Fit4Bewegung - Laufend schlauer werden
How much exercise do children and young people need?
The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that children and young people should get at least 60 minutes of exercise a day (even 180 minutes at kindergarten age). Unfortunately, only just under 20% of Austrian children fulfil these requirements (as of 2025).
In particular, a mixture of exercise forms is ideal to optimally strengthen the body and brain development. Exercise is therefore an ideal way to positively influence your own well-being and physical and mental health.
In order to demonstrate this and to give children a playful understanding of the connections between movement and the associated processes in their own bodies, the Karl Landsteiner University (KL) has under the motto “Fit4Bewegung - Laufend schlauer werden” established an elective “Kinder Gesundheitswissen vermitteln” (Teaching children about health), in which students design two-part workshops for children of kindergarten and primary school age and hold these at selected kindergartens/schools in the region.
Structure and content of the workshops
The first part of the workshop focuses on imparting basic knowledge on health topics that are closely related to human physical activity behaviour. For this purpose, KL students develop various stations as part of the compulsory elective subject, which the children can use to develop and acquire this knowledge (with the support of the students) directly at the schools during a theme day. Children can playfully experience for themselves how the cardiovascular system works, for example, and what tasks it performs. In order to always keep the connection to physical activity behaviour in focus, they mainly deal with questions such as: What does my cardiovascular system do when I exercise? Why does it benefit my body if I train my cardiovascular system in this way?
As part of the preparation, the students themselves choose which physical systems to focus on in the first part of the workshop. As exercise has so many positive influences on us, there are virtually no limits to the topics (immune system, brain, mental health, muscles, cardiovascular system, etc.).
In the second part of the workshop the children experience how fun and enjoyable it can be to do sport together by taking part in a Kids' Run. KL students accompany the children for a whole morning, starting with the warm-up, the run itself, to the cheering at the finish line.
The presence of local sports clubs is intended to arouse the children's curiosity so that, in a best-case scenario, they become enthusiastic about a sport and use a regular sports programme in the future. The KL students support the sports clubs in advising the children and their parents on the various programmes on offer.
To round off the sporting experience and to honour their achievements, the children are awarded medals and certificates at the end.
Aim of the workshops
By combining theory and practice, children should be made more aware of the importance of exercise for their own health in a clear and child-orientated way. They are given the opportunity to experience the joy and fun that moving together can bring. Ideally, the children will transfer the positive energy and joy of movement they gain to their parents, siblings and friends. The aim of ‘Fit4Bewegung - Laufend schlauer werden’ is therefore not only to have a positive influence on children, but also on our society as a whole.
