Variability in physical inactivity responses of university students during COVID-19 pandemic: A monitoring of daily step counts using a smartphone application

This study investigated the changes in physical inactivity of college students during the COVID-19 pandemic, with reference to their academic calendar. We used the daily step counts recorded by a smartphone application (iPhone Health App) from April 2020 to January 2021 (287 days) for 603 students. The data for 287 days were divided into five periods based on their academic calendar. The median value of daily step counts across each period was calculated. A k-means clustering analysis was performed to classify the 603 participants into subgroups to demonstrate the variability in the physical inactivity responses. The median daily step counts, with a 7-day moving average, dramatically decreased from 5,000 to 2,000 steps/day in early April. It remained at a lower level (less than 2,000 steps/day) during the first semester, then increased to more than 5,000 steps/day at the start of summer vacation. The clustering analysis demonstrated the variability in physical inactivity responses. Independent of the academic calendar, many inactive students did not recover their original daily step counts after its dramatic decrement. Consequently, promoting physical activity is recommended for inactive university students over the course of the whole semester.

Building Educational Environment in the Child-Centered Perspective: A Survey in Preschools in Thai Nguyen City, Thai Nguyen Province, Vietnam

Building an educational environment at a preschool has a direct influence on the quality of children's education, shaping its own values in the organizational culture of each school. This study aims to clarify what work needs to be done to build an educational environment from a child-centered point of view? What are the requirements for preschool teachers and principals? How have preschools in Thai Nguyen city, Thai Nguyen province, Vietnam built an educational environment? Theoretical research methods are used to have a theoretical model of building an educational environment from a child-centered point of view. The survey method by questionnaire combined with observation and unstructured interviews was used with a survey sample of 10 managers and 50 teachers to find out the above situation in preschools in Thai Nguyen city, Thai Nguyen province, Vietnam. Building an educational environment should pay attention to the physical environment in the classroom and outside the classroom, the psychosocial environment, all of which must be based on the needs of the child and create the most favorable conditions for the child to develop. The survey shows that preschools in Thai Nguyen city perform well in the contents with an overall GPA of 3.51/4.0 and are ready to welcome children back to school after more than 3 months of suspension because of the covid epidemic and summer vacation.

IMPROVING THE HEALTH OF CHILDREN IN SUMMER HEALTH-IMPROVING INSTITUTIONS OF THE ASTRAKHAN REGION

One of the urgent problems of medicine and education is the issue of recreation and health improvement of the children’s population, including in the summer, vacation time. The summer period is one of the important stages of recreation and recreation for children and adolescents, when it is possible to cover the largest number of students with a system of recreational activities. To assess the effectiveness of health improvement, the following indicators were studied in dynamics: height, body weight, arm muscle strength and lung vital capacity. According to the results of the study conducted at the beginning and at the end of the shift, the total effectiveness of recovery is: pronounced health effect – 210 (90.1%), weak health effect – 23 (9.9%), no health effect – 0%. Thus, the study of the improvement and strengthening of children’s health in connection with environmental factors makes it possible to increase the effectiveness of measures aimed at improving the quality of the environment and the health of the younger generation.

Teddie’s Landschaft

This article considers the concept of cultural landscape (Kulturlandschaft) from Theodor W. Adorno’s Aesthetic Theory, exploring how the philosophy of natural beauty in relation to historical built environments resonates with ideas of musical landscape and experiences of peripatetic listening. If Adorno’s mature thought is marked by the fractured experience of exile, his late evocations of displacement actually echo youthful experiences on holiday—notably, the striking volcanic terrain of a summer vacation in Italy, which is transformed soon thereafter into a reflection on landscape, alienation, and song. Throughout the recurrences of the trope of landscape in Adorno’s writings before Aesthetic Theory, the philosophy of nature and history and experiences of tourism and exile constellate into an aesthetic that contemplates sublimity and kitsch side by side: modernist philosophy as shaped by experiences of music, travel, and landscapes of distance and estrangement.

Changes in Physical Fitness during Summer Months and the School Year in Austrian Elementary School Children—A 4-Year Longitudinal Study

Even though physical fitness is an important component in children’s health and well-being, there has been a decline in physical fitness over the last several decades. The present study examined potential differences in the development of physical fitness during the academic year and summer vacation in Austrian elementary-school children. A total of 214 children (52.3% boys) completed the German motor test in the fall (after summer vacation) and spring (prior to summer vacation) of every grade throughout their elementary school years. This resulted in eight assessments of cardio-respiratory endurance, muscular fitness, flexibility, speed, agility, and balance over a 4-year period. As expected, physical fitness increased with age but the improvement in cardio-respiratory endurance and muscular fitness was more pronounced during summer vacation (p < 0.01), while the improvement in speed was more pronounced during the academic year (p < 0.01). These results indicate an influence of weather conditions on health-enhancing physical activity in addition to structural and social support. Particularly in geographical regions with cold winters and shorter days, health-enhancing physical activity may be limited. Accordingly, schools need to provide additional opportunities to ensure an adequate amount of physical activity that stimulates the development of physical fitness.