Can learning be enhanced with active seating?

Overweightness continues to increase at an exponential rate in children. This coupled with the demand to increase academic time in elementary schools has contributed to efforts to discover solutions that meet both challenges. Potential solutions are movement curricula and active seating options. However, little has been published relative to best practices of their implementation. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to discuss the lessons learned while utilizing pedal desks in first and second grade classrooms as stations and whole class seating. Additionally, two different types of heart rate monitors (Polar Oh1 and IHT Spirit) were employed, in an attempt to increase pedaling consistency. It was discovered that elementary students can engage adequately in academic lessons while seated at pedal desks and that limitations do exist relative to the usefulness of the pedal desks. Teachers were also able to develop protocol that adequately maintained classroom management and student learning.