With technological advances in the entertainment industry, it seems unlikely that students will cut back on the time they spend watching TV and playing video games. But that is exactly what is taking place in school districts around the globe thanks to a program designed by Stanford researchers.

Tom Robinson, associate professor of pediatrics and of internal medicine at Stanford, is the University’s principal researcher behind the Stanford Student Media Awareness to Reduce Television (SMART) curriculum.

The curriculum was provided for third and fourth grade children from two public elementary schools in San Jose of similar demographic and scholastic composition. A trial period was conducted between September 1996 and April 1997.

These students were challenged to do without television for 10 days, then to limit themselves to just seven hours per week.

Students in one of the two elementary schools received 18 lessons over the course of a six month curriculum to reduce television, videotape and videogame use.

The study showed that the students receiving the additional instruction experienced a decrease in their body mass index. Using this information, the researchers were able to conclude that reducing television, videotape and videogame use may be a promising approach to prevent childhood obesity.

This change, researchers said, could be explained by the increase in exercise children received when they found new ways to spend their time.

An article in The San Francisco Chronicle reported that students in the study found activities to replace watching TV, including reading, playing outside with friends and riding bikes. The community became more involved in helping children find alternate outlets as other schools within the district began to participate. The YMCA offered free temporary memberships and the city library organized various games and classes.

In addition to children spending more time on healthy activities, the study also found that reducing the hours spent watching television is a promising approach to decrease the influences advertising has on behavior.

Robinson said he was pleased with the program’s success.

“It is very exciting to see the fruits of our research disseminated and used in schools throughout the country, as well as some other countries,” Robinson told The Daily.

School districts in Michigan have now adopted this curriculum in response to violent behavior.

“The Michigan school districts recently heard about the effects of the program on aggressive behavior, and I believe that was their primary interest,” Robinson said.

“Observers charted aggressive playground incidents — shoving, hitting, obscene gestures, name calling — at eight elementary schools immediately before and after the program,” The Chronicle reported. “The totals dropped at every school but one.”

The average decline was 52 percent.

“Students in Michigan’s school districts enrolled in the program exhibited less aggressive and distracting behaviors at school,” Robinson said. “Administrators were so enthusiastic about the program that they sponsored a national conference last spring and plan another for April.”

The district also compared scores of fourth-graders who took standardized tests while participating in the TV-free challenge in January 2005 with scores of fourth-graders who tested before the adoption of the SMART curriculum. Math and writing scores made double-digit increases.

Administrators were more than satisfied with the results of the curriculum. These were “even more positive results than we’d hoped for,” Kristine Paulsen, the district’s general education director, told The Chronicle.

This satisfaction may help explain why the program has become increasingly popular. More school districts are encouraged to consider implementing SMART.

“The curriculum is available to any school district or teacher who is interested through the Stanford Health Promotion Resource Center at http://noTV.stanford.edu,” Robinson said.

Back at Stanford, a current goal of SMART developers is to focus on future results rather than the immediate outcomes of the study.

“Stanford researchers are studying the program’s long-term effects in California,” Robinson said, “but they haven’t reported results.”

In the meantime, the SMART curriculum is spreading and becoming more widely advertised, with benefits for health, academic performance and behavior becoming more and more apparent.