Eleven students sleepily enter the Tappan Gymnasium’s pavilion at 7:30 in the morning as Neil Young’s dreamy folk tune “Harvest Moon” plays on a portable speaker. Suddenly, the music changes to Justice’s pulsating electro-rock anthem “Genesis” and the students spring to life in an intense game of indoor soccer.

“Let’s get those hearts pumping!” shouts health and fitness teacher Billy Graham. “Go, go, go!”

It seems like it would take a revolution to get kids exercising this early in the morning. In fact, that is exactly what is going on here at the high school. The Revolution, a new health and fitness course this year, uses recent scientific studies showing that cardiovascular exercise positively affects brain functionality.

The course is held four days a week during Z- and A-blocks. It is based on the book Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, written in 2008 by Dr. John J. Ratey, an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He found that cardiovascular exercise can lead to increases in academic performance and decreases in stress, depression, disciplinary issues and addiction.

After reading Spark a few years ago, Health and Fitness Curriculum Coordinator Teddi Jacobs was determined to incorporate Ratey’s ideas into a new course at the high school.

In 2009, she contacted Ratey to see if he would give a presentation to the faculty about his work on a professional development day. Although Ratey was not able to make it, he did send two of his associates, Dr. Lindsay Shaw and Dr. Alex Thornton, to assist Jacobs in creating a health and fitness class based on his ideas from Spark.

Shaw and Thornton have continued to help by conducting electroencephalogram tests on students taking The Revolution to measure their brain activity before and after completing the course.

“We’re really lucky to have [the class] here because it’s a little out-of-the-box from our usual two-day classes,” said Jacobs. “We had to get School Committee approval, write up a course description, everything.”

An additional effort to make the class possible was when a Brookline Education Foundation grant was given to Jacobs, Graham and Pierce School physcial education teacher Amanda Grindstaff to observe a Naperville, Ill. middle school that was a case study in Spark because of its innovative physical education program.

After much preparation in the health and fitness department, The Revolution began this year, and students have jumped right in. Students taking the course, with the assistance of heart rate monitors, are given a individualized target heart rate zone to “stay in” while exercising through activities such as riding a spin bike, doing weight training, swimming and running.

Senior Noah Gelwan believes that The Revolution’s tailor-made workout plan for every student is one of its selling points.

“The goals that are set for you aren’t standardized. It’s all about where you are personally,” said Gelwan. “So, people who have a hard time running around or something like that will be able to hit their target heart rate zones. Everyone goes at their own pace. That’s good, especially for a health and fitness class.”

For junior Ethan Sharon, The Revolution has been beneficial in multiple ways.

“It makes me feel better in the morning. I’m paying more attention in my first few classes,” said Sharon, who said that the other health and fitness courses offered in the course catalog did not appeal to him. “I’m getting in better shape than before. People have definitely said that I’m slimming down.”

Graham said that the teamwork aspect of accomplishing physical activities together is also contributing to the positive effects students are experiencing.

“I’ve seen some fun connections between sophomores, juniors and seniors that I don’t see in my other classes,” said Graham. “One student seems to be taking another student under her wing and helping her with homework.”

Graham continued, “I’ve done a number of sports in my life, and the bonds I made with kids when I did crew in high school were stronger bonds in comparison with those I had on the football team, when we were trying to run each other over every day. When you’re going through the process together, it’s different.”

At the end of the day, Graham believes that regardless of any of the students’ athletic, academic or social backgrounds, they are all passionate about what they do in The Revolution.

“The kids that are in this course are rock stars,” said Graham. “They’re into it, they push themselves and they’re from all different walks of life.”

Colby Bermel can be contacted at [email protected].