Exergaming at Gladstone Central State School

In 2008 & 2009, as part of the Games in Learning exergaming trial, Gladstone Central State School has used exergaming to enhance students and teachers participation in and enjoyment of physical activity. Exergaming was used as one part of the school's overall strategy to keep students, staff and their wider school community healthy and active. Through the exergaming trial, the school was given access to:

• 2xNintendo Wii consoles each with 4 wiimotes and wiimote extensions,
• several Wii games including Wii Fit and dancemat games.

Students look on as their teacher demonstrates the dancemat.

Who used the exergaming gear and how did they access it?
Gladstone Central SS is a relatively small school of 280 students. The exergaming gear was used predominantly by year 4 students in 2008 & year 6 students in 2009. However it was also used by other students and staff and the wider school community.

Each class that used the Wii equiment had 27 students.  The Year 6 class has 2 students who do not speak English well (which did not prove to be any issue while using the equipment) and several students who are under the guidance of Learning Support.

In 2008 an empty classroom was set up on a permanent basis with Wii consoles set up to a TV.  As the classroom was next door to year 4 it was extremely easy to open the dividers & use the Wii for rotation activities both during school time & break times.

An empty classroom was used in 2008.

In 2009 we worked with year 6 - where there was no spare room to set up the consoles.  As the class has 60min PE lessons it has been relatively easy to set up in our Multi Purpose shed before school for sessions.  We leave the gear set up so that teacher challenges take place during lunch breaks.  Many more students have been exposed to the activities by using the equipment during breaks.

In 2009, the equipment was use as part of PE lessons, before school, during lunchbreaks in the Multi Purpose Shelter.

Having teachers using the equipment within the students' view has been a bonus.  Students are chuffed when they achieve results that are better than teachers. We used Wii Fit boxing, hula, step & yoga as cross country warm up activities.

We held a parent open afternoon to let our parents see what Exergaming was all about.  By doing this I feel we have had a lot of support from parents & teachers alike.  Parents were invited to take part in activities before school - many took up the invitation, which resulted in Wiis being purchased for home use. One comment from a parent, "I had always shrugged off the idea that Wii Fit could possibly be a motivating way to become physically active let alone raise your level of activity, but after watching the kids & taking part in the drills & activities I am a true believer.  We now own Wii Fit & I find it so much more convenient than trying to find time to go to the gym or aerobic clases.  As a family we challenge each other with the scores.  Well worth the money.  Thank you so much for the insight into fun and challenging physical activity."

How was it used in the curriculum?
The exergaming equipment was used as part of rotational activities and used as a prompt for whole-class activity.

While one student worked on the Wii Fit Board, the teacher faced the students & worked through with the class with the specific Yoga exercise.  This helped a lot - by the time each individual student had the opportunity to use the fit board they had worked through the specifics of the exercise.  This was done with Muscle Exercises, Aerobic activities and Yoga. 

Circuit activities were set up using 2 Wii Fit stations, Wii Sport, skipping challenges and obstacle course challenges where students rotated around on a time schedule.  Circuits were also set up where students rotated around the Wii activities and theoretical components (log book).

For more details, download Margaret-Mary Opstelten's reflections  (PDF - new window - 605 KB).

Year 6 students embarked on an exciting unit of work entitled Energetic Exergaming in HPE that was created by their teacher Margaret-Mary Opstelten.

Download the unit plan (PDF - new window - 251 KB)

Download Gladstone Central's fitness log (pdf version - 154 kb - word version - 209 kb).

Key findings 
Here are some of the key findings:

• Students are extremely motivated to challenge themselves to go a little further or reach a better score. 
• Incidental social concepts (sharing, teamwork, encouraging others) have been enhanced through using exergaming activities. 
• Students can relate to how their body feels after activities and what Health-Related Fitness component is evident with each activity. 
• Students have been engrossed with how to improve their own physical ability & not concerned at all with others results - even though they do know how each other is going & they are aware that there are students recording better results than themselves.
• Students became very excited if they got to play Wii at lunch breaks. Students selected to play included those who participated well in class sessions, worked to the best of their ability, showed great sportsmanship, those who identified areas they needed to improve in their physical ability or students who demonstrated a sound knowledge in Health-related Fitness components.
• Lunchtime Dance mat challenges are a huge hit - with teachers & students.  It is wonderful to students who are not particularly academic in the classroom but hold their own explaining to a teacher how to get a good score on a dance mat - priceless.

Student comments

• "It's fun to come to school early"
• "Our school is special as other schools don't get to do this" 
• "I am getting much better at holding my posture properly"  
• "Yoga is not just for old ladies - it actually takes a lot of work!" 
• "Some of the games really make your heart pump" (after doing Wii Fit - Boxing challenge) 
• "The more I play the games I am getting better at being coordinated" (after playing Wii Sports Tennis)   
•  "I really like this sort of Physical Activity - it's not boring like the stuff we do for class teachers (eg running round the oval)  
• "When you do these activities you have to think & move - like hand/eye coordination & dodging"  
•  "Good posture will help everything"  
• "I think we could use Wii Fit to help our school train for sports day against the other schools - it would be a fun part of training"
  

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Contact
For more information, contact Margaret-Mary Opstelten mopst2@eq.edu.au