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Educating the Student Body
Child development:
The biological, psychological, and emotional 
changes that occur in human beings between 
birth and the end of adolescence.
Children:
Persons ages 2-11 years. In this summary, 
refers mainly to persons ages 6-11 years.
Classroom physical activity: Opportunities for physical activity integrat-
ed into classroom lessons.
Cognitive control:
Processes that are mediated by networks that 
rely on the prefrontal cortex.
Cognitive flexibility:
The ability to quickly and flexibly switch 
perspectives, focus attention, and adapt 
behavior for the purposes of goal-directed 
action.
Community: 
A social entity that can be either spatial, 
based on where people live in local neigh-
borhoods, residential districts, or municipal-
ities, or relational, as with people who have 
common ethnic or cultural characteristics or 
who share similar interests.
Developmentally appropriate Physical activity that meets/includes the
physical activity:
following criteria: (1) orderly sequence of 
motor skills learning, (2) provisions for 
individual differences, (3) appropriate goal 
structures, and (4) ample learning time.
Disparities: 
Differences in quality of health and health 
care across racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic 
groups.
Duration:
The length of time spent doing an activity or 
exercise, usually expressed in minutes (e.g., 
30 minutes per occasion).
Energy balance:
A state in which energy intake is equivalent 
to energy expenditure, resulting in no net 
weight gain or weight loss. In this report, 
energy balance is used to indicate equality 

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Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Educating the Student Body: Taking Physical Activity and Physical Education to School
Appendix A
 
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between energy intake and energy expendi-
ture that supports normal growth without 
promoting excess weight gain.
Energy expenditure: 
Calories used to support the body’s basal 
metabolic needs plus those used for thermo-
genesis, growth, and physical activity.
Epidemic: 
A condition that is occurring more frequent-
ly and extensively among individuals in a 
community or population than is expected.
Executive control:
See Cognitive control.
Exercise:
Planned, structured and repetitive activity 
designed to target a particular outcome (e.g., 
a component of fitness).
Extramural sports:
Organized and supervised sports programs 
sanctioned by the school system that provide 
opportunities for competition outside the 
bounds of a particular school.
Fat: 
The chemical storage form of fatty acids as 
glycerol esters; also known as triglycerides. 
Fat is stored primarily in adipose tissue 
located throughout the body but mainly 
under the skin (subcutaneously) and around 
the internal organs (viscerally). Fat mass is 
the sum total of the fat in the body; cor-
respondingly, the remaining nonfat com-
ponents of the body constitute the fat-free 
mass. Lean tissues such as muscle, bone, 
skin, blood, and the internal organs are the 
principal locations of the body’s fat-free 
mass. In common practice, however, the 
terms “fat” and “adipose tissue” are often 
used interchangeably. Furthermore, “fat” is 
commonly used as a subjective or descriptive 
term that may have a pejorative meaning.

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Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Educating the Student Body: Taking Physical Activity and Physical Education to School
388