Along with the rest of the state, too many children in Scotland County are overweight.

That is why a group of physical educators here jumped at the opportunity to try to reverse that trend.

The educators recently received specialized curriculum training with SPARK, an acronym for Sports, Play and Active Recreation for Kids. The program is designed to teach instructors how to help develop healthy lifestyles, motor skills and movement knowledge, as well as social and personal skills among students. The training is sponsored by the North Carolina Alliance for Athletics, Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, a school obesity prevention initiative created to improve physical activity and eating habits in order to reduce the number of overweight and obese children in grades K-8. North Carolina has the fifth highest rate of overweight and obese youth in the country.

“This is a great program,” said Michael Dease, a physical education instructor at Spring Hill Middle School in Wagram. Dease is one of three Scotland County teachers who recently traveled to Moore County to attend the seven-hour long SPARK workshop.

“The point is to get students into exercise without them knowing what the activity is. We were shown that by keeping lecture time to a minimum, and having them jump right in to an exercise, it kept kids active without them realizing they are engaged in a physical activity.”

Activities are often in the form of games, such as backyard golf and “Strata Ball”, which involves verbal cues and movement.

Dease plans to implement some of the SPARK routines into his physical education classes during the second semester at Spring Hill.

“We hope to do these activities two to four times a month as part of our program, and perhaps more,” he said. “The IsPOD program is really trying to crack down on obesity and inactivity in kids.”

The instructors in attendance received a good workout as well.

“We were in the workshop from 8:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m., and were engaged in physical activity for much of that time. The program is really good at keeping one’s energy levels up.”

More than 280 physical education teachers in the state have been trained to use the alliance's pilot program.

“We are impressed with SPARK’s tested and proven success in delivering increased physical activity in students, fitness achievement, academic achievement, sport skills development and enjoyment of physical activity, to name a few of the benefits of this curriculum,” said Ron Morrow, executive director of state program.

According to statistics, traditional physical education classes provide only 17.8 minutes of moderate physical activity per student each week. As a result of North Carolina teachers using the SPARK curriculum, students have increased their level of moderate to vigorous physical activity to 40.2 minutes per student per week.

Lindsey Rava, Marketing and Communications Coordinator with the alliance, said that overweight children “have a 70 percent chance of being overweight as adults, facing higher risks for many diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, stroke and several types of cancer.

About 54 percent of children in North Carolina are inactive, according to studies.

"Scotland County is taking a step in the right direction to decrease this statistic and make improvements in the health of North Carolina’s children,” she said.

The program is funded with grants from the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust, the North Carolina Health and Wellness Trust Fund and the Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation.

For information visit www.ncaahperd.org.