Exercise makes better mind: a data mining study on effect of physical activity on academic achievement of college students

Abstract

The effect of physical activity (PA) on academic achievement has long been a hot research issue in physical education, but few studies have been conducted using machine learning methods for analyzing activity behavior. In this paper, we collected the data on both physical activity and academic performance from 2,219 undergraduate students (Mean = 19 years) over a continuous period of 12 weeks within one academic semester. Based on students’ behavioral indicators transformed from a running APP interface and the average academic course scores, two models were constructed and processed by CHAID decision tree for regression analysis and significance detection. It was found that first, to attain higher academic performance, it is imperative for students to not only exhibit exceptional activity regularity, but also sustain a reduced average step frequency; second, the students completing running exercise with an average frequency of 1 time/week and the duration of 16–25 min excelled over approximately 88 percentage of other students on academic performance; third, the processing validity and reliability of physical observation data in complex systems can be improved by utilizing decision tree as a leveraging machine learning tool and statistical method. These findings provide insights for educational practitioners and policymakers who will seek to enhance college students’ academic performance through physical education programs, combined with data mining methods.