There's a new trend catching in classrooms across the nation: standing while you work. 

More schools are adding standing desks as a tool to increase alertness and combat childhood obesity, said DistrictAdministration.com. In 2012, more than one-third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

"One of the main battles we fight today is technology-induced inactivity - we're able to just sit in front of a screen for most of our waking hours, and as a result people have become very sedentary to past decades," said Mark Benden, an associate professor at Texas A&M who researches classroom ergonomics and childhood obesity.

Standing desks are now used in hundreds of schools nationwide. Benden and his research team examined the impact of four classes in Texas who were randomly selected to receive standing desks and stools for the school year, while the others used standard desks. Arm bands were used to monitor students' calories over 10 days. 

It was found that students in standing-desks classrooms chose to stand for most of the class time, and expended 11 more calories per hour and about 300 more per week than those in standard desks. Overweight students burned about 23 more calories per hour and 575 more per wek than their seated peers. Teachers also said the desks had a positive impact on student behavior and classroom performance, and students were mre focused on schoolwork. 

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Article by Kassondra Granata, EducationWorld Contributor