Sprout

Encouraging students to take breaks from prolonged sitting

Sprout is to investigate how to encourage students to take breaks from prolonged sitting. A new editorial published in the "British Journal of Sports Medicine" suggests that people who sit still for prolonged periods of time have a higher risk of disease than those who move a muscle every now and then in a non-exercise manner. College students can be particularly affected because they sit for long periods of time every day.

Sprout is a CMU service that makes behavior visible through personalized plants that grow to track your sitting behavior over time, and glow to remind you to take breaks during long periods of sitting. Using a tracking site linked to students’ accounts, students can set goals, visualize their habits over time and/or compared to others, get tips about break activities, and learn about the benefits of taking breaks.

Download Final Presentation (PDF 7.1MB)