Dover Public Schools received the latest in a series of grants designed to make its students more active learners.

The Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust recognized the district Wednesday for its efforts to improve the health of its students and employees.

The school district received a $15,000 Healthy Incentive Program grant after enacting a variety of policies and strategies to promote health and wellness.

 “These incentive grants recognize the efforts of school districts and school sites that are actively promoting healthy lifestyles,” TSET Executive Director Julie Bisbee, who visited the school for the presentation, said. “Studies show that active, healthy kids perform better in school and we want to recognize schools that are making it easier for students, staff and the community to make healthier choices.”

 The district used the grant funds to purchase an action-based learning lab at the elementary school.

Action-based learning labs are designed to prepare the brain for learning by combining academic skill-building with physical movement.

Each activity station in the lab focuses on the connection between the brain, the body and the foundations of learning readiness.

Research shows that the lab activities improve memory retention, reinforce academic concepts and build brain pathways for learning.

Bisbee and Sharon Howard, TSET healthy incentive program manager for schools, presented a plaque and ceremonial check to Dover Public Schools Supt. Max Thomas, junior high/high school principal Kyle Karns, elementary principal Trilla Cranford and special education director and physical education teacher Dani Wood.

Now in her second year at Dover, Wood has been the power house behind the school’s drive toward maximizing students’ learning by taking advantage of the evidence-based connection between physical movement and cognitive development. [See related story in next Wednesday’s Times and Free Press.]

Rep. Mike Sanders was also present to congratulate the school district for creating a healthy environment for students, staff and the local community.

The TSET incentive grant criteria focus on strengthening school district wellness policies to improve school nutrition, increase physical activity and other health-promoting practices and policies recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.