Three students, three faculty members and one alumnus from the Maryville College Division of Education’s exercise science program traveled to Greenville, S.C., to attend the Southeast Chapter of the American College of Sports Medicine (SEACSM) annual meeting in February. Two of the students and two of the faculty members presented research during the meeting.
“The SEACSM is the regional chapter of our governing body as exercise scientists, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM),” said Dr. Jeremy Steeves, assistant professor of exercise science at Maryville College. “The national meeting can be overwhelming, with many talks happening at the same time and about 7,000 attendees from all over the world. The SEACSM meeting, while still large (about 1,200 attendees), is very student-focused and a great place to make connections for graduate school or career opportunities. It is very undergraduate-student friendly, with several special activities geared towards helping students meet and interact with others in a comfortable, non-threatening environment.”
MC group presents research
Steeves said the poster presentation sessions provide students the opportunity to share their work with other students and faculty from around the region, get feedback from others and learn what other schools are doing.
Two students and two faculty members delivered poster presentations related to research conducted as part of Gabrielle Billstrom’s Senior Study, which looked at the use of the Maryville-Alcoa Greenway system. The study, titled “Maryville-Alcoa Greenway: A Descriptive Epidemiology of Users and Physical Activity Behaviors,” examined demographic characteristics, physical activity behaviors and environmental preferences of Maryville-Alcoa Greenway users, and the results were shared with the Maryville-Alcoa-Blount County Parks and Recreation Commission, which manages the nine-mile paved greenway trail.
Gabrielle Billstrom ’17, a senior exercise science major from Cumming, Ga., delivered a poster presentation focused on “Why Adults Are Physically Active on Greenways: Important Factors and Concerns That Contribute to Greenway Use.”
“Specifically, I stressed the concerns that were most prevalent, which were maintenance and facilities of the greenway,” Billstrom explained. “Users of the greenway would like to see better maintenance to the greenway and would also like to see facilities (restrooms and water fountains) better taken care of. Another significant concern that the users of the Alcoa end of the greenway would like to see is the addition of new mile markers so that they can more accurately track how far they travel while on the greenway. I decided to pursue this data because it is the most relevant to Parks and Recreation to see what they need to better address on the greenway. This data is also insightful to other greenways, because the lack of care will turn users away.”
Colby Beach ’19, a sophomore exercise science major who served as a research assistant for Billstrom’s project, also presented research related to the greenway study. His poster presentation, titled “The Pokémon Go Phenomena May Promote Unique Physical Activity Patterns,” examined whether greenway users who were playing Pokémon Go exhibited different patterns of physical activity compared to greenway users who were not playing the game.
“I also delved into the difference in demographics (age, gender and education) between Pokémon Go players and non-players,” said Beach, who is from Rockwood, Tenn. “I decided to pursue researching Pokémon Go because I saw its potential to be a revolutionary tool for encouraging physical activity. It also helps that I, myself, was slightly addicted to it at the time. The fact that we were already conducting a study that could be easily modified to study Pokémon Go right as it was releasing was simply an opportunity I could not miss.”
Steeves, who is Billstrom’s Senior Study advisor, also presented during the conference. His poster presentation, titled “Distance Matters: Living Close to a Greenway Promotes More Frequent Use and Active Transport to Access It,” examined whether living close to a greenway influenced the frequency of use and total greenway-related physical activity.
Dr. Jennifer Flynn, visiting instructor in exercise science at MC, delivered a poster presentation titled “The Maryville-Alcoa TN Greenway: A Descriptive Study of Activities Performed by Age.” The presentation examined the age, activities, minutes of activity and miles traveled on the Maryville-Alcoa Greenway.
A ‘massive learning experience’
Billstrom said the SEACSM conference was a ‘massive learning experience’ – and was more than she expected.
“I think the most influential speaker to me talked about how exercise is the most important factor when it comes to body health and life longevity – it helped me realize that what we are studying is important and influential,” Billstrom said, adding that attendees were impressed with the extent of her Senior Study research for an undergraduate student.
Beach described the conference as “an absolute life changer” and said his career plans have changed after attending SEACSM.
“While getting experience doing research on an exercise science topic was interesting to me, actually joining the exercise community that is SEACSM was eye opening,” Beach said. “On top of attending lectures with topics like exercise being regenerative medicine, I got the opportunity to network with some of the most influential professors in the University of Tennessee Knoxville’s Exercise Physiology graduate school.”
Beach said his presentation was popular at the conference and that many attendees were excited to see research on Pokémon Go. He also received suggestions on how to expand his research, which he might pursue as his Senior Study.
“The one instance that stood out to me during my presentation, though, was when a physician at a children’s obesity clinic came to talk to me about my poster,” Beach said. “After finishing, he asked me whether or not I thought Pokémon Go could be used as an intervention to help encourage physical activity in obese children. For me, this was mind-boggling. My research gave me the opportunity to impart some advice that may change and improve the lives of children I will never meet. This is when it really clicked for me that SEACSM had completely changed my outlook on my future career.”
A networking opportunity
“The South has some of the strongest concentration of exercise science programs, so it is a wonderful opportunity for students to meet some of big names in the field and interact with some of the other researchers that are interested in similar topics,” Steeves said. “Students also end up interacting and listening to talks from some of the professors who wrote the textbooks that we teach from in class. A cool thing about going back to these conferences year after year is the relationships you build and the friends you make and get to reunite with each year. Every time you go, you meet new people and learn something new that may change the direction you end up taking your career.”
Justin Collett ’17, a senior exercise science major from Hiram, Ga., and Sean Hagstrom ’16, attended with Dr. Traci Haydu, associate professor of exercise science and chair of the MC Division of Education.
Collett said the experience was “incredible” and that he learned from the presentations, lectures and networking opportunities.
“No time was ever wasted, especially with all of the events, lectures, posters, socials and spending time with my own professors,” Collett said. “This conference has helped me tremendously with getting connections at different graduate schools for exercise science. I have emailed numerous professors and directors, and every single one emailed me back. A lot of those emails progressed into conversations, and some professors forwarded me to others whom I needed to speak with within the school. I have already been talking about visits and meeting more people on campus.”
For next year’s conference, which will be held in Chattanooga, Steeves said he and Flynn hope to have an even larger number of MC students attending and presenting. They also aim to enter a team to represent Maryville College in the Student Trivia Bowl, which is one of the major student-focused events in which colleges compete against each other for a chance to win a birth to represent the Southeast at the annual ACSM national meeting.
Greenway research presented to local commission
Before the Maryville College group left for the conference, Steeves, Billstrom and Beach were invited to a Maryville-Alcoa-Blount County Parks and Recreation Commission meeting to present the final results of the team’s research on the use of the Maryville-Alcoa Greenway system.
The study aimed to monitor greenway activity on the Maryville-Alcoa Greenway and obtain demographic information of greenway users. The MC group observed a total of 2,338 greenway users at Sandy Springs Park in Maryville and Springbrook Park in Alcoa on 12 different dates last summer (between June and August). Out of the 2,338 greenway users, 495 were interviewed using trail intercept surveys, and 104 wore a physical activity monitor to objectively measure greenway-related activity.
The final results show that greenway users tended to be white, highly educated, female and live within four miles from the greenway (the study showed that living in close proximity to the greenway promoted more frequent use). The primary greenway-related activity was walking (61.3 percent), followed by running (22.3 percent) and biking (15.5 percent), and participants reported accumulating four miles during an average of 57 minutes per visit and using the greenway more than three days per week. The physical activity monitors documented a range of 16 to 99 minutes of walking, or an average of 44 minutes of greenway use.
Survey participants answered questions regarding factors that lead them to use the greenway, and the top three factors were access/price, convenience and security/environment. Greenway users’ top three concerns were facilities (lack of restrooms and water fountains), maintenance (tree roots cause the pavement to crack) and a lack of mile markers.
Billstrom said the team received positive feedback from the commission, and commissioners were “enlightened” with the information and will take the data into further consideration for maintaining the greenway.
“It was a very rewarding experience,” Steeves said. “Often times when we do research, we don’t always get to share the results back with the public or see whom our results impact. This project had major translational impact, and the commission was really excited about what we found and were willing to acknowledge and discuss our improvements that they could make based on our findings. Now many of the lights along the greenway have been updated to LED lights, which are much brighter at night, they were interested in developing more and clearer signage, and they valued the information about the tree roots being a concern for walkers and bikers, as they cause the pavement to be bumpy and crack.”