Posted on Mon, Mar. 20, 2006
Desk chair missing? Might do you good
An obesity researcher found a way to keep schoolchildren on the go. Next, the office.
James Levine thinks the world would be a much healthier place without desks and chairs. And he's taking them away from one of the places that use them most - schools.
The Mayo Clinic obesity researcher took 30 fourth and fifth graders at a Minnesota elementary school and gave them standing desks, laptop computers and personalized white boards instead of a chalkboard.
"My initial fear was that if you get children in this kind of environment that they're going to go crazy - jumping around and paying no attention," says Levine, an endocrinologist. "But instead they're completely focused on the lesson."
Levine thinks that by moving to different areas and white boards, children get out some of their restless energy and are able to focus more. He tested their activity rate in a traditional classroom and will now test their levels in the new setup.
"It's kind of like when you take a break and go for a walk around the block and you come back more focused," said Levine, who introduced chairless desks for the workplace last summer.
The doctor's current experiment involves children between 10 and 12 years old, but he's hoping to eventually try it out on younger kids. The goal, he said, would be to fight obesity before it starts.
"My dream is to build a circular office or school with the outside rim moving at one mile an hour, while the furniture is fixed in space," Levine says. "You'll be working while ambling along; it'll be terrific."
Article
Linear Mode
