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Elementary schools belonging to the Miami-Dade County Public School (MDCPS) system in Florida (66% Latino) are exploring new ways of getting students to be active throughout the school day.
According to a blog post from PreventObesity.org, in addition to providing students with 30 minutes of daily physical education (PE), the district is now using the concepts of indoor fitness trails and scan technology to provide students with more minutes of physical activity. School hallways are transformed into indoor fitness trails with QR codes that are placed throughout hallways. Teachers schedule a time for using the fitness trail and stop where QR codes are located. They are then scanned with an iPad or mobile device that has a QR reader app installed on it.
Once a QR code is scanned, students are prompted to participate in a 90-second Jammin’ Minute exercise like toe touches, marching in place, and hoping from side to side. Jammin’ Minutes videos are also available to teachers so that they can use them in their classrooms for short activity breaks during class.
In addition to providing students with innovative ways to get excited about being active, the MDCPS district has started offering middle school students the opportunity to participate in 30 minutes of physical activity before school, as well as the chance to eat breakfast as a group with their teacher, before the start of the school day.
The district has also removed all sodas from vending machines.
In a PreventObesity.org blog post, Jayne Greenberg, the District Director of Physical Education and Health Literacy said she hoped more schools would consider practicing a whole-school approach to health.
“Wellness is not only for the students but for faculty and staff as well,” she said.
Read more about this interesting new way of getting kids to be active, here.
By The Numbers
33
percent
of Latinos live within walking distance (<1 mile) of a park
