Dance fever

Video game stands in for P.E. as teachers target students not moved by team sports

By Debra Melani , Special to the Rocky

Published February 19, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Photo by Steve Peterson / Special to the Rocky

Haley Hampstead, foreground, shows some moves during a Dance Dance Revolution song. The interactive game, where people standing on sensory pads follow steps displayed on monitors, has been part of P.E. classes at Summit Ridge for four years.

Photo by Steve Peterson / Special to the Rocky

P.E. at Summit Ridge Middle School includes heart monitors to teach students to exercise effectively. From left are Austin Pearman, Joseph Lafond, Eric Peters, Bozedar Kanjeric and Dakota Nelson.

You might call it a revolution. A Dance Dance Revolution.

In the battle against obesity, P.E. teachers across the country are bumping up their arsenals with nontraditional weapons, including rock- climbing classes, circuit training and especially the popular DDR video game, which requires participants to perform dance steps following the game's directions.

Realizing that the nation's health depends on it, teachers are steering away from P.E. relics like dodge ball and are trying to hook kids with more trendy pursuits.

And the kids love it, said Anna Mead, a P.E. teacher at Conifer High School, one of many Colorado schools joining the DDR movement this year. Students aren't moping into the gym anymore, Mead said. Instead, they see the DDR setup, and there's an almost universal "Oh, yeah!" she said.

That video-game pad they are scrambling toward actually works, said Jodi Whetzel of Summit Ridge Middle School in Littleton, where P.E. students use heart-rate monitors to learn how to exercise effectively.

"We have a choice day where they can do DDR," Whetzel said. "Their goal for the class is to stay at their maximum heart rate for at least 20 minutes."

The P.E./DDR craze started when West Virginia University researchers, hoping to help curb a pronounced childhood obesity problem in their state, analyzed the game's health benefits during a clinical study. In that study, overweight children played DDR for at least 30 minutes five days a week for 12 weeks. The results were a P.E. teacher's dream.

"What I found in the clinical study was that a lot of these kids who had never gone out for sports teams, who had never been physically active on a regular basis, were going out for soccer teams and swim teams," said Emily Murphy, a researcher in the university's department of pediatrics.

Moreover, participants' fitness levels rose, weights stabilized, blood-pressure levels dropped and endothelial functions (an initial indicator of diabetes and heart disease) improved dramatically, Murphy said.

Now, other states have caught on, and many districts in Colorado are moving DDR into their curriculums this year, including those in Jefferson, Boulder and Douglas counties.

"The biggest thing is the excitement," said James Stack, P.E. teacher at Eldorado K-8 in Louisville, as his group of fourth-graders headed into the gym.

"It's a great exercise because, like any good exercise, it's so much fun you don't realize you're doing it."

Soon after the kids arrived in the Eldorado gym, the floor was shaking as 26 students stomped to the beat, focused intently on the game and their own feet.

Although today's students are still learning the basic skills of team sports, the shift away from the competitive sport focus toward personal fitness has been needed for a long time, Mead said. Many kids are not naturally suited to team sports, she said.

"This is for the kids we cannot reach, the kids who always hated P.E. because they were always picked last. We have got to figure out alternative ways to keep kids moving for life."

Most school districts are trying new ways to hook students on lifelong fitness. Here's a sampling:

* School District 27J:

For the first time this year, students at Prairie View High School in Henderson will strap on cross-country skis and hit the school's snow-covered fields. To offer teens a taste of what could become a lifelong hobby in the Colorado outdoors, the school bought 30 pairs of skis. "Once you have the skis, it's a free activity," said instructor Nathalie Pawlak. Prairie View teachers also hold scavenger runs so kids are jogging without thinking about it, Pawlak said.

* Overland Trail Middle School in Brighton:

Students here are showing their true fitness colors - red, white and blue. Since teacher Eddie Landeros started a President's Challenge reward program three years ago, the number of winners each year has been growing while the student population remains the same. Students who win a Presidential Award, which requires passing a challenging fitness test, are given prizes from the school, from T-shirts to trophies.

* Adams City School District 14:

Since October, students at Adams City Middle School have trekked from the West Coast to the East Coast, covering the length of the country without missing a day of school. As part of a partnership with Community Health Services and the Tri-County Health/ Live Well Commerce City, each student and staff member received a pedometer. Individuals track miles daily, and the student senate collects and adds the miles for classroom contests. Winners are honored at schoolwide assemblies.

* Jefferson County:

P.E. class at Westridge Elementary School resembles a circuit-training health club for kids. Complete with upbeat music, water stations and focused exercisers, the circuit was designed by a volunteer mom/physical therapist. Thirty stations focus on everything from balance and cardio to lower body and abs. Students switch stations when the music stops, getting a full-body workout in 45 minutes or less.

* Boulder Valley School District:

Kids at Douglass Elementary in Boulder might consider themselves lucky to have Richard Cendali - or "Mr. C" - as their P.E. teacher. He's spent 38 years in the same job, but he never lets class get boring. The founder of the jump-rope traveling team, "Skip-Its," Cendali teaches his kids lots of tricks during a jump-rope unit. He has them play lacrosse and indoor hockey; he's taught them to inline skate and rock climb. But Cendali is best known for adding a skateboarding unit to his curriculum. Since then, many other schools have followed suit. His kids, from kindergarten up, love the unit. Cendali's main motto is, "Who cares how good you are? It's how much fun you have."

Dance Dance Revolution

Originating in the arcades of Japan, the game first made its way into U.S. arcades about a decade ago. Now it is sold as a home game by Konami Inc., which offers Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360 versions. Here's how it works:

* Players stand, facing a screen, on a padded platform that has forward, back, left and right arrows.

* Arrows scroll from the bottom of the screen up toward stationary arrows at the top.

* When a scrolling arrow overlaps a stationary arrow exactly, sometimes two at a time, the player must step on the corresponding arrow(s) on the pad.

* The arrows scroll in rhythm with music and, especially at expert level, the result is a foot- flying, heart-pumping, wild dance.

Bad gains

Comparing 1976-1980 data with 2003-2004 data, overweight rates among U.S. children jumped from:

* 5 percent to 13.9 percent for ages 2-5

* 6.5 percent to 18.8 percent for ages 6-11

* 5 percent to 17.4 percent for ages 12-19

More info

These Web sites for parents, kids and teachers help make learning about diet and exercise fun.

* Kidnetic.com

* www.take10.net

* fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org

* www.mypyramid.gov

* nutritionexplorations.org

* www.bam.gov

• February 25, 2008

  2:57 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  debohare writes:

  I too, think it's a great tool to use Dance Dance Revolution. However, the cost is very prohibitive. For my elementary school in Jefferson county I would have to spend upwards of 8 to 10 thousand dollars just to get the software and dance pads. I would love to see a piece in your paper about how schools have raised the funds to get such equipment.

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