School Uses WiiFit for Health Education

As if more of Nintendo’s dreams couldn’t come true, Grandville’s South Elementary has started utilizing WiiFit in it’s children’s physical fitness (read: gym) classes in a rather unique way.  Working with Active Plastics Inc, a home-based supplier of plastic products out of Caledonia, the school utilizes several mock WiiFit boards along with one actual Wii Balance Board, a Wii, and a projected video to get the entire class working together to move the character on screen.  While only one student on the Balance Board does the actual wireless work, the other boards/mats are designed to create the semblance of a cooperative effort.

In other words, the extra mats may not be active but the students definitely are.  The class works together to achieve goals such as hula-hoop scores, jogging, and tightrope walks in the game.  With gaming spread across every age group possible, and with young children growing into a world where gaming is as normal as TV and the internet, the fit was natural.  WiiFit is used in addition to the fitness curriculum, not to replace it.

Active Plastics looks to sell the school-based set of a Wii, WiiFit, and 30 boards for $980.

The children are staying physical and loving it, and that’s what really counts anyways.

[Images courtesy Emily Zoladz | The Grand Rapids Press]
Original article: MLive.com