More Grantee Updates from GFH: Todd Miller on Incorporating Gaming into Phys Ed.

In case you haven’t visited Pioneering Ideas over the last couple of days, Marientina Gotsis has been busy guest blogging from the 6th Annual Games for Health conference for us. Her posts have offered some fantastic insights into the action that’s going on in Boston, and we hope to post some updates on her Wellness Partners project in the months to come. Before the conference came to a conclusion yesterday, we had the chance to catch up with another Health Games Research grantee who attended– Dr. Todd Miller, associate professor or exercise science at the George Washington University’s School of Public Health and Health Services. Todd leads a project funded by HGR to investigate novel gaming technologies and how those technologies can be incorporated into school physical education programs in Washington, DC.  In between sessions, Todd kindly provided us with a few updates from his work – which include the type of unexpected hiccups that are inherent in any research project that involve studying a concept with the potential for creating bold change. Although his research is nowhere near finished, we thought it was interesting to provide a glimpse into all of the variables (planned for and unexpected) that go into this work: “Our project is designed to compare caloric expenditure during three types of activity:  1)  Dance, Dance, Revolution, 2) Standard Physical Education Classes 3)  The Winds of Orbis  (a prototype game that integrates a DDR mat and Wii Controller).   We are also giving subjects a short survey following each play condition to see which activity they enjoy the most.

We spent this past semester collecting data at an inner-city middle school in Washington, DC.  Our subjects were mainly African American, low SES students from 3rd-7th grade.  In general, our data collection has gone smoothly and kids really enjoy playing both DDR and Orbis. We have experienced challenges with the school PE program though, and that's what I'd like to focus on.  For example, the PE teacher at the school we're working in quit very early in the semester, and substitutes have been taking over.  This has been problematic in that there usually is no scheduled curriculum for PE, and the kids are
often just given a sort of "free play" time, which is completely unstructured.  This means that some kids are active, but they also can simply sit there.  Furthermore, much of the activity is wrestling, chasing each other, and general goofing off.  This is problematic because we're trying to compare exgames to conventional PE, and I don't think that what is happening in our school is reflective of what PE is like in most places.  There also is a lack of PE equipment in our school because, according to the teacher, it gets stolen or lost pretty quickly, making structured PE activities even more unlikely.

The good news is we'll be collecting data all of next year, and there will be a new PE teacher, and we will be able to build a more solid relationship with that single teacher, in the hopes of improving the
PE experience.”

A big thanks to Todd and Marientina for adding their voices to the discussion during the conference – we’ll be sure to keep you up-to-speed as their projects conclude. We had a great time learning the latest of what they’ve been up to, along with the numerous other HGR grantees that were in Boston this week. If you were at the conference or following along online, we’d also love to hear your thoughts on the most innovative health game ideas that crossed your radar over the last few days.