The Antonio Fraguas 'Forges' Institute in Madrid capital has enabled a classroom with pedals for students to do physical activity during classes and not only during the Physical Education course.

"We are worried that the kids do not exercise much, they are very sedentary: the mobile, the TV, the computer ... At least one hour a day here they do some exercise. Then, it turns out that it also seems that it has advantages to the time to sit well, pay attention ... ", said the language teacher Juan Torralba, in statements to Europa Press during one of his four weekly lessons.

The so-called 'Classroom Pedal' is a project of the researcher of the Polytechnic University of Madrid and professor of Physical Education of the 'Forges', Beatriz Polo, whose job is to look for strategies to increase the level of physical activity of students.

The center has made an investment to support the project since the classroom has height-adjustable tables and special chairs, in addition to the pedals and pulsometers that students take, to which Polo has allocated part of his Scholarship Internationalization Scholarship .

With that scholarship he paid for his stay in the United States, where he discovered strategies such as pedal classrooms and active desks and found that they were viable, so he decided to try them in Spain.

At the end of last year he made a feasibility project in the 'Forges', which consisted of putting the classes with pedals into practice in different subjects - seven in all - and with 157 students of different ages, during a period of five weeks . 87 percent of students said they liked the project and wanted to continue with it.

This course, for the development of the project, it was necessary to apply it at an entire level and for the same teacher to teach all the students, and the only volunteer at the beginning of the course that met those requirements was Torralba, who taught all the language class 4th of ESO, two groups of 30 students each, four hours a week. "IT IS NOT AN IDEA SO MARCIAN BUT IT WORKS"

"If you tell it it is a bit strange: students who are going to be in class pedaling while they receive class. Then, a priori, any teacher is shocked, but if you see it it really does not change much, the class is practically the same or better and they exercise, it is not such a Martian idea but it seems to work, "said Torralba.

In fact, Polo has assured that last year the mathematical competence was controlled with a pre-test and a post-test to compare the control group and the intervention group and that there was a "slight improvement".

"Our goal was at least to remain neutral, not to lower the results, and not only did not go down but also increased slightly," said the researcher. "And we also saw it in physical condition," continued Polo, who explained that they had the same physical condition test before and after, a 20-meter test.

In the 'Pedal Classroom' the students are seated two by two and 15 students pedal and the other 15 do not, because depending on the results of different tests of physical condition, linguistic competence and attention and through a statistical tool two have been configured balanced groups. Thus, one will be a pedal group and another control group until December, when the roles will be exchanged.

"Everything that seems to be done on the fly, for nothing, has a total rigor, is very measured," said Polo, who stressed that this is an ongoing investigation that is expected to get results soon.

For now, according to the language teacher, pedaling and attending in class "is compatible, at least as in any other classroom". "I do not see big differences, I even see them better sitting," he said, while indicating that, for example, students do not turn around so much in their seats, as in normal classrooms.

"Yesterday I had a different class, it was they who were giving the class and I was sitting in oral presentations and I sat on some pedals because I touched by chance and I was pedaling the whole class. There is a time when you disconnected, but I was focused on what was happening here, "he said. However, to take exams, he prefers a classroom where students are separated because "it is easier to control."

Polo has indicated that there are scientific articles that say that physical activity helps students with attention disorders, and that in the 'Forges' they checked last year that pedaling improves the behavior of "disruptive students", by being entertained by doing activity physical.

The teacher stressed that the decree in force in the Community of Madrid, in article 9.4, "says that you must promote physical activity and sports in schools every day ," while defending the increase in education hours Physics, which according to the regional government will pass from two to three next year.

The 'Forges' has requested to be one of the Institutes promoting physical activity and sport (IPAFD), and develops a project committed to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

In this line, the director of the center, Laura Moreno, has taken the opportunity to claim that a sports hall, since it is a new center that opened its doors last year without finishing and does not have a gym.

This course, the Antonio Fraguas Institute has also opened a 100 percent organic cafeteria, managed by the company 'Pleneat', which has its own land in Cuenca that is used for livestock and organic farming.

Moreno has stressed the importance of "teaching to eat well from children and adolescents", so the center does not offer sweets or soft drinks with sugar, but pastries and snacks without refined flour, without refined sugar and organic food.

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