Sustaining Quality Physical Education for Healthy Kids

The purpose of the study is to examine the effects of the technology-enhanced quality physical education (Smart-QPE) lessons on physical activity, cardiorespiratory fitness, social emotional learning (SEL) skills, and mental well-being in school students.

Study Overview

• Status: Enrolling by invitation
• Conditions: Smart-Quality Physical Education
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Smart-QPE

Detailed Description

Students in 4th-7th grades from 17 elementary and middle schools in Michigan are invited to participate in the study. Students will be assessed with cardiorespiratory fitness, social emotional learning skills, physical activity, and mental well-being at a baseline and the post-intervention tests before and after the Smart-QPE intervention. The Smart-QPE intervention include that PE teachers integrate the Heart Zone Moves System into their teaching quality physical education lesson in October and November, 2025.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 970
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Michigan
    • Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States, 48109
      • School of Kinesiology, University of Michigan

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• students are 4rd-7th grade students aged 8-14 years old;
• enroll in the school offered physical education classes;
• being able to read and write in English;
• students can skip any questions they don't want to answer as they respond to the survey questions at the baseline and the post-intervention; and
• students can stop the aerobic fitness test at the baseline and the post-intervention

Exclusion Criteria:

1. students cannot complete the survey, which means that students had difficulty understanding the meaning of each item due to severe cognitive impairment informed by the school nurse/social worker,
2. students do not submit the survey on time (within a week),
3. if a student only submit one survey either at baseline or at the post-intervention,
4. students cannot take the aerobic fitness test, which means that students had difficulty moving their body due to severe physical impairment informed by school nurse/social worker.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Intervention / Treatment

Experimental: Smart-Quality Physical Education; For the Smart-Quality Physical Education (Smart-QPE) intervention, PE teachers integrates the Heart Zone Moves System into teaching quality physical education lessons. During the Smart-QPE lessons, students wear the heart rate monitors synced to system to self-monitor their heart rates corresponding to light, moderate, and vigorous intensity physical activity.

Behavioral: Smart-QPE; During the Smart-QPE intervention spanning in October - November, 2025, the physical education teacher integrate the Heart Zone Moves System into teaching quality physical education lessons; students wear the heart rate monitor on his/her forearm to self-monitor his/her real time engagement in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) to maximize students MVPA time.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA)	The MVPA during the Smart-QPE lessons will be objectively measured by using the Heart Zone Moves System, which is synced to each student's heart rate monitor wore on their forearms.	During the Smart-QPE intervention period (up to two months).
PACER test	The PE teacher will administer the PACER test to students for measuring their cardiorespiratory fitness will be assessed during a regular PE lesson.	Baseline test and post-intervention test (up to 4 months).

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Assessing Social Emotional Learning Skills Questionnaire	Students' social emotional learning skills will be assessed by completing the Qualtrics Survey. This is online platform survey includes this social emotional learning outcome.	Baseline and post-intervention test (up to 4 months).
The Physical Activity Questionnaire for Children	Students will complete the Qualtrics Survey, including Physical Activity Questionnaire for Children. Students will respond to 7 items describing a specific setting to engage in physical activity on 5 point-rating scale.	Baseline and post-intervention test (up to 4 months).
Mental Health and Well-Being questionnaire	Students will complete the Qualtrics Survey, including mental health and mental well-being questionnaire.	Baseline and post-intervention test (up to 4 months).

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Michigan

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): September 8, 2025
• Primary Completion (Actual): December 19, 2025
• Study Completion (Estimated): August 1, 2026

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: October 19, 2025
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 11, 2025
• First Posted (Actual): November 13, 2025

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): February 2, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 29, 2026
• Last Verified: January 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Quality Physical Education, Heart Zone Moves System
• Other Study ID Numbers: HUM00241100

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: UNDECIDED
• IPD Plan Description: In the IRB-approved consent form, we did not indicate that we will share IPD with other researchers.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No