10/11/2010
Video games help schools get kids mo…
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School dance: First-graders
Sophee Tirre, 6, left, Mirya
Aguirre, 7, and Eileen
Pena, 6, move to Wii's Just
Dance at Conlee
Elementary in Las Cruces,
N.M.
By Rick M. Scibelli for USA
TODAY
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Video games help schools get kids moving,
exercising more
Updated 16h 1m ago | Comments
16 | Recommend
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By Nanci Hellmich, USA TODAY
When the staff at Conlee Elementary School
in Las Cruces, N.M., began having students
do five minutes of Just Dance, an active
video game for Nintendo's Wii, at the start of
every school day last year, they noticed a
trend: Tardiness went down.
When the activity started up again this year,
the students cheered and clapped, says
physical education teacher Celsa Madrid.
"The kids get a kick out of their teachers
working out with them," she says. "We are
having a great time."
Enlarge
By Rick M. Scibelli for USA
TODAY
On your feet: Lucio Chavez, 6, left, Kody Jones, 6,
and Reyna Gutierrez, 6, keep the beat.
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The dance activity is broadcast into
classrooms that have TV monitors. Madrid was inspired to try
this idea by researchers at New Mexico State University who
are investigating the use of active video games as part of an
obesity-prevention project funded by the U.S. Department of
Agriculture.
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The researchers have offered children and adults the
opportunity to play active games at a laundromat in Hawaii, an
after-school program in Connecticut and a low-income
community program in Delaware.
Next up: the use of the games in PE and other classes. The
researchers are testing whether doing an active video game
before math and spelling tests improves performance.
"The power of exergames is they are fun and interesting and
immerse the player in the activity so kids don't even realize they
are exercising," says Barbara Chamberlin, director of the
Learning Games Lab (exergamesunlocked.org) at New Mexico
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State University in Las Cruces.
She discussed her research over the weekend at the annual
meeting of the Obesity Society in San Diego.
Stepping up physical activity is one of the pillars of first lady
Michelle Obama's Let's Move campaign to reduce childhood
obesity. About a third of children and adolescents — 25 million
kids — are obese or overweight, which puts them at a greater
risk of developing type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high
cholesterol and other health problems.
Kids are supposed to do an hour or more of moderate-intensity
to vigorous aerobic physical activity each day, government
guidelines say. But not all children meet that goal for many
reasons, including not getting enough time in PE classes or at
recess, living in neighborhoods where it's not safe to play
outside and spending too much time being sedentary in front
of the computer, TV and video games.
Better than sitting
Some people believe active gaming can help turn the tide, and researchers are investigating how much kids get
out of these kinds of activities.
Bryan Haddock, an associate professor of kinesiology at California State University in San Bernardino, and
colleagues tested how many calories middle-school students used when they played the Wii Sports activities.
On average, the kids burned the fewest calories playing the golf activity (1.6 calories a minute) and the most
when doing the boxing activity (4.3 calories a minute).
Playing the golf game "was not a whole lot better than just sitting, but the boxing activity would be the equivalent
of the kids taking a brisk walk or a slow jog," Haddock says. "It's a moderate, not vigorous, activity."
He also found that college students use an average of 5.5 to 7.5 calories a minute doing games such as Your
Shape,EA Sports Active, Just Dance and Gold's Gym Cardio Workout.
People get out of these games what they put into them, he says. "For one kid, it's a great workout, and for
another kid, it's not. It depends on whether it's something they really enjoy."
The games are a supplement to other activities and sports and not a replacement for getting outside to play
soccer or tag, he says.
"What I've been telling people is that they are certainly a whole lot better than sitting on the couch playing the
handheld video games where you do nothing, but I think it's a stretch to think that buying one of these games will
replace the need to do other physical activities."
Other experts have found health advantages to these games. West Virginia University researchers had
overweight and obese kids ages 7 to 12 do Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) at home for at least 30 minutes a
day, five days a week for 12 weeks.
Findings: The dancing provided a moderate to vigorous workout, halted weight gain in the children and
improved their fitness, blood pressure and arterial function, an important factor in fending off heart disease and
type 2 diabetes, says lead researcher Emily Murphy, the state obesity-prevention specialist for the West Virginia
University extension service (wvgamesforhealth.wvu.edu).
Now DDR is available in the state's high schools and middle schools and about half of the elementary schools,
and teachers are using the activity in PE classes, before and after school and in classrooms as an activity break
and at some school dances, she says. "Kids who used to go to the dances and sit along the wall will get up and
dance to DDR."
Murphy is now studying whether active gaming boosts children's self-confidence, and whether that improvement
in self-confidence translates into being more willing to try other physical activities and sports, such as going out
for a soccer team.
Moving and learning
National physical education experts say integrating active gaming into schools has merit.
Broadcasting the dance program at the start of a school day "sounds like a wonderful idea because it gets every
kid moving," says James Sallis, director of the Active Living Research Program at San Diego State University.
There are several advantages to these games, he says. "Students can do the moves in a limited amount of
space. You don't have to train teachers. You can push the button, and the kids get more activity."
He also applauds the possibility of using the games before tests. Research shows that physical activity
improves concentration and attention, he says. "It gets kids' brains kicked into high gear so they are ready for
test-taking." Those are also among the reasons that recess and PE classes are so important, he says.
But Sallis isn't convinced that these activities should be included in PE classes. "Whenever possible, we want to
get the kids outdoors, where they can run around more freely. We actually need to teach kids activities such as
basketball, baseball, soccer, volleyball. We need to teach them teamwork."
These are the kinds of skills kids need for a lifetime of physical activity, he says. "Doing some kind of exergame
may be better than no PE or bad PE, but I don't think it's as good as good PE."
Charlene Burgeson, executive director of the National Association for Sport and Physical Education, a group of
physical education professionals, says, "We need to meet kids where they are, and if active video games get
them moving, then all the better."
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That said, "when the games are used in PE, they need to relate to the skills and knowledge that's being taught. It
needs to be added value to the instruction," she says. "Physical education is not just about being active, it's
about being active for the purpose of learning."
Other ways to move
Chamberlin says it's important for schools to have strong PE programs, and she sees the games as another
tool.
"This is not about replacing traditional PE. We are not talking about taking kids off the basketball court and
having them play bowling on Wii Sports— we're talking about taking passive time and making it active," she
says.
Kids need to learn how to play actively, whether they are with their friends in an open field or by themselves in
the living room, she says.
The consoles and games may be too costly for some schools, but the lessons learned from this research can
be incorporated in other less-expensive ways, Chamberlin says. Teachers can do all kinds of short activities,
from speed-walking breaks to dance breaks using their own music.
Students can do these kinds of activities in five minutes, and they don't need to change their shoes or clothes,
she says. "We have to give kids lots of different activity options so they figure out, 'Oh, that's the way I like to
move.'
"People in our country need as many ways as possible to be active."
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Comments: (16)
Show ing:
New est first
New : Most recommended!
bybybarry (93 friends, send m essage) w rote: 2h 34m ago
What a stupid idea. Let them run around outside or is the air quality so poor from the green house
gases emitted by the ignorant, big mouth school administrators
Recommend
1 | Report Abuse
bigblue (39 friends, send m essage) w rote: 2h 53m ago
I have to do a double take whenever I see a kid outside playing. What kind of parents make their
kids go outside and play? I'm half-tempted to call social services - "There's a kid outside playing",
I'd say. "Something must be wrong."
Whenever I see the humans in Wall-E (the movie), it reminds me of how our near-future generation
might turn out. Scary.
usatoday.com/…/2010-10-11-justdanc…
3/5
10/11/2010
Video games help schools get kids mo…
Maybe we can start by turning our schools into one big video game...
Recommend
| Report Abuse
drdancin (4 friends, send m essage) w rote: 4h 45m ago
well no bleep. Nintendo has known this since the early 80's. Remember the track and field game
anyone? As for the schools cutting PE it all comes down to budget cuts, PE goes, band goes, fine
arts go. I am a middle school dance teacher, yes thats right, I teach grades 6-8 dance, and I mean
ballet, tap jazz hip hop everything. And my students work harder for me then they do in PE. Ask any
dance teacher, ask any PE teacher, we could have told you this. Then you could have taken the
thousands upon thousands of dollars you spent "researching" this and donated it to the schools!
Also, ask any Kindergarden teacher about dance breaks like this! SO go ask people first, then
donate money, instead of writing an article as if this has NEVER been known before today!
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proph (0 friends, send m essage) w rote: 6h 3m ago
feedercattle (94 friends, send message) wrote: 7h 14m ago
I hate to say it but American kids now days are to lazy to ride bikes. We are a country in decline and
soon will be replaced by a delevoping, energenic third world china. Remeber in November!
------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------ -------------------------i'm a republican and i agree with you but republicans can't fix this.
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| Report Abuse
sunshine55 (8 friends, send m essage) w rote: 12h 32m ago
This is one of the best games ever invented.You do get excerise.It is so much better than the
games that you just stare at and sit in one spot.It is also good for disable people to strengten thier
upper body.And it is sooo fun to play.Thanks Nintendo!
Recommend
| Report Abuse
feedercattle (94 friends, send m essage) w rote: 13h 18m ago
I hate to say it but American kids now days are to lazy to ride bikes. We are a country in decline and
soon will be replaced by a delevoping, energenic third world china. Remeber in November!
Recommend
3 | Report Abuse
24x7 (295 friends, send m essage) w rote: 13h 49m ago
Laundrygoddess (107 friends, send message) wrote: 1h 40m ago
What ever happened to Physical Education class? Coaches? Recess???????????
-----------Why is it that the most obese among the school faculty were ALWAYS the gym teachers?
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RC2 (0 friends, send m essage) w rote: 14h 49m ago
I suggest putting a WII in the classroom, so they can be physical and play a little. Wii needs to
develop physical and mental exercise games for the schools. And, Barry, I agree, a little hiking
everyday would be great, too!
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2 | Report Abuse
More comments on this story: 1 2 Next
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