MindBikes and Learning Disabilities
Most of the children I work with in the school systems are in self-contained special education classrooms. These students are not able to learn effectively in a regular classroom and need more on one and small-group instruction. Physical Therapy is a related service added to help children benefit from their education. Two students in particular helped me realize that riding the “ Mindbike” was helping these students perform better not just physically but academically.
No “manipulatives” necessary
A female student in one of the special education classrooms could not work math problems without using “manipulatives”. Manipulatives are blocks, textured cards, and tactile clues that help a student use other senses by touching something physical to visualize the math problem. I had an extra “Mindbike” that I placed in this student’s room for several months. Her teacher had her ride the bike before attempting her math assignments. The teacher noticed something remarkable, if this student rode the bike for 15 minutes she could work problems without manipulatives. If she didn’t ride the bike she had to use manipulatives. Eventually, this student could work on math problems without riding a bike before and no longer needed manipulatives. We are not supposed to have favorites, but this student made her way into my heart, she was super sweet and kind to everyone and she worked so hard to overcome her challenges. She eventually was able to finish school mostly in the regular classroom. I saw her at work one day after she graduated. She was happy and excited to see me. I was so grateful to have known her. She inspires me and knowing the mindbike made a difference in her life and many others has kept me moving forward for 20 years on this project.
Coloring Columbus
Another student in a special education classroom was working on an assignment to color Columbus for Columbus Day. She had just completed her drawing when I came to get her for her physical therapy session. I had her do her normal routine which included riding the “Mindbike” for several minutes before she returned. When she came back to class the teacher handed her another picture of Columbus, not realizing that she had already completed it before leaving. When the student turned in both coloring assignments she had a perfect before and after example of how the “Mindbike” helps the brain. In the before coloring page, the student only used 2 colors, she made broad strokes across the page not staying within the lines, and she colored the face of Columbus green ( maybe she thought he was seasick). On the “after” coloring page, she colored within the lines, and used several colors including pink for Columbus’ face ( he had probably recovered by then) and yellow blonde for his hair. The before and after comparison was dramatic, so much so that the teacher saved the coloring pages and showed them to me. This teacher, a good friend, became a consultant to see If the Mindbike had a broader application to students in the regular classroom who struggled to learn math. She helped us put together the curriculum for the Math Champions project. Special Education Teachers are literally in a class by themselves, they put their heart and soul into their very challenging work. My friend was one of these heart and soul teachers who made such a difference in the lives of their students. She graciously agreed to make a video of her Coloring Columbus experience. I have included the link below.
Coloring Columbus link
Research studies with students from regular classrooms
After these two experiences and many others with similar results, I wanted to determine if riding the Mindbike could help students in regular classrooms improve academically. My hypothesis was that a great number of the students who struggle to learn math in the regular classroom specifically have underlying and undiagnosed “retained reflexes” or neurodevelopmental delay, that could be helped by the patterns produced while riding the bike. These reflexes are associated with dyslexia and other learning disabilities ( study by Stoddard).
The funding miracle
For several years I observed the effect of the ‘mindbike” on cognition and motor planning in children in special education classrooms. I wondered if children in regular education classrooms who struggled with math and reading might also benefit from riding the bike daily. I determined to design a study to see if children in the regular classroom who struggled to learn reading and math could benefit from riding this MindBike. I had a hypothesis that brain immaturity and retention of primitive reflexes had something to do with their difficulty in learning. A lot of these ideas came from a book that I had been reading about neurodevelopmental delay causing learning difficulties by Stoddard (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0074775008602062). This group based out of the UK had developed exercises that integrated reflexes such as Asymmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex and Symmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex. They cited studies that linked these two reflexes and others to learning difficulties. What if I could provide a system that combined exercise on the MindBike with a specialized curriculum? Would that be enough to help these students who struggled to learn math improve their ability to learn? How could I measure their improvement?
All of the second graders at the school where I work take a standardized test including math and reading in the fall of the school year. They then take the same test in the spring to measure improvement. The goal is to improve their score on the math portion by 12 points or more. Because all of the students would be tested, that would provide me with a control group for the study. This kind of study would require funding and more money than I had. Besides the curriculum, and building the bikes. I would need assistants who could help me supervise 21 seven-year-old students who were not especially compliant in the first place.
Up to this time I had used my own funds from my own business, but this was going to be expensive. Kevin, a software programmer at 3d Innovations, had already created a video game that could be modified to provide a game-like experience complete with music and programmable virtual worlds. I needed to modify several bikes and find research assistants. It was quite overwhelming. By the end of the fall semester, I had not found funding and was getting desperate. I remember asking my friends at the school both teachers and therapists to join me in praying for a funding miracle, otherwise I was going to give up on the study. I set a weekend in November of that year as my cutoff date, and we all prayed for divine intervention. That weekend one of the speech pathologists that I work with attended a baby shower. At the shower, she met a woman who represented a foundation that provided funding for educational research. My friend described what I was trying to do and that I was looking for funding. The woman said that they were actually looking for projects like mine and that they had grants available. The only problem was that the money had to be given before the end of the year ( not a problem!). The speech therapist got her contact information and gave that to me the following Monday. I wrote a short description of the study I proposed and submitted it to the foundation for approval. Before the end of the fall semester of that year, the school I was working at received a grant of over 17,000 dollars from that foundation to fund the study. That was our funding miracle! My friends and all those involved in praying that weekend believe that a kind God heard and answered our prayer.
With the research study partially funded, we began modifying the stationary bikes and buying the pedallers, computers, game controllers, and software. I hired assistants and we started the study. I recorded the data in the following table and then wrote a summary of the study after the completion of testing in March of that school year. We kept records on fall and spring NWEA math scores, conduct grades from the teachers, before and after fitness ( as measured by speed and distance on the stationary bikes) and before and after BMI. The data was recorded on a table and the summary follows on the next page.
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GROUP: TUTORING with EXERCISE BIKES
CHILD EFFORT NWEA MATH TEST CONDUCT FITNESS TEST BMI
(percentile)
Before After
RATING Fall 2008 Spring 2009 Points Improved Grade (%) Miles/12 Min/mph Miles/
15Min./ mph Before After
Feb Mar Apr
1 Good M 164 185 21 75 80 90 1.48/7.4 3.0/12 18.0 (85th) 16.9(72nd)
2 Good M 167 187 20 74 70/n 70/n 1.33/6.65 3.0/12 22.7 (95th) 23.2 (95th)
4 Fair M 164 178 14 80 90 90 0.82/4.1 2.23/8.9 25.4 (95th) 25.1 (95th)
5 Fair F 169 181 12 90 75/n 85/s 0.98/4.9 2.20/8.8 25.1 (95th) 25.1 (95th)
6 Good F 167 190 23 90 90 90/e 0.99/4.95 2.41/9.6 23.7 (95th) 24.0 (95th)
7 Good M 168 183 15 78 70/n 70/n 1.38/6.9 4.13/16.5 16.6 (66th) 16.0 (53rd)
9 Poor M 167 176 9 80 85/s 85/s 1.32/6.6 2.08/8.3 14.3 (11th) 14.1 (7th)
10 Fair F 169 184 15 70 60/u 80/s 0.95/4.75 1.93/7.7 16.1 (58th) 17.0 (70th)
13 Poor F 165 175 10 78 80/s 80/s 0.70/3.5 1.60/6.4 26.1 (95th) 24.1 (95th)
15 Poor F 169 183 14 55 70/n 70/n 0.85/4.25 1.85/7.4 14.3 (14th) 14.8 (26th)
16 Poor M 166 182 16 77 87 80 0.58/2.9 1.59/6.3 14.1 (7th) 14.1 (6th)
19 Good M 165 191 26 60 55 71.6 1.20/6 2.25/9 14.2 (11th) 14.6 (20th)
20 Good M 160 187 27 81 80 80/s 1.19/5.95 3.34/13.3 18.2 (86th) 17.1 (73rd)
23 Good M 165 195 30 85 60/u 80/s 1.11/5.55 2.27/9.08 16.2 (59th) 16.0 (51st)
25 Poor F 164 179 15 95 70 80 1.07/5.35 2.02/8.08 17.2 (76th) 18.1 (81st)
GROUP: TUTORING ONLY
CHILD EFFORT NWEA MATH TEST CONDUCT BMI
(percentile)
Rating Fall 2008 Spring 2009 Points Improved Grade (%) Before After
Feb Mar Apr
3 Good 164 175 11 89 80 80/s 16.6 (62nd) 16.5 (59th)
11 Fair 166 181 15 80 82 85 15.6 (47th) 15.5 (43rd)
12 Good F 169 189 20 95 95 90 25.3 (95th) 24.6 (95th)
14 Good F 173 175 2 98 90 90/e 13.8 (6th) 13.5 (5th)
21 Good 168 183 15 99 80 80/s 15.3 (41st) 15.1 (34th)
24 Good M 168 192 24 78 87 82 13.8 (5th) 13.7 (5th)
26 Fair M 162 178 16 83 88 90 17.6 (81st) 17.5 (79th)
Average Improvement Entire 2nd Grade: Exercise Group 17.6 pts Tutoring Group: 14.7 pts Rest of Class: 11.1 pts
Percentage improvement over rest of Class: Exercise Group: 58.2% Tutoring Group: 32%
Including only those with Good Effort: Exercise Group: 23.1 pts Tutoring Group: 14.4 pts Rest of Class: 11.1 pts
Class by Class Data comparison of NWEA Math Scores
Classroom A Group Avg. Improvement in NWEA Math scores: Exercise: *16.5 points Rest of Class: 9.6 points
Classroom B Group Avg. Improvement in NWEA Math scores: Exercise: 15 points Rest of Class: 13.7 points
Classroom C Group Avg. Improvement in NWEA Math scores: Exercise: *26 points Rest of Class: 9.6 points
Classroom D Group Avg. Improvement in NWEA Math scores: Exercise: **17.9 points Rest of Class: 11.7 points
Classroom E Group Avg. Improvement in NWEA Math scores: Exercise: 15.5 points Rest of Class: 10 points
On * Exercise student had highest improvement. On ** Exercise group had highest and 3 of top 5 in class.
The Effect of Exercise and music in helping 2nd grade students learn math concepts, improve BMI, Fitness levels, and Conduct.
ABSTRACT: One study has suggested that new and difficult material cannot be learned while students are exercising at an intense rate ( 90% of a maximum heart rate). The question is can students learn difficult math concepts during moderate levels of exercise in shorter sessions ( less than 30 minutes), and is the shorter period of exercise effective in improving Standardized math scores, BMI, conduct, and fitness levels in 2nd graders. Many students that struggle learning math using traditional methods are either auditory or kinesthetic learners. Music, and movement have been shown to help kinesthetic learners learn more effectively. In this study, Music, movement and exercise were combined into DVDs and a specially designed video game software to teach math curriculum that fits the learning style of auditory and kinesthetic learners.
This 3 month study was conducted involving twenty-six second grade students with low math scores. The students were divided into two groups. Seven of the students were placed in a tutoring only group, and the remaining nineteen were placed in an exercise and tutoring group. Both groups received the same study questions and were shown the same DVDs with music.
The exercise group showed the greatest improvement in NWEA standardized math scores from September of 2008 to May of 2009 averaging 17.6 points improvement compared with the tutoring only group which averaged 14.7 points improvement. The rest of the second grade in this primary school averaged 11.1 points. 12 points is the goal for improvement in the school year on the NWEA math section in the second grade.
BMI improved in 7 of the 15 students who finished the study in the exercise group. Two of the seven students in the 86th and 85th percentile in the exercise group reduced their BMI 13 percentage points to the 73rd and 72nd percentile. Curiously BMI improved slightly in all seven of the control group.
Fitness was measured by average speed on the reciprocal bicycle over a certain number of minutes. All of the children in the exercise group improved their average speed in the fitness test by at least 20%. Four students improved their average speed more than 100%. A significant correlation between fitness level and NWEA math test score improvement was noted in that six of the seven best fitness scores correlated with the highest improvement scores.
Conduct scores were taken from a numerical grading system already used by the 5 second grade teachers in the school. Eight ( 53%) out of the fifteen students in the exercise group showed improved conduct grades from February to April. Three of the seven (42.8%) students in the tutoring group improved their conduct grades.
Method: Four mornings a week the students in the exercise group attended a class that included pedaling modified reciprocal stationary bicycles designed to mimic the crawling motion using both upper and lower extremities. During the 12 minutes on the modified reciprocal stationary bicycle the students would watch a video that used music to teach math. Half of the students would start on the other side of the room, pedaling mini-exercise bikes with either upper or lower extremities that moved a character through a virtual world in a computer game. Software was developed to place math questions at various intervals in the virtual world. Students would work together in teams of two, one pedaling with upper extremities which controlled the speed of the character and the other pedaling with lower extremities and using a specially designed game controller to move the character left or right. After working out the problem together, the team would decide on the answer and press a button on the game controller that matched the number of the selected answer in the video game. Wrong answers resulted in a 40% loss of power requiring the student to pedal faster to go the same speed. A button on the game controller gave written advice from the teacher on how to solve the problem. Pushing this “hint button “ often helped the students to not make a wrong guess and lose speed. 10 to 17 questions were strategically placed in each world in order to get about 1 to 1.5 minutes of pedaling between each question. After pedaling for about 12 minutes, the students would switch to the other side of the room and pedal either the mini-bike or the reciprocal stationary bicycles. Four of the students in the exercise group did not complete the 3 month study for health or behavior reasons. All of the students in the tutoring group finished the study.
Conclusion: This study demonstrated students can learn or review material effectively during moderate levels of exercise, while improving fitness levels. Conduct grades also improved in more of the students in the exercise group than the tutoring group.
THE STUDENTS
Many of the students that participated in the study seemed to enjoy the novelty of exercising and playing the educational video games. These were students who struggled to learn math concepts, and many were behavior problems in class. At the end of one 30 minute session one boy begged us saying, “Please Mr. Wray let me stay and work one more math problem?” Several of the teachers noticed an improvement in the behavior of the students in the study after pedalling each morning and would often ask if they could send their other students with behavior problems to pedal the bikes for a while.
Thirteen of the 15 students in the exercise group and 5 of the 7 students in the study group scored above 11 points which was the average improvement on the math portion of the NWEA of the rest of the 2nd graders in that school. The girl that improved the most (23 points) (#6) also improved significantly in reading. She more than doubled her distance pedaled from .99 miles at the beginning of the study to 2.4 miles at the end.
### The boy who couldn’t resist riding a bike.
To make the study effective in showing that riding a bike was as effective as the curriculum alone, we had two control groups. The first group was the rest of the students in the second grade in that same elementary school. These students did not have access to the software that made a game of learning math, and the specially modified stationary bikes. Then there was another group of 7 students that only had access to the curriculum and not the stationary bikes combined with the curriculum. Both of these classes were next to each other in the mobile home trailer the school had allowed me to use for the study. One day when the students were supposed to be going back to their classes, I saw out of the corner of my eye a boy at the door between the curriculum only group and the stationary bike rooms in the trailer. He was one of the ones assigned to the curriculum only group. He was trying to not be noticed. Suddenly he ran straight to one of the bikes jumped on and started pedalling as fast as he could. He had resisted as long as he could and this was his chance to ride one of THOSE bikes. To preserve the integrity of the study we had to get him off the bike, but I promised him at the end of the study I would let him ride the bike as long as he wanted. At the conclusion of the research project we had a party and invited all of the students who participated in either group. At the party we let those students who had been “deprived” of riding the stationary bikes pedal as long as they wanted to pedal. That little second grade boy was happy!
The Guessing Penalty
One of the problems with students who struggle learning math is that because they don’t do well in math, and it does not come easy to them, they don’t want to try. The software we created for the study in-bedded math problems in a virtual world. The software programmer that helped us design the study had already created this virtual world as a video game. The video game was connected to a small stationary bike pedaler. As you pedalled, an avatar of your choice ( the apache helicopter was the favorite) made its way through the virtual world. For the study we added the ability to program spinning cubes containing multiple choice math word problems. Each math problem was designed to review difficult 2nd grade math concepts. When the avatar “touched” the cube, the multiple choice question filled the screen and you had to answer the question with the right answer before you could continue. We placed the cubes far enough apart in the virtual world so that the student had to pedal for at least 60 seconds. We designed the game as a race so that the kids had to pedal as fast as they could to get to the next cube. This distance of rapid pedalling was designed to increase heart rate to the moderate aerobic level with all the brain enhancing effects associated with moderate aerobic exercise ( studies)
In talking with the teachers they were very frustrated that even though a student might know how to answer a question, they would often just guess. The game was controlled by a handheld specially programmed game controller with a joystick and several buttons. One of the buttons was connected to a hint. Pressing the hint button gave the player access to a very good hint that would help them get the answer right. There was a very slight penalty to the hint, and a significamt penalty to guessing wrong. The penalty was loss of power and speed to your avatar. In the first study The students worked in teams one pedalling the avatar and one working the joystick and game controller. The team was supposed to read the problem together and solve the problem combining their knowledge. If they did not know the answer, they were instructed to use the hint button. Unfortunately many times especially at first, I would hear the cry in disgust, “ Mr. Wray, HE GUESSED!” With 4 similar answers to chose from the odds were 4 to 1 against them. The result of the first wrong guess was a 40% loss in power, and a second guess reduced power by 60%. It was very sad to see an apache helicopter avatar with its tail down rolling slowly across the virtual world to the next math question cube. Eventually the students in the study learned by the natural consequences of guessing and the reward for using the hint, to not guess as much. We never really extinguished the behavior of guessing, but there was a lot of improvement during the 3 months we conducted the study.
Increased fitness = Improved testing scores
An interesting correlation between fitness and test scores developed. Six of the seven best fitness scores also had the best improvement scores on the math test. This substantiated other studies that directly linked fitness levels with academic achievement in California. (Ratey)
Long Term Effect?
I have stayed with the same school district for many years after this study and I had often wondered if there were any long term positive effects on the students. The boy ( #23) who had the best improvement (30 points) and the best score in the exercise group continued in the school district until graduation a few years ago. One day at a local restaurant I heard someone call my name. I turned around and there was Number 23 who was working at the restaurant to earn money for the next semester of college. I asked him what major he had chosen, he replied “Civil Engineering”! Wow, here was a student who in the 2nd grade was chosen as one of the lowest scoring math students in his grade. He was now aiming for a degree in a major that was heavy in difficult math courses. This is just one student from the study but If we encouraged just one student to have confidence and reach for their dreams then all the work was worth it. I like to think that we helped this young man to gain confidence in his ability to learn math, and make a weakness become a strength.
THE SECOND STUDY
Leaders in my school district were so impressed with the results of the first study that they allowed me to do a second study the following fall semester with more students at an elementary school that had the lowest math scores in the district. They agreed to help fund the study and we constructed 8 stationary reciprocal bikes with game controllers and joysticks mounted on the bikes. These bikes were much better than those in the previous study. We were able to acquire commercially available dvds that taught math curriculum using music and rhythm and combine that with new worlds in the video games. Math teachers at the school provided us with sample questions that would help teach the more difficult concepts in the 2nd grade curriculum. We programmed those questions into the virtual worlds and even translated the questions into Spanish to help the Hispanic children in the inner city school. We obtained permission from the company that produced the videos to add exercises on the “Mindbikes” to the beginning of each video.
The two assistants I hired to help tutor the group were young men recently returned from mission trips for their church. Aaron spent 2 years in California, and Gabe was in central America where he became fluent in Spanish. The students loved these two young men and they were a key to the success of the project. We asked the teachers to again help us identify students with low scores on the math portion of the NWEA and who they thought would benefit from the exercise based curriculum. Over 50 students were involved in the study and that required us to see groups beginning in the morning until early in the afternoon. Overall the second study was not as successful as the first. The most successful students attended the math champions lab in the morning, and scattered throughout the study there were individual and class success stories.
The Girl with Dyslexia
One of the students in the study was a girl with severe dyslexia. She struggled to read and comprehend math word problems. The combination of rhythm on the bike and the music in the curriculum seemed to really help her understand math concepts. Every day the first 10-12 minutes the students would perform exercises on the modified stationary reciprocal bikes while listening to the music and math videos, they would then move to the games and guide an avatar through a virtual world embedded with math problems. These math problems allowed the student to practice the same concepts in the dvd that they had just viewed. This girl with dyslexia scored 35 points higher on the standardized test in the spring compared with her fall scores. The improvement goal for the average 2nd grader was 12 points from fall to spring. This meant that her score was the equivalent of 3 years of improvement! This was unprecedented, in fact they had to check it again to see if there was a mistake! There was no mistake! We proclaimed her, Math Champion at the end of the study. We had a 3 foot high Superman live action figure that went to the student with the most improved score. I think she was proud to have earned that trophy. That was the first time In her life she had ever received an academic reward.
The Class That Did Not Like Math
One of the teachers at this inner city school, had 9 of her 21 students attending the math champions lab. This teacher had multiple behavior problems daily. Her class scored the lowest in math in this elementary school and almost all of her “math challenged” students were hyperactive boys. She was constantly sending students to the principal for discipline and she admitted that the class was hard to control. After we started the Math Champions lab the boys in the study started asking for math homework, and were disappointed when there was no math homework. After a month of being in the lab her class scored 85% on a interim math test, which was the best score they had that year and it was above the average for the district. Her discipline referrals to the principal also dropped significantly during the study. One of the activities in her classroom was to have each student complete the “math minute”. These were 30 math fact problems ( subtraction, or addition) which they had to complete in 1 minute. At first they would get 9 problems write sometimes more. She said that after several weeks in the Math Champions lab those that attended began to get all 30 problems right. They began to participate more in their math lessons in class and began to like math
Girl with hemiplegic cerebral palsy
One of the students in the study had the type of cerebral palsy that causes one side of her body to not be as developed in coordination, speed and strength as the other side. This one-sided deficit is called hemiplegia. I was already seeing her for physical therapy before the study and I continued seeing her after the study started. One of her goals was to run 50 feet, turn, keep her balance, grab an object and race back to the starting line. Before the study she ran the relay in about 12 seconds sometimes falling down when she turned. Before Christmas break and after a month into the study, she started to run the race in 10 seconds with good balance and a more fluid running pattern. After being out of the study for the 2 weeks at Christmas break she ran the race in 12 seconds again. Then after a few weeks in the Math Champions lab her times improved again to 10 seconds along with her balance, coordination in turns and her fluidity of movement. There were no other factors that I could determine could affect her quality and speed in running. So riding the stationary reciprocal bikes appeared to improve speed, balance and coordinated running pattern in this child with hemiplegia.
Kids say the darndest things
We tried to make the Math Champions lab fun. Aaron and Gabe were very patient and easy going and they had a good sense of humor. After several weeks in the lab one of the students proclaimed loudly, “Mr. Aaron I like doing bikes with you, Bikes are fun!”. On one occasion after completing a 30 minute session with a class Aaron had a problem with one of the boys in the study. He would not quit riding the bike and playing the video game. Aaron tried to convince him it was time to go back to class, but he told Aaron in no uncertain terms, “ Mr. Aaron, I’m not leaving!”. Aaron is over 6 feet tall and about 250 #. I thought that it was pretty remarkable that a boy selected for the class because he had difficulty learning math, who was less than half of Aaron’s size, would stand up to him and refuse to go back to class because he was enjoying solving math problems.
One morning another one of the boys came into class hopped on the bike and told Aaron, “ Dang Mr. Aaron Y’all hook this mug up”! ( referring to the earphones used in the study) The students were encouraged to sing along with math music videos and pedal to the beat. Everyone wore head phones to be able to concentrate on their computer program and their video game. Everyone was talking or singing out loud to their program. The lab could be pretty loud and chaotic with everyone singing along with their own dvd..
Confidence in working math problems increased as the study progressed week after week. One day, after progressing to multiplication problems normally designed for 3rd graders, one 2nd grade boy exclaimed, “Awesome, I know my times, Yeah! I’m doing it, I beat that lesson man! I don’t even have to look! I’M COOL!” One boy with a big smile on his face after working several math problems he could not do before the class said, “MR.AARON, I AIN’T NEVER BEEN THIS SMART BEFORE!”
Video of 2 boys pedalling a bike and working an avatar
Video of Ms. Greene describing the improvements in her classroom during the Math Champions lab.