“As a company, we feel it is important to not only give back
to our local communities, but to make connections with the
people in those communities,” said Kennedy. “We consistently
look for opportunities to make connections when giving back, and
TECHFIT was a great opportunity for us to help bring fitness to
the local community.” G
In Exercise Empire, the Monopoly-inspired game, a large dice
is rolled and players move around the room with the corresponding
number of spaces. Once they land on a space, they must follow
the instructions for the space – typically a set amount of pushups,
situps, stretches and other common exercises. In this game “free
parking” means you get to take a water break, and “going to jail”
entails holding a plank until your sentence is up.
In the second game, Tech-Ship, one team tries to keep a
member of the other team from knocking down their bowling pins.
In both games, points are tabulated by a machine programmed by
the students.
“TECHFIT was an extremely successful club at Springfield
Middle School this year,” said Merk. “I highly recommend
TECHFIT to any middle school or any program that teaches
technology concepts and fun fitness concepts. It is really a great
opportunity.”
The school sent two teams to the College of Charleston to
showcase their games and compete against six other South Carolina
middle school teams. Although the Springfield Middle School
students did not claim first place, they did receive an award for
excellence in math and data and another award for excellence in
graphics.
“Our students did a phenomenal job presenting at the
competition at the College of Charleston. They confidently
explained our games, the programming and all of the components
of our after-school club without hesitation. It was an incredible
opportunity for students to showcase their efforts and hard work
in front of college professors with doctoral degrees in technology,”
said Merk. “One of the judges even commented that our middle
school students breeze through the programming concepts that
college students struggle to explain. Our students were also able
to see other school’s games and gained ideas of how to incorporate
technology in different ways.”
The National Science Foundation’s grant for TECHFIT is
managed through professors at Purdue University and the College
of Charleston.
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