Why not attach the plywood with some heft and then glue the whiteboard for a clean surface? “We used to be more active, but over time we got conditioned to being inactive,” Benden said. Why does a Stand-Up desk lead to 7-9 more minutes per hour increase in engagement? Statistics show that today's kids are inactive in classrooms for 4.5 hours and then spend up to another 5.5 hours inactive in front of some form of device. He wants to spread the “gospel of movement,” where kids and adults understand they need to be up and active, free to move around. And that just doesn’t happen, this was kind of eye opening.” He mentioned a limited body of research showing that obese students may get lower grades than normal-weight students; the standing desks may have an opportunity to alter that. Caritey’s 7- and 8-year-old students get two 15-minute recesses per day, and 30 minutes of physical education twice a week. The desk is not much more than a glorified table topper that allows me to stand while doing my "desk-work". Copyright © 2001-2020 All rights reserved Worthington Direct. I'm just looking for some cheap, good whiteboard in general. After using the desk, each student said the experience was positive and said they would use it again. Lover of family, music, DIYing, and the great outdoors. If you found a way to replace the added 2x4 at the feet with something removable, but that gave the stability, the top could pop off, the legs fold and those not in use could be stored--or the whiteboard top alone used on top of a traditional desk. Too much sitting is bad for our health, he said, and students are now facing a host of challenges that may stem in part from too much time in a chair, including obesity and attention disorders. Studies show that introducing low-level activity (standing) into classroom environments has a positive pupil impact on classroom engagement, cognitive performance, academic performance and activity levels. It has a set of tall cabinets topped with counter space, and I noticed my students liked to work there whenever they could. “From an OT standpoint, it’s still an issue -- if you’re just standing, you’re not getting rapid vestibular movement. Cut the legs and feet to achieve the desired height; the recommended total height is equal to the distance from your elbow to the floor. Today's children are referred to as "Generation Inactive". When I sit at the standing desk, it wakes up my brain and helps me get ready for thinking.’”. Each day, Caritey chooses the students who are particularly energetic or are having a challenging time completing their work to use the standing desks. “Movement breaks are an essential part of learning in my classroom, and I have found that the best learning takes place when students are able to move their bodies throughout the day, consistently and frequently.”. Attach the legs to the center stud in the desktop and attach the feet as shown in the images. But it is foldable.Instead of a cinder block, you could put a hook and students can hang their bookbag. When I published the Instructable, I only had two desks in my room. Learn from this teacher who took a totally DIY approach to alternative seating in her classroom.

”, "The majority of the children do not even use the stools anymore. Standing Desks in the Classroom. Awesome! Classroom Sit-Stand Desks. They are the 1st generation who are expected to live shorter lives than their parents and the reason is inactivity. Their findings, published in a new piece in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, come from a group of 374 elementary school students in College Station, Texas. 01200 420877. And once again, the children who were overweight and obese showed larger improvements in attention than normal-weight children. The desks were designed and built locally at Stand2Learn, an A&M faculty-led startup of which Benden maintains part ownership. She dreams of having more. (Courtesy of Sandor Weisz) Educator Katie Caritey has two standing desks for her 24 second graders, but believes that all her students would benefit from using them. I threw together some high worktables in our STEAMlab/Makerspace from some old shelves that have been a big hit … As a teacher, I follow a number of education blogs and posts about innovative classroom practices. “In order to develop a strong balance system, children need to move their body in all directions for hours at a time,” she wrote. She dreams of having more. She also interviewed her students for this story so they could explain how they felt about having them in their classroom. "I love them! Then, someone used Windex on it and it's horrible. The benefits of standing desks branch into all aspects of life. About: I've been a teacher/learner/maker of Math since 1994.

Standing school desks keep kids focused while allowing them to stand and burn-off some of their youthful energy. Prices from £249 ex VAT.

I don't see the room becoming all standing desks. So five years ago, Benden and his team began studying what happened to students when they got out of their traditional seats and moved to standing desks.

Other stand-up desks and kiosks make ideal office workstations for employees who desire a standing height desk. Stand Up desks are becoming a popular choice in school classrooms today.

Reply One that has recently caught my attention is the idea of a standing desk for students. “It’s not normal, and it’s not how we were intended to be. Students divided into a (traditional desk) control group and a standing desk group were equipped with biometric monitors - what Benden described as “research-level Fitbits” - attached to their arms, which tracked several measurements, like heart rate and intensity of movement, and then calculated their caloric burn. (Yorkshire Sport Foundation). So, storage is important. Sign up to get the latest news and special offers, For Public Schools and While burning calories is certainly important, the real question in classrooms is whether standing desks improve learning. Stand-Up desks offer fewer classroom distractions, reduce behavioral disturbances, and improve overall collaboration. Educator Katie Caritey has two standing desks for her 24 second graders, but believes that all her students would benefit from using them. For the modern student or office worker, standing for part of a day is a good way to keep moving. The handy wooden lap desks feature a flat surface at just the right height for kids. As far as we're concerned, that's not acceptable. Donald Rumsfeld had a standing desk, and so did Charles Dickens. © 2018 VARIDESK Education. Merry-go-rounds and teeter-totters are a thing of the past,” she opined in The Washington Post. If you were to use it in a workshop, I would make it wider and use two sawhorses. ", "My graduate students race to class early to reserve their stand-up desks since we currently only have the last two rows in stand-up desks and the remainder in the traditional lecture style tables and chairs. Lap desks … They want to be wiggling and fidgeting and moving.”. 4. Just Phone The Standing Desk Experts Now! All Rights Reserved. I never want to give this furniture back!". Idea #2 for foldability: If the top is removable, you make extra tops. I also added a 3 1/2" piece of vinyl J-channel molding which acts as a whiteboard marker clip. According to Hanscom, one of the keys to maintaining attention in school is the development of the vestibular, or balance system, located in the inner ear. Reply A family of standing desk users at home. Mark Benden, Associate Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health at Texas A&M Health Science Center, is looking to change all that. “When you’re thinking about intervention, the children who are normal weight don’t experience a significant change from being in a seated classroom. So if "sitting is the new smoking" then getting children to stand more in learning time has both significant short and long term health benefits.

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