Mark Urtel

The discipline of kinesiology can best be defined as the science and study of human movement. Human movement can be expressed as physical activity, sport, exercise, or play. The kinesiology department is unique in that they look at this across the lifespan also for individuals of all ability levels. Professor Urtel primarily focuses on school aged youth. He leans heavily onto the public health theory of “doing the most good for the most people.” Realizing that most of school aged youth spend most of their waking hours during the week at school, that’s a natural place to look at programs and interventions to not only focus on the health outcomes that children can acquire from being physically active consistently, but also the academic readiness and positive behavioral outcomes associated with physical activity. Professor Urtel and his colleagues are looking at recasting physical education that’s offered in schools into a more developed, comprehensive school physical activity program that optimizes the amount of times children can have physical activity interventions to produce these academic readiness and positive behavioral outcomes.

Professor Urtel’s translation of research into better physical activity programs at schools for children is another excellent example of how IUPUI’s faculty members are TRANSLATING their RESEARCH INTO PRACTICE.