Exergaming at Ipswich West State School

In 2008 & 2009, as part of the Games in Learning exergaming trial, Ipswich West State School used exergaming bikes with Play Station 2 games and dancemats with Play Station 2 games in an effort to increase the engagement of students with physical activity and with schooling in general.

Task Description
Two exergaming bikes are connected to a playstation and television monitor. Children compete against a partner to complete a bike race. Dance mats are run concurrently in the same area or an adjoining space. The teachers also used the exergaming as stimulus for other class activities. For example, students created exergaming posters, exergaming interactive presentations in Scratch and designed exergaming t-shirts. Students were also responsible for creating and implementing a fair exergaming class roster.

Two students competing on the exergaming bikes.	One of the exergaming bikes looks like a normal exercise bike. The other allows you to use your own chair to sit on.	Students are rostered onto the exergaming bikes throughout the day.
To encourage positive attitudes towards exercise, Ipswich West SS students are designing exergaming T-shirts and slogans.	Student exergaming slogan: "cycle toward the good life"	Student loved the exergaming bikes.
Download a short video of the bikes in action (wmv - 2.6mb).	Students also loved the dance mats.	Students created interactive Scratch animations featuring exergaming.

Central Focus of the Learning
Children's fitness levels will improve through regular exergaming participation. In particular, it is hoped that children who often seek to avoid physical activity at school will be motivated to participate regularly. Children will understand the effects of physical activity on the body and learn to monitor their fitness levels.

Curriculum Links
Essential Learnings:

• HPE Regular participation in physical activity can enhance cardio-respiratory endurance, muscular strength and endurance, flexibility, and health and wellbeing.

HPE Modifying techniques and selectively applying movement concepts can enhance physical performance and increase enjoyment in physical activities.

Download suggestions for curriculum integration of exergaming (word doc - new window - 144 kb).

What equipment did the project use?

• a PC Gamer bike (natively it hooks up to a PC but adapter cables allow it to also hook up to a PlayStation 2)
• a domestic game bike (natively it hooks up to a PlayStation 2 but adapter cables allow it to also hook up to a PC)
  
• 2 x Play Station 2 games consoles
• Play Station 2 games to be used with the bikes: MX versus ATV & Off Road Fury
• PC game to be used with the bikes: Cars
• Play Station 2 dancemat game  & dancemats
• Play Station 2 eyetoy and eyetoy games

Teaching or Learning approach
Two exergaming bikes are set up in the back of an upper school classroom in a screened off area. Another screen separates the bikes from a television to which dance mats are connected. Children are rostered onto the game equipment so that every child participates for 30 minutes every day. The children were involved in developing the roster and it is their responsibility to make sure they are in the right place at the right time.

Assessment

• At our request, a beep test was conducted on all students by the PE teacher at the beginnng of Term One to ascertain general fitness levels. A second beep test will be conducted at the beginning of second term so comparisons can be made and differences in fitness levels measured.
• Children will demonstrate their understanding of the effects of physical activity on endurance and physical fitness through discussion and survey answers.

Why this task was worth doing
This task was worth doing for several reasons.

• The children have responded very positively and are very motivated to exercise using the equipment.
• Children who previously sought to avoid physical fitness activities at school are now very keen to use exergaming equipment every day.
• Awareness and understanding of how physical activity impacts on health and fitness has shown great improvement, as has the ability to monitor their own fitness levels.
• The children now have the metalanguage to discuss their health, well being and fitness.

Skills teachers developed
Skills that teachers have developed include:

• space management;
• developing rostering systems;
• micromanaging specialist and other timetabling;
• setting up exergaming equipment;
• trouble shooting equipment, cables etc.

Key findings

• This project has been a very positive experience for both staff and students involved.
• In our experience, one of the main issues that has prevented students in upper primary classes, especially girls and overweight children, from actively participating in physical activity at school is poor body image and feeling self conscious exercising in front of others. Using the equipment has almost resolved this problem as the children are all very focussed on the television screen and not on each other.
• We have also seen daily examples of children being supportive of each other as they try to improve scores and learn dance routines.
• It has been a very inclusive program because we have found that more children are engaging regularly in moderate levels of physical activity (and what's more they're having great fun!)
• One of the initial concerns we had was that the equipment would be distracting for children who were not engaged in the activity. This has proven not to be the case. In fact the reverse could be said to be true. Children quickly became used to the roster system and background noise from the games and seemed not to be affected by it.
• It has impacted positively on classroom behaviour in that children don't want to risk poor behaviour jeopardising their turn on the equipment.
• Timetabling was something of a nightmare; it was very difficult to juggle specialist PE, LOTE, Library, Music, Instrumental, Respect Me Program, Learning Support and Upper School Literacy Grant groups. Every child has made their own personal weekly schedule to help keep track of what is happening.

Student feedback
Student feedback is very positive. Children enjoyed the competitive aspect of the game bike software. Comments include:

• "I have learnt to have fun at exercise."
• "I'm more awake during class."
• "You get to jump around and have heaps of fun."
• "I have learnt that being healthy and fit makes you feel good about yourself."
• "It (dance game) helps with soccer in a way."
• "It's easier to play soccer because you used to get puffed."
• "It is fun after doing school work and when you go back to do school work you're more concentrated at your work."
• "You can have fun with friends and see who won."
• "It's a type of fun exercise that you will never say no to go on."
• "You get active and get new grooves and it's really fun for a type of activity."
• "I learnt that I can't be bossy when on exergaming."
• "I enjoy fitness more and I can run for longer and it is so much easier to play soccer."
• "It is fun to do and you don't even feel like you're exercising."
• "To me the problems solved themselves and it doesn’t happen hardly at all now."
• "I most definitely think it's both fun and worthwhile."
• "Exercise is much more fun to do with friends."

Teacher Reflections
The motivational factor seems just as strong today as it was when the project began in Term 4 of last year. Students are still very keen to participate and the teacher often stays in the classroom at second break to allow the equipment to be used then as well as in class time. Children who still display avoidance behaviour in weekly PE lessons, especially swimming lessons, are very keen exergamers who hate to 'miss their go'. We don't suggest that exergaming should replace other physical activity at school and in fact, we have a maximum participation philosophy at this school in which all Year 6 and 7 children train and play interschool soccer matches for the school every week. The majority of children are very keen to participate in soccer matches and several have commented that they can run further without getting puffed since starting exergaming. We used two Australian Institute of Sport units: Unit Six - Healthy Body, Unit 7 - Get Active to complement the physical activity and found them to be excellent resources. Some of the children were so keen to promote exergaming to the rest of the school, they have designed T-shirt posters and are making animated Scratch 'advertisements' to show other classes.

Resources to download

• exergaming thinking hats activity sheet (word doc - new window - 47kb)
• aerobic exercise note organiser worksheet (word doc - new window - 82kb)
• exergaming student survey (word doc - new window - 198kb)
• exergaming video by students and staff at Ipswich West State School (avi video - 44.1 mb)

Contact
For more information, contact Cindy Watson swats42@eq.edu.au.

Installation Issues or Feedback
We had very few installation issues. We bribed a colleague with more technical know how into helping put the bikes together. We did have problems with the bikes at first, which were compounded by the teachers' lack of knowledge about the technical side of the equipment. The Domestic Game bike was not working properly at one stage and the children could play the games without pedalling. One of the children tripped over a cable on the PC Gamer bike which damaged the hand control. The support we received from both Colleen and Simone, the equipment supplier, was excellent. On reflection, we should have asked for help sooner.

"Using the equipment" issues or feedback 
Students - Opinion was evenly divided on whether children preferred the PC Gamer or Domestic Game Bike. Some commented that the Domestic Game Bike was uncomfortable to sit on or too big. Many of the children commented that they much preferred the school grade dance mats to the soft plastic ones as they 'worked better'.

Teachers - If we were to purchase new equipment we would probably take it home to play with and make sure we were confident with the set up before we introduced it to the children in future - especially the bikes. In terms of running the bikes and dance mats in the classroom, space was an issue. As we are a small school with no hall or spare classrooms, this was unavoidable. Fitting in twenty-eight children and furniture as well as the gear was problematic. This was especially the case when we used the school grade dance mats and the additional practice mats as it took up over a third of the classroom and overtook the computer area. Dividers and television sets had to be begged, borrowed or stolen from other classrooms.

Have you used any other types of exergaming equipment? If so, what types and how did they compare?
Yes, dance mats. Children enjoyed both the game bikes and dance mats very much. One of the teachers has teenage daughters and an eye toy and Wii at home. From a personal perspective, the school grade dance mats were a much bigger hit with the teenagers (and their uncoordinated, unfit mother) than the Wii. The dance games were engaging when played with a partner or alone but the Wii games tended to be less engaging when played alone.