By: Health Insurance
Submitted: 2009-12-13 15:26:24 | Word Count: 628
Rangeland Elementary second-grader Joahn Trujillo swings for the fences as the pitch comes in. But there's little chance the ball he hits is going to break a window.
“Yes, I won! I won,” Joahn says, spinning in a circle to celebrate a 9-5 victory over the computer in a game of Wii Sports Baseball.
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Joahn is one of about 100 students who use Rangeland Elementary School's new Innovation Lab each school day.
The lab — one of two that opened in Louisville elementary schools this year — is equipped with about a dozen video-game stations that include programs such as Dance Dance Revolution, Wii Sports and Wii Fit. There also are six standard computers and six stationary exercise bikes with accompanying virtual-reality screens that allow students to ride and track their progress in a game-like setting.
The other school with a similar lab is Wellington Elementary, off Cane Run Road.
“The kids are perspiring by the time they get out of here,” said Shemaine Bridges, Rangeland's health and fitness coordinator.
Bridges sets up the games so students can begin swinging, bowling, dancing and pedaling as soon as they enter the lab. Each teacher brings his or her class to the lab every six days for 45 minutes at a time.
“They're getting their energy and stress out so they are able to focus a little more in the classroom once they leave,” Bridges said.
She introduces new games slowly so children absorb the rules of the game and learn the motions. So far, Bridges said there have been only one or two flying “Wiimote” controllers.
“We try to really stress safety and using the wrist strap on the controllers,” Bridges said.
At Rangeland, a little more than a third of the 450 or so students in grades K-5 live in neighborhoods other than the surrounding Newburg and Buechel areas. And about nine out of every 10 students are on free or reduced-price lunch.
The Humana Foundation donated $60,000 for the lab and healthy after-school snacks at Rangeland this year, and an equal amount for Wellington's lab. The two schools began the year with new health and fitness magnet programs designed to attract students from around Louisville.The schools also each received $20,000 grants from Genentech for healthy snacks that are served during school hours a couple of days each week. And every student and faculty member wears a pedometer to track the distances they've walked in a given dayThe new fitness labs won't replace traditional gymnasiums or playgrounds; they're simply another way to get students moving and making healthy lifestyle choices at an early age.
Rangeland also has raised more than $40,000 to renovate its playground in the spring.
“It's good to have a gym, a playground outside and this (the lab) so students can be active regardless of the weather,” said Jeanette Bahouth, project manager for the Humana Foundation.
Milessa Barnes, coordinator of the Rangeland's family resource center, said students “don't even realize they're exercising” when they enter the new lab.
Rangeland faculty members say they try to challenge students on a daily basis in all classrooms, and they've even begun a friendly competition of their own since the new lab opened.
“Our staff is doing a Wii Bowling league after school and we also are doing aerobics. It's been a huge buy-in all around,” Barnes said.
