Positive Effects of Research Study

For this week's assignment, I chose to find a research article had had positive effects of using children as part of the their research. The study I found look at how what children ate for breakfast effected how they acted in school. We all know that breakfast in the most important meal of the day. By consuming breakfast, children are getting the required nutrients needed and often time have a lower BMI (Adolphus, Lawton, & Dye. 2013). Those who don't eat breakfast or often less likely to be physically active and have a lower cardio-respiratory fitness level (Adolphus, Lawton, & Dye. 2013). Further, there is evidence that breakfast can positively affect learning in children in terms of behavior, cognitive, and school performance (Adolphus, Lawton, & Dye. 2013). The study look at children who didn't eat breakfast vs. the students that did. The findings of the study concluded that children paid better attention and did better in classes then those who didn't have breakfast (Adolphus, Lawton, & Dye. 2013). This study has a positive effect because it shows parents and families the importance of their children having breakfast, and how it can help improve behavior and on-task in the classroom.

Reference
Adolphus, K., Lawton, C., & Dye, L. (8 Aug 2013). The effects of breakfast on behavior and academic performance in children and adolescents. Human Neuroscience. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3737458/.

My Personal Research Journey

For my research stimulation, I am looking at how math assessment scores varying among students in different kindergarten program. I am more specifically looking at programs that are full-time everyday programs versus half-time everyday programs. I chose this topic because in the last 20 years, the school district I attended and currently live in has changed their program numerous of time. First it was half-time everyday, then it was full-time every other day, and now starting this year it is full-time everyday. The last change was because the State of Ohio mandated that all kindergarten programs are to be full-time everyday programs. This started getting me thinking about whether the change was a good change or not, and is it really benefiting our children. So I decided to focus one one subject, and I chose math. Are are students really scoring better in math related assessments because of this extra time, or are the score remaining the same? If scores are remaining the same, they why are we in a full-time everyday program? These are just a few questions of mine I hope to answer throughout the next six weeks, as I conduct this research stimulation.

I ask from my colleagues if you could share any information you have on this topic, that would be great. What type of program did you attend in kindergarten, or maybe what type of programs your children have attended? How do you think kindergarten has changed over the years? Do you think a full-time everyday program is the more efficient? Why or why not? I hope to share resources as I find them! Thanks!