained 145 childcare providers in
Pensacola.
“In Escambia County, we’ve been to 29 child care
centers over the past two years and 16 (home-
based child care) centers,” Vinci said.
Follow-up research showed that teachers were
incorporating the ‘Let’s Wiggle with 5-2-1-0’
program into their lesson plans and an overall in-
crease of moderate to vigorous physical activity
among students.
The project has also resulted in the publication
Walker visits with students in the UWF Pedagogy Gym.
of a book, “Walker Finds His Wiggle,” in which
the main character, a dog named Walter Wiggle,
teaches kids different ways to be active.
“There are 10 different movements in there that
provides them opportunities to wiggle,” Vinci
said.
Another children’s book, which focuses on ways
to decrease sedentary behavior, is also in the
works.
Vinci, Wirth and the rest of the UWF team have
presented their findings before meetings of the
American Public Health Association and Society
for Behavioral Medicine and recently won first
place for their poster presentation at a confer-
ence held in Scotland.
“We’ve been presenting our data nationally and
internationally,” Vinci said.
in regular classroom settings.
“Success Studios will provide high-tech facilities
where students can participate in these work-
shops,” Benz said.
The upgrades will help give students unique,
hands-on, high-impact experiences to help fur-
ther their academic careers, Benz said.
“The idea is to give them earlier exposure to the
type of technologies used in these disciplines,”
Benz said. “This also gives them kind of an en-
tryway — or preview — into what research is
going to be like in their field.”
The planned enhancements to STEM courses
outlined in the grant application include course
curriculum redesign, which will be done in con-
sultation with faculty in the Hal Marcus College
of Science and Engineering. Combined with
other recent funding awards from the National
2018-2019 Research Annual Report
Dr. Pamela Benz instructs biochemistry research student
Ian Parker about the use of the auto sampler and automatic
spectrometer.
Science Foundation and National Institutes of
Health, UWF’s Hal Marcus College of Science
and Engineering has earned competitive awards
totaling more than $5 million to address STEM
education in the past five years.
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