Alabama public schools turn to Wii to help fight childhood obesity

Montgomery, Al.
Ask most third-graders whether they'd rather run laps in hundred-degree temperatures or play a video game, and it doesn't take a genius to correctly predict their answer.
What did take some brainpower, however, was figuring out how use that fondness for electronic games to get some of the same benefits as running.
Wee Can Fight Obesity is a fitness program for third-graders in Alabama public schools, and uses the Wii Fit Plus Bundle and EA Sports Active video games to improve physical fitness three days a week during P.E. class.

Wii Fit Plus

The one-year program is in 30 schools this year, and was in 30 different schools last year. The goal is to eventually offer the program to every elementary school.
Judith Ross, principal of Birmingham's Wylam Elementary School, had the program at her school last year. While it was supposed to be just third-graders who participated, it was impossible to limit it to just them, she said.
"Once the other children found out about it, they wanted to be involved, too," Ross said. "So we let them, and began using it as a behavior modification tool because kids knew if they didn't behave well, then on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, they couldn't participate."
Using the Wii video game system, students participated in aerobics, yoga, running, tennis and baseball.
"They didn't look at it as exercise and burning calories -- that part of it never even crossed their minds," Ross said. "To them, they were just playing games and having fun."
The program -- sponsored by the Alabama Department of Education, Alabama State University, the Governor's Commission on Physical Fitness and the Alabama Sports Festival -- requires each student to be measured and weighed at the beginning of the year and again at the end of the year. Each student's Body Mass Index, or BMI, also is calculated.
The year-long program culminates at the annual Wee Fit Challenge during the summer, where one student from each of the participating schools --the one who burned the most calories during the year -- is chosen to compete. This June, the challenge included two Birmingham city school children from the schools that offered the program -- Wylam and Councill elementary schools.
Nine-year-old Safiyah Muhammad, now a fourth-grader at Councill Elementary, came in seventh in the competition out of 19 who participated.
But she has no idea how many calories she burned, because she didn't really consider it exercising.
"To me, it was just fun," she said. "I got to play baseball and tennis with other people. And bowling."
Councill Principal Steve Brown said the program was a great start to fighting childhood obesity.
"We know that childhood obesity leads to a shorter life expectancy and we've got to do something to combat the problem," he said. "This program is definitely in tune with curtailing childhood obesity."