"Do Extracurricular Activities Correlate with a Student's GPA?"

Abstract of a paper by Lauren Olsen

I conducted a survey of 228 sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students at Muirlands Middle School to determined whether of not the extracurricular activities that a student participated in had a relationship to their academic performance. The students were asked to record how much time they spend on a variety of extracurricular activities and what their grade point average (GPA) was on the most recent progress report. The data were tabulated and analyzed using the correlation coefficient. The results demonstrated that overall, no statistically significant statistical correlation was found between a student's total extracurricular activities [1] and their GPA. However, in seventh grade boys, there was a weak but significant positive relationship. A weakly positive correlation was also found for students who spent more time on baseball, basketball, music, and homework. The findings demonstrate that overall, extracurricular activities do not hurt academic performance, and some are associated with higher GPAs. [1] Total extracurricular activities include the sum total of: soccer, basketball, baseball, football, tennis, golf, gymnastics, other sports, dance, drama, music, religious activities, volunteer work, swimming, and surfing.

Lauren Olsen and teacher B. Stephens