Product Details

Author Information

Corresponding Author
Maryanna Klatt
The Ohio State University, College of Medicine
306 G Atwell Hall
453 West 10th Ave
Columbus, OH 43210
United States
p: 614-292-0065
f: 614-292-0210
Maryanna.Klatt@osumc.edu

Authors (listed in order of authorship):
Maryanna Klatt
The Ohio State University, College of Medicine

Jane Case-Smith
The Ohio State University, College of Medicine

Product Description and Application Narrative Submitted by Corresponding Author

What general topics does your product address?

Allied Health, Medicine, Nursing, Public Health, Social & Behavioral Sciences, Social Work

What specific topics does your product address?

Chronic disease, Community-based education, Education, Health behavior, Health education , Interdisciplinary collaboration, Partnership building , Physical activity/exercise, Prevention, School health, School-higher education partnerships, Low Income Health, Community-based participatory research, Service-learning

Does your product focus on a specific population(s)?

Children, Urban

What methodological approaches were used in the development of your product, or are discussed in your product?

Arts-informed methodologies, Community-academic partnership, Community-based participatory research , Participatory evaluation, Qualitative research, Quantitative research, Service-learning

What resource type(s) best describe(s) your product?

Faculty development materials, Service learning material

Application Narrative

1. Please provide a 1600 character abstract describing your product, its intended use and the audiences for which it would be appropriate.*

Move-Into Learning: Stress Reduction Integrated into the School Day is a 6 minute streaming video detailing a health related interdisciplinary service learning, research project, conducted in a disadvantaged neighborhood adjacent to The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. Pre-service health, education, public health, sociology, and psychology students were introduced to an environment that they may not otherwise have considered for future professional placement. Being active participants in research, exploring avenues for closing the gap between knowledge production and application, provided the students a real life example of research challenges and successes. This product introduces other universities to possible projects engaging students in community work, and also provides schools/communities a summary of a community-academic partnership that they may choose to implement. The streaming video product was shown to the parents of children who participated in the Move-Into Learning project to stimulate continued stress reduction strategies in the home, and has been shown to schools (administrators, social workers, community activists) considering possible implementation of this collaborative program. The video product is a way to engage participation from within both the academic and community partners necessary for successful implementation. Move-Into Learning: Stress Reduction Integrated into the School Day has been shown at academic conferences to stimulate community-academic research partnerships, in hopes of furthering the common good of children and families.

2. What are the goals of the product?

The original goal was to introduce parents of the children who had participated in Move-Into Learning to the program itself. The children had talked about doing yoga and meditation at school, and the parents had all signed permission slips for their children to participate in this health and wellness research program, but the researchers felt that the parents deserved a thorough and detailed visual synopsis of the Move-Into Learning program. This way the parents could voice suggestions, critiques, ideas, and suggestions for further development of the program, providing important community feedback.

The second goal was to produce a visual representation of the Move-Into Learning program that could accompany the results of the research project that were presented at various academic conferences. The hope was that faculty from other universities would be energized, seeing the possibilities of community driven academic research involving pre-service health and educational leaders of the future. Via conference presentations, other university faculty were exposed to the idea that research, service learning, and community activism are not mutually exclusive but can indeed be synergistic. Interdisciplinary service learning happened during the project, and the product highlights that students from diverse majors can benefit from “border crossing” projects such as Move-Into Learning.

The third goal was to produce a video about the Move-Into Learning project that could be shown to schools (administrators, social workers, community activists, parents) considering possible implementation of this collaborative program. Potential school administrators and teachers need to be convinced that Move-Into-Learning can, and has been, successfully implemented within the academic day. For administrators, teachers, and parents to embrace a program, it needs to be practical and contribute to the goal of student learning. The streaming video is in an accessible format, highlighting the aforementioned aspects of the project.

3. Who are the intended audiences or expected users of the product?

The intended audience/expected users of this product are twofold:

1. University professionals (faculty of service learning courses, health researchers, colleges of education, etc) looking for ways to effectively incorporate academic expertise with the communities with whom they share borders, enriching both the community and the academy. This could take the form of community-based participatory research, either as educational or health outcomes research, or take the form of a service learning experience.

2. School leaders (administration/community leaders/teachers/parents) at potential sites for the Move-Into-Learning project to be implemented successfully. The objective is that the product be used to explain the project for groups that may be interested in a community-academic partners

4. Please provide any special instructions for successful use of the product, if necessary. If your product has been previously published, please provide the appropriate citation below.

Parties interested in forging collaborative partnerships may need ideas on how to successfully implement a service learning, community-based participatory research, community academic partnership. Viewing our product detailing the implementation of the Move-Into-Learning project will be a springboard for other such collaborations. Academic institutions value interdisciplinary collaboration between departments, but may not know how to begin to sculpt such programs for their pre-service professionals, especially in the Allied Medical Professions. accessing the URL describing this interdisciplinary example, may encourage other universities to generate ideas of interdisciplinary projects that could be forged with other departments at their own university.

5. Please describe how your product or the project that resulted in the product builds on a relevant field, discipline or prior work. You may cite the literature and provide a bibliography in the next question if appropriate.

Move-Into-Learning, is an integrative stress reduction research project that uses yoga, meditation, and occupational therapy techniques for inner city elementary children implemented during the school day, in the classroom. Research has demonstrated that proactive measures are the most effective in managing problem behavior (1), and has shown that experiencing enhanced sensory input through yoga and sensory integration activities has beneficial effects on children’s ability to focus, concentrate and attend (2,3). Meditation and mindfulness training are also effective ways to help children reduce their anxiety, develop positive affect, and learn from their environment (4). Move-Into-Learning combines these techniques for elementary aged children who are at risk for attention issues, anxiety, and problem behaviors.

Often children from low socioeconomic areas, who may experience stressful home and family situations, have poor nutritional intake, lack exercise, and experience disrupted sleep, also have difficulty with appropriate behavior and attending to schoolwork. And, they may not have access to integrative techniques available that go beyond traditional medical and educational practices as compared to their suburban counterparts. Move-Into-Learning attempts to give children a tool that can be used to manage their own behavior, making the connection between emotional state and physiological measures explicit to the children themselves, experiencing the power and impact of the mind/body connection. Yoga uses breathing techniques, postures, relaxation and mediation to impact the physiology of the body (2,5). Galantino, Galbavy, and Quinn (6) reviewed the literature to describe the wide range of studies and outcomes on yoga with children. Outcomes included improved muscle strength, flexibility, and some areas of motor performance. Stueck and Gloeckner (7) reported that when yoga was combined with relaxation techniques, it reduced feelings of helplessness and fear, decreased aggression and negativity, and improved overall feelings of well-being.

6. Please provide a bibliography for work cited above or in other parts of this application. Provide full references, in the order sited in the text (i.e. according to number order). .

1. Horner, R., Carr, E., Strain, P., Todd, A., & Reed, H. Problem Behavior Interventions for Young Children with Autism: A Research Synthesis. Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders, 2002; 32(5): 423-445.


2. Jensen, P. S., & Kenny, T. The effects of yoga on the attention and behavior of boys with Attention-Deficit/hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Journal of Attention Disorders, 2004;7(4): 205-216.

3. Manjunath, N. K. Spatial and verbal memory test scores following yoga and fine arts camps for school children. Indian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology, 2004; 48:353-356.

4. Semple, R.J., Lee, J., & Miller, L.F. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for children. In R.A. Baer (Ed.) Mindfulness-Based Treatment Approaches. New York: Elsevier; 2006.

5. Jensen, E. Arts with the brain in mind. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Alexandria, VA.; 2001.


6. Galantino, M., Galbavy, R., & Quinn, L. Therapeutic effects of yoga for children: A systematic review of the literature. Pediatric Physical Therapy, 2008; 20(1): 66-80.

7. Stueck, M., & Gloeckner, N.. Yoga for children in the mirror of the science: working spectrum and practice fields of the training of relaxation with elements of Yoga for children.Early Child Development and Care, 2003; 175: 371-377.

7. Please describe the project or body of work from which the submitted product developed. Describe the ways that community and academic/institutional expertise contributed to the project. Pay particular attention to demonstrating the quality or rigor of the work:

• For research-related work, describe (if relevant) study aims, design, sample, measurement instruments, and analysis and interpretation. Discuss how you verified the accuracy of your data.
• For education-related work, describe (if relevant) any needs assessment conducted, learning objectives, educational strategies incorporated, and evaluation of learning.
• For other types of work, discuss how the project was developed and reasons for the methodological choices made.

Move-Into-Learning is the product of the collaborative Health and Wellness Initiative, that began in 2006 when faculty from the Colleges of Medicine, Nursing, and Education began meeting with the Weinland Park Project coordinators and staff from Columbus Public Schools, members of the Weinland Park community, and other University and community Partners, to explore coordinated approaches to directly address the complex needs of young children and their families in a very economically distressed neighborhood of Columbus. Move-Into-Learning built upon the collaborative work of both university and community partners, receiving a 2007- 2009 Ohio State University Outreach and Engagement Grant, that enabled the development and implementation of this wellness program.

Move-Into-Learning is based on the premise that children from low socioeconomic areas, exposed to heightened social and economic stresses, may benefit from a yoga-based program implemented during the academic day, encouraging a state of calm alertness, conducive to learning. The primary aim of the Move-Into-Learning project was to develop and implement a health and wellness program for elementary school children living in the disadvantaged neighborhood, Weinland Park, adjacent to the Ohio State University. Ohio State faculty and students from the Colleges of Medicine, Education and Human Ecology partnered with the Weinland Park Elementary administration and teachers to implement the program in three separate classrooms. The intent was to deliver Move-Into-Learning to the whole classroom, and specifically, to benefit those who are behaviorally at risk. The program used yoga movement, music, meditation, and was implemented in three classrooms (n=72) during the 2007-2009 academic years. Goals for the program were to help children feel focused for learning, give them strategies for calming and decreasing their stress, and help them feel empowered to use these tools.

The program was evaluated in the last of the three classrooms, using measures of activity level. Analysis included comparison of baseline/post intervention behavioral data using a nonparametric analysis (Wilcoxon), pre/post respiration rates were compared using a paired t-test, and the qualitative interviews were analyzed for common themes that emerged. The Connors’ Teacher Rating Scale-Revised (S) was scored pre/post intervention on 10 children identified by the teacher as behavioraly at risk. It showed significant improvement in attention and engagement.( n=5) ( z= -2.023, p=.043). Additionally, their breathing pre/post intervention decreased significantly by week 7 (n=7) (t=3.3, p=.02) and by week 8 (n=9) ( =3.8, p.005).

Semi- structured qualitative interviews were conducted with the teachers, OSU students, and the Weinland Park 2nd graders. The children expressed that the program helped them feel calm, gave them strategies for dealing with stress, made them feel special/good about themselves, and was something they would like to continue. Both the teachers and the 2nd grade students reported a more relaxed and calm classroom environment that incrementally increased during 8 weeks of the program. Both the teachers and students emphasized the impact that diaphragmatic breathing and yoga movement had on improved focusing ability.
The service-learning OSU students indicated high interest in both the addressing the needs of a racially diverse and socio-economically challenged environment, and furthering health and wellness programs that provide coping skills to schoolchildren. The OSU students recognized the importance of being role models to the 2nd graders, and took this responsibility seriously. Almost every participant voiced a similar thought:
"I think I gave my 2nd grader an older figure she could rely on. She was always excited to see me and come to yoga. She was also very responsive to my suggestions even when she began to 'check-out' mentally. I think that was because I treated her with respect.

8. Please describe the process of developing the product, including the ways that community and academic/institutional expertise were integrated in the development of this product.

The product Move-Into-Learning: Stress Reduction Integrated into the School Day was originally created to share this outreach project with the parents of the schoolchildren participating in the project. A segment of one weekly Move-Into-Learning session was filmed by the College of Medicine media specialists. Written permission of participant’s photo use was obtained from the teachers, the service learning Ohio State students, and all children pictured in the video. Footage was then edited by the primary author in an attempt to provide an overview of the whole eight week program for future use in conference presentations and as a visual aid for diverse audiences, outlining the program content and goals to future outreach sites.

The parents were invited in to the school for an evening meal, which they made with their children, based on the theme of eating a “colorful plate” in order to obtain needed antioxidants that the children had learned as part of the Move-Into-Learning weekly session. The parents were also offered a yoga meditation session prior to the meal, experiencing a modified version of the Move-Into-Learning session that their children had experienced each school day for eight consecutive weeks. After the meal, a community chef explained how to cook the meal at home, and why eating “according to color” is in line with current nutritional guidelines for remaining healthy, and for combating disease. The community chef was compensated for her time in planning, assisting in cooking the meal, and for her short lecture after the meal. An addition grant had been obtained from the Ohio State College of Medicine outreach monies to pay for the dinner, the room rental, and the groceries sent home with each family enabling a replication of the “colorful meal” prepared and eaten together as families. Recipes for each of the offerings with nutritional content was provided by a faculty member from the department of Medical Dietetics, but the recipe itself was presented to the parents from the neighborhood chef.

It was important to the success of this project that the community be involved in the project planning, and implementation, thus the University Area Enrichment Association (UAEA) that works to improve quality of life for people who live, work, attend school, worship, and volunteer in the neighborhoods surrounding Ohio State University were involved in this project from its inception. Members of the UAEA were invited to be part of the evening, and were instrumental in providing feedback alongside the parents concerning the Move-Into-Learning participatory research and service learning project happening in the 2nd grade. UAEA is a non-profit organization whose core values are: Respect, Engagement, Collaboration, and Empowerment. UAEA was founded by and continues to be operated by residents of the University Area. The leadership of UAEA is made up of residents who reflect the demographics of the community. The mission is to focus on individual and community empowerment by assisting people in creating lives where they can thrive. The UAEA membership was enthusiastic in critiquing the Move-Into-Learning program, delivering feedback concerning the usefulness of the stress reduction program, building empowerment skills at a young age. Parents noted that their children had been practicing their yoga at home and wanted their parents to join in with them.

The video presentation of the project was approved by the parents of the children and community leaders who were present that evening, enabling the product, Move-Into-Learning: Stress Reduction Integrated into the School Day being affirmed as an accurate representation of the brainchild of the Weinland Park Health and Wellness Initiative, a community-academic partnership that had been forged a year before, to address the issues facing this racially diverse and economic struggling neighborhood.

9. Please discuss the significance and impact of your product. In your response, discuss ways your product has added to existing knowledge and benefited the community; ways others may have utilized your product; and any relevant evaluation data about impact, if available. If the impact of the product is not yet known, discuss its potential significance.

The streaming video product Move-Into-Learning: Stress Reduction Integrated into the School Day can have significant impact if academic researchers and faculty embrace the idea that community research can yield scholarly results, encouraging them to undertake such research in their own university community. The potential for service learning and participatory research is huge, but there are some practical challenges that accompany it. To view visual examples of products detailing projects that successfully implemented service learning while producing research data is encouraging.

The product has been viewed by community leaders, who have gathered to brainstorm creative, engaging ways to address the problems present in our society. Music therapists from a regional hospital have viewed the video, and have exchanged ideas of working with disadvantaged children in other locations (in this instance, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio). The product functions as a starting point of discussion of what programs currently exist in one’s particular city, and what is being done in other cities.

The product has been shown at two international academic conferences, with two abstracts published on the study:

Klatt, M, Case-Smith, J. (2009) Move-into-Learning: A Yogic Approach to Decreasing Sympathetic activity in an Inner City Classroom. Abstract, IAYT Symposium on Yoga Therapy and Research March 2009, International Association of Yoga Therapy and Research Supplement (#20, Page 46).

Klatt, M, Case-Smith, J. (2009) Integrating Yoga, Meditation, Occupational Therapy for Inner City Children. The Journal of Science and Healing. (Vol 5, Issue 3, p.152-153).
A written manuscript detailing all outcome data will be submitted upon data analysis completion.

The video was shown to the social workers in another inner city Columbus Public School, which has become the next location for implementing Move-Into-Learning in an economically stressed area of the city. The product Move-Into-Learning: Stress Reduction Integrated into the School Day has proven to be an effective marketing tool for soliciting new locations in which to implement the project, and for disseminating information of the project to other researchers interested in making a contribution to the common good.

In Winter 2010 the video was viewed by parents of the children being served in a new school implementing Move-Into-Learning as a way to familiarize them with the program. This enabled us to structure a wait list control group, so that the parents in the wait list class, knew their children would eventually receive the program.

10. Please describe why you chose the presentation format you did.

The presentation format was chosen for its visual impact, (showing the beautiful faces of these young children who have so much potential, and the committed energy of the teacher who does the yoga movement alongside her students), the auditory impact of the music we use in the background,(“Born in the Heart of Every Child is the Power to Change the World”, sung by the talented Maureen McGovern), the detail of the art activities down each week by the students (If you were an apple, who are the seeds in your life that help you grow), and the visual active engagement of the Ohio State Service learning students, working with the 2nd graders. The video product, showing the project gives the viewer a visceral experience of the energy and impact of Move-Into-Learning from the 2nd graders, the service learning students, to the faculty and teachers involved in the project.

11. Please reflect on the strengths and limitations of your product. In what ways did community and academic/institutional collaborators provide feedback and how was such feedback used? Include relevant evaluation data about strengths and limitations if available.

Strengths of the product include its ability to sell the project to future researchers and faculty contemplating designing a service learning experience for their students, and as a marketing tool to solicit future implementation sites, and future service learning participants. Community and academic collaborators were able to provide feedback on both the project and the product at various times during the past two years, and this has proved to be extremely helpful and insightful information. Specifically, teachers in our pilot classrooms were sources of reflection as to what time of day the intervention was best utilized, and which art activities were most useful to their curriculum.

Two teachers in particular were especially helpful in our initial implementation of Move-Into-Learning. They were Michelle Moore (pictured in the video) and Pam Sweeney (not pictured) but a big supporter of our program. Both of these teachers were committed to the students in their classroom and were excited with a program that helped their children focus. They were sensitive to the home and economic stresses experienced by their students, and were grateful to provide a health and wellness option to their students via educational research.

For this pilot we did not explicitly focus on educational standards that we covered for the teacher, and this was a limitation, as the teachers definitely were open to this possibility. After the intervention the teacher pointed out that some of the educational benchmarks we covered included: 1. Demonstrating an awareness of HOW to maintain wellness, 2. Demonstrating how exercise influences a person’s wellness, 3 Using effective coping strategies for dealing with conflict and emotions, and, 4. Explaining healthy eating habits. We didn’t investigate educational standards until the conclusion of the program, and we will now be proactive on each new trial of Move-into-Learning, making explicit the ability of the program to address educational standards. Educators are concerned about fitting programs into an already crowed curriculum, and if we can illustrate specific standards that the program covers, it would be a huge contribution. A future goal is to investigate educational standards that might be addressed, regardless of where the program is implemented.

Public schools are developing programs to enhance learning and behavior in children who are at risk for behavioral problems. Yoga programs have been used in a wide variety of settings and have been found to have a positive effect on children’s behavior in the classroom. This video is not a stand alone in terms of teaching schools and communities how to specifically implement this program. It is an example of a successful health and wellness initiative between a university and a bordering neighborhood. The video was not meant to be a stand alone, but to inspire other academic- community projects to be born from local initiatives, sensitive to local conditions (proximity, community needs, etc). A health and wellness program such as this is made possible from relationships that can be built through academic-community interaction.

After Move-Into-Learning has been tested in various settings beyond the inner city, then generalizability can be claimed across settings (including rural, suburban, and urban settings). Our research needs to be expanded beyond the inner city and plans are underway . After completion of this expanded research, an in depth training manual will be written, and a training program for teachers, or other interested school personnel (such as social workers) will be forthcoming.

12. Please describe ways that the project resulting in the product involved collaboration that embodied principles of mutual respect, shared work and shared credit. If different, describe ways that the product itself involved collaboration that embodied principles of mutual respect, shared work and shared credit. Have all collaborators on the product been notified of and approved submission of the product to CES4Health.info? If not, why not? Please indicate whether the project resulting in the product was approved by an Institutional Review Board (IRB) and/or community-based review mechanism, if applicable, and provide the name(s) of the IRB/mechanism.

IRB approval of the project was obtained at the inception of the project through both the Ohio University and Columbus Public Schools. Service Learning students were given an introduction of the project goals before working with the 2nd grade students. They discussed ways this could relate to possible professional placements for their future work, and discussed the possible challenges of working in an unfamiliar environment. The project was collaborative with the service learning involved as, they were students in class, and we had much opportunity to process each week’s challenges and successes. Modifications were often tried based on student suggestions. Additionally, the classroom teachers were key collaborators in this project. The daily implementation of the protocol was their responsibility, and they were the ones that determined the best way to incorporate the intervention successfully into the academic day. They have been notified that we are submitting the Move-Into-Learning: Stress Reduction Integrated into the School Day product for peer review in hopes of publication through CES4Health.info and they are excited about the possibility. This will provide an opportunity for them to disseminate the idea of welcoming such a program into other classrooms.

The project and resulting product was built upon mutual respect, shared work and shared credit amongst all the team members in this collaboration. If one member had not cooperated (ie. A classroom teacher being non adherent to the daily yoga protocol, or the service learning students not showing up for the weekly group session, or the parents of the 2nd graders refusing to allowing their children to participate, to the 2nd grade students themselves, each week participating in the yoga session) each and every member of this service learning, health related community-engaged scholarly research project would not have been possible. But they did, and it was a success by all of the team members’ evaluations. One teacher commented on the inclusion of the art activity at the end of each weekly session:

" I’m a huge on meeting the needs of any learning style, so I really feel that this program covered everything on that level. You did tactile, you did audio, you did visual… there were all kinds of things, again, that are going to meet the needs of my kids, and the strategies. So it gave all types of critical thinking, higher-level thinking, you brought things into real-life skills….So, all I can say is, yes, I love that the art was an end portion of the weekly activity. It definitely gave a more deeply rooted meaning to the activity. "

And another:

"My hope is that, we have a lot of kids that have a lot of environmental issues. And a lot of the times I try to push that this [school] is a safe haven for them. So if they can see that if they get angry at home and can pull in that deep breathing, step away from an area or a situation that’s not comfortable to you, focus and just try to relax yourself, I think that in the long-run when they grow up, and if they keep that embedded into them, it is going to help them in many, many situations."

The 2nd graders responded to the parts of the program they valued most:

I liked when you take off your shoes, you know something fun is going to happen!
I liked it when we drew pictures of what we did…I liked the yoga because it helped me focus.

And in the semi–structured interviews, when asked, “Who has the power to change the world?” A 2nd grade student answered, "we do!". The researcher then asked the class, who agrees with (child's name). When 22 hands rose, there was no doubt that respect, collaboration, and credit goes to each participating member of Move-Into-Learning: teachers, 2nd grade students, university service-learning students, and administrators that provided access.