64 — Hastie and Trost Student Physical Activity Levels During a Season of Sport Education Peter A. Hastie and Stewart G. Trost The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which sport educa- tion can provide students with sufficient opportunities for developing moder- ate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). Nineteen seventh-grade boys (av- erage age = 12.9 yrs.) participated in a 22-lesson season of floor hockey. For all students (both higher and lower skilled), students averaged a total of 31.6 min of MVPA during the season, or 63.2% of lesson time. Further, there was no significant difference according to skill level {33.4 min (Higher) vs. 30.4 min (Lower), nor were there any significant differences in MVPA levels across the phases of the season. A traditional goal of physical education that has received renewed emphasis is that of providing physical activity to children, particularly given increasing evi- dence that physical activity is associated with short and long-term health benefits in youth (11, 18). Indeed the National Association of Sport and Physical Education (9) lists two of its national standards as “exhibits a physically active lifestyle,” and “achieves and maintains a health-enhancing level of physical fitness.” Further- more, objective 22.10 of the Healthy People 2010 report recommends a minimum of 50% of lesson time in physical education be spent in moderate-to-vigorous physi- cal activity (MVPA) (20). Despite these objectives, physical education has demonstrated a frequent inability to meet the challenge of providing sufficient MVPA in classes. Studies by Simons-Morton et al. (13,14) indicate that, on average, less than 10% of physical education class time is spent in MVPA. In a review of children’s heart rates during physical education lessons, Stratton (15) also confirmed that a majority of lessons failed to achieve the 50% criteria. While physical education classes may not be providing sufficient activity levels, there is a strong relationship between participation in sports and physical activity. In a study of 183 12-to 14-year olds, Katzmarzyk and Malina (8) found participation in organized sports to account for between 16 and 20% of daily total energy expenditure and between 55 and 65% of physical activity energy expendi- ture. Utilizing data from the 1990 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) Pate and colleagues (10) found that over 60% of United States high school students meet- ing guidelines for participation in physical activity reported participation in 64 P.A. Hastie is with the Dept. of Health & Human Performance at Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849-5323. S.G. Trost is with the School of Human Movement Studies at The University of Queensland. Pediatric Exercise Science, 2002, 14, 64-74 © 2002 Human Kinetics Publishers, Inc.