## 1 Introduction  
Significant evidence demonstrates that young adults, especially during their college years, may experience significant mental health challenges [1, 2]. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the prevalence of mental disorders among college students was estimatedto be 25% [3] and the pandemic seems to have exacerbated mental health issues in this cohort [4; 5]. While pre-pandemic evidence existed that college students were more likely to suffer from mental health issues than their age matched peers [6], the pandemic has almost doubled the number of undergraduate and graduate students who report feeling anxious and/or depressed [7]. While university administration and support staff can develop programs and approaches to help students cope with their individual identities and reduce institutional stressors through the creation of more inclusive environments [8], these large-scale changes require time and resources for implementation. More immediate change in student mental health status may occur if individual faculty members are able to enhance the classroom environment during instructional time. A feasible method includes reducing sitting time during classroom instructions, as significant evidence exists showing that performing cognitively demanding tasks while seated significantly increases feelings of anxiety, depression, and reduces cognitive task performance in young adults, even when that sitting time is limited to 1.5 h [9; 10; 11]. Interestingly, in a study by [PERSON] and colleagues [11], it was reported that there was a significant increase in feelings of anxiety, depression, fatigue and anger after the performance of only 22 min of cognitively demanding tasks. These findings suggest that college students who sometimes spend 50 min to 3 h in a classroom setting performing cognitively demanding tasks while seated may experience an acute negative change in moods and declines in cognitive performance. Individual college students often take steps to stay alert during class or while studying, such as consuming caffeine [12; 13]. However, evidence exists that caffeine consumption may exacerbate feelings of anxiety in college students who perform cognitive tasks in a seated position [10; 11]. Therefore, other behavior-based options should be explored. The implementation of standing desks in classroom spaces may be one such strategy. Evidence from non-college students suggests that the use of standing desks may improve physiological outcomes, including postprandial glucose, HDL cholesterol, and anthropometrics, although at present, the summary of the evidence to support the use of standing desks to improve mood outcomes has provided mixed results [14]. Another easy to implement solution for faculty members and students to improve mood and cognitive performance may be to implement movement breaks during class time. Breaking up sedentary time into smaller time periods by encouraging students to be physically active, for example, by walking intermittently for a set time frame, may reduce the impact of continuous cognitive demands on moods and cognitive performance. Evidence from school age students suggests that performing physical activity during class time improves health, learning outcomes, and various aspects of cognition [15]. This may be an effective strategy for improving college student health; however, we are unaware of any studies examining the impact of breaking up sitting behavior with physical activity in this cohort. It has been shown that a single bout of physical activity can impact both mood [16; 17; 18] and cognition [19] positively; however, the duration and type of physical activity both influence the magnitude of the effect. Recently, a study by [PERSON] and colleagues [20], reported that four minutes of stair walking did not modify feelings of energy and fatigue. Unfortunately, this study did not measure any other mood states.