Can physical activity improve students' STEM achievement? Results of the Lithuanian study of students in grades 5–8

Background: Recognising the importance of physical activity for students' overall well-being and cognitive functioning, this study aims to investigate the relationship between the achievement of students in grades 5–8 in STEM subjects and their non-formal physical activity. Materials and Methods: The data for this study were gathered from the Lithuanian school management system. To categorize the marks into STEM subjects and non-formal physical sport activities, a RoBeRTa pre-trained model, a tool based on Natural Language Processing (NLP), was utilized. For the hypothesis testing of non-normally distributed data, the Mann–Whitney U test was employed. Results: The results of study show that students in grades 5 –8 who attend non-formal physical education classes have a higher average level of achievement in STEM subjects than students who do not attend them. Conclusions: Students' physical activity is linked to their cognitive performance and engagement in the learning process. It should be noted that there is a need for further research, taking into account the different variables (pupils’ gender, type of physical activity, individual subjects, etc.).