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Jun 10

West Haven’s Carrigan school partnering with UNH for health, fitness program – New Haven Register

Fitness Comments Off on West Haven’s Carrigan school partnering with UNH for health, fitness program – New Haven Register

WEST HAVEN >> Students and their families at Carrigan Intermediate School are getting some help from their neighbors at University of New Haven to learn about nutrition, practice an active lifestyle and bolster efforts to keeps kids fit and fight childhood obesity.

In return, the kids all fifth-graders who will be back at Carrigan next year in sixth grade are helping UNH dietetics professor Anne Davis and her students with some important research and hopefully will have some fun doing it.

Theyre part of the Chomp n Stomp to Your Best Fitness program, which began this past week at the school, which serves fifth- and sixth-graders.

I feel excited. I feel like Ill be more fit, said fifth-grader Abigail Phelan, 11, after getting her body analyzed and getting her Sqord electronic activity monitor, which she will wear on her wrist all summer. It measures all the movement.

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As she spoke, Davis had her classmate, Olivia Trenchard, also 11, hooked up to some electrodes on her middle finger, wrist, toes and ankle, which were connected to white wires that ran into a bioelectrical impedance analysis machine in a room within school nurses Marilyn Nairns and Barbara Cases office.

Davis said the machine measures the quantity and quality of body mass, including the amount of fat, bone, water and muscle.

The study will dig deeper than a typical study, said Davis, head of universitys dietetics program.

Typically, when there are programs that study childhood obesity, they just look at height and weight, Davis said. Were going deeper to study body composition and do exercise testing, she said.

Last week, Davis and three of her students began using sophisticated electronic equipment to gauge students body composition beyond just the body mass index thats often measured.

They also began issuing students, beginning with 35 kids Tuesday, Sqord electronic activity monitors that they will wear on their wrists all summer before coming back to do additional measurements in fall.

Were hoping for 250 (participants) eventually out of a total 450 students in the classes, Davis said.

The program is funded by a $47,066 grant from the Connecticut Health and Education Facilities Authority, said Davis and Principal Frank Paolino.

UNH had reached out to a few of the schools, including Carrigan and Bailey Middle School, said Paolino. But I guess Bailey decided that the program did not work out for it, he said.

He said his hope is that the study will lead them into a healthier lifestyle. Were trying to get them to eat healthier and lead a healthier lifestyle, Paolino said.

In addition to helping kids lead healthy lifestyles, its a great opportunity for undergrads to get involved in research, said Davis.

The grant pays only for equipment.

Were all volunteering our time, she said.

The Sqords cost $36 apiece and are specifically designed for kids and are even waterproof, Davis said.

They are pretty much indestructible, she said.

Fifth-grader Danyella Lanch-Flores, 11, said she was excited that I get to not be a lazy couch potato and that the study will measure what she eats, because I eat a lot of junk food.

With an activity monitor on her wrist, I feel like Im going to be playing outside more, she said.

Im OK with it, fellow fifth-grade student Michael Mention, 11 said about his monitor. It will keep track of how long I run and what Im doing. This summer, Im going to be outside a lot with my friends, he said.

His classmate Max Ginsberg, 10, also is excited, calling the monitor on his wrist something new to me. Its just going to involve a little more activity and exercise, he said. Its going to keep me motivated to wear it.

Fifth-grader Angelo Caramanica, 11, who is a running back on the West Haven Seahawks youth football team, said he felt pretty good about his upcoming summer wearing a Sqord.

Ill probably run a lot more, swim a lot more, he said. Right now, he said he likes to play football and swim.

UNH nutrition and dietetics major Sabrina Svozzi, 21, an incoming senior from Philadelphia, who is one of the student researchers, predicted that the program is going to get kids to be more active, and I think its going to help.

For her, the study is a great opportunity to actually be in the field instead of just learning in a classroom, she said.

I think when it comes to childhood obesity, its never too soon to start looking at it and I think prevention is the cure, said student researcher Riley Knebes, an incoming senior from Salem, Oregon, who has a double major in English and communications with a minor in nutrition and dietetics.

UNH nutrition and dietetics major Stephanie Alvarez, 22, of Lakeville, called the program a really good start for kids to learn about childhood obesity.

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West Haven's Carrigan school partnering with UNH for health, fitness program - New Haven Register

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