Chewing gum may improve students' standardized test scores

While many teachers discourage students from chewing gum in class, this habit may improve their scores on standardized tests, Fox News reported.

These are the findings of a recent Baylor College of Medicine study that appears in the Journal of Adolescence, according to the news source.

In the study, which was sponsored by the Wrigley Science Institute, researchers focused on 100 Texas-based eighth-graders who chewed gum during math class and their homework sessions, according to the Long Island Press. Over the course of this research, which was conducted during a 14-week period, half of the students chewed sugar-free gum and the remaining pupils did not.

The researchers behind the study did not investigate the reason why these students achieved higher grades and test scores than their classmates who did not chew gum, but they feel it may be related to increased blood flow in the brain, Fox News stated. These youths' constant chewing may also reduce stress that can be created in academic settings.

Parents who wish to know what academic subjects their children could stand to improve in without having to chew gum may want to have them take kids IQ tests.