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Educating the Student Body
in the students toward physical activity” (McKenzie et al., 1994, p. 213). 
In another study, a SPARK intervention is credited with exposing students 
to an increase in motor skills drills, which in turn led to a higher level of 
manipulative motor skills acquisition (McKenzie et al., 1998). As a result 
of improved activity levels, students who participated in the SPARK cur-
riculum improved their times in the 1-mile run and sit-up tests (Sallis et 
al., 1997). Finally, System for Observing Fitness Instruction Time (SOFIT) 
classroom observations revealed that students in SPARK classes increased 
their time spent in vigorous- or moderate-intensity physical activity per class 
from 17.8 to up to 40.2 minutes compared with students in non-SPARK 
classes, who engaged in 17.8 minutes of vigorous- or moderate-intensity 
physical activity per class. Teachers involved in the SPARK intervention 
offered increased levels of fitness promotion and provided students with an 
increased amount of general instruction and increased minutes of attention 
per week (McKenzie et al., 1997; Myers-Schieffer and Thomas, 2012).
The CATCH program teaches children in grades K-8 how to be healthy 
throughout their lifetimes through a coordinated approach that involves 
engaging the community, families, and educators to work together. The goal 
of CATCH is to impact children’s health behaviors positively, improve the 
school health environment, and influence and change school health poli-
cies and practices in order to reduce and eliminate health risk factors and 
risk-related behaviors of students (Perry et al., 1990). CATCH significantly 
increases the physical activity levels of students during physical education 
class and provides a wide range of learning experiences for students of all 
abilities. 
CATCH began as a clinical trial from 1991 to 1994 in four regional 
sites: Tulane University in New Orleans; the University of California, San 
Diego; the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis; and the University of 
Texas in Houston. The participants were elementary school children in 
grades 3 through 5 and included children from multiethnic backgrounds. 
Upon completion of the main trial, CATCH had succeeded in producing 
positive and lasting changes in children’s behaviors, including decreasing 
fat consumption and increasing physical activity (Luepker et al., 1996). The 
changes were maintained for 3 years postintervention (Nader et al., 1999).