The Role of Physical Activity in Everyday Life of Contemporary Students Studied by Various Programs

Background. The question of physical activity becomes more urgent every day. More and more parents think about the necessity of physical development of children at the same level as mental. So the studying of physical activity degree and its impact on mental capacity of today’s schoolchildren studied by different programs is becoming increasingly important. Objective of the work is to show the level of physical activity of pupils in middle school, studied by traditional and new programs. Materials and methods. The research included survey of the pupils of the school № 169 in the city of Kharkiv. The research involved three forms of pupils (three groups for parallel concurrent studies). All pupils aged 10–11 years studied by new and traditional programs. The pupils of forms 5E1 and 5E2 studied by a new program, the pupils of form 5P studies by traditional program. The pupils were surveyed in dynamics: in the beginning, middle and end of the school year and included the issues of physical and mental activity, personal care, and day regimen of pupils. The parents and children gave consent for taking part in the research. The data were by using the methods of variation statistics, correlation and variance analysis (SPSS-17 program). Results. It was identified the poor nighttime sleep duration, which was caused by various loads during the day. So the expansion of activities and duration of their time in these groups of pupils regardless of studying systems is due to the reduction of night sleep that can lead to its violation. The analysis of the physical activity of children’s groups revealed a low rate of morning exercises. It is interesting that the most restoration occurred in the groups of pupils who do sports (36.0 ± 9.6 % pupils of 5E1 form and 46.2 ± 9.8 pupils of 5P form to 75.0 ± 10.8 and 76.0 ± 8.5 pupils, respectively against 44.0 ± 9.9 % pupils of 5E2 form, among which only 21.4 ± 7.8 % of pupils did sports). Thus, exercise improves the health of pupils in recovery period after the weekend. Conclusions. The study of the physical activity of fifth-grade pupils found the pupils of 5P and 5E2 forms to have high and sufficient level of physical activity during the week. At the same time, pupils of 5E1 form had sufficiently and low level of physical activity and poor well-being at the end of the work day and at the end of the day off. Pupils studied by a new system almost didn’t have time for outdoor exercise. It was associated with increased educational activity, the volume of homework and extra classes. Sports improves the well-being of the pupils in recovery period after the weekend regardless the educational system