Public health research shows a strong connection between outdoor play, schoolyard quality and students' health including physical activity. But how are Ontario's schoolyards doing?
We worked in partnership with Ophea, a charity that supports physical and health education and advocates for healthy schools, to find out. We recruited students, parents and educators to take a close look at their own schoolyards as "citizen scientists" members of the public who collect data as part of a public-interest research project.
To analyze schoolyards, we adapted a tool previously developed for this purpose. This tool was based on evidence showing a relationship between schoolyard quality and physical activity. We used it to assess approximately five per cent of Ontario's 5,000 schools. We audited 232 schools that were broadly representative of the distribution of average family incomes, public, Catholic and French school systems, and elementary and secondary schools.
