 |
|
|
| |
It was late April, more than halfway through the spring semester at St. Bernadette School in Milwaukee, and Sterling Biggers' fifth grade students were well into their section on health. Despite the late date, Biggers was delighted when the school principal suggested his class try a new online course about health and well-being.
 Energy Extreme was developed by Children's Health Education Center to help teach fourth- and fifth-grade students make healthy eating, exercise and lifestyle choices. Lessons are presented using animation, audio narration, visually-presented text and interactive tasks. Students apply what they learn in a series of creative activities like "Create Your Own Healthy Comic Strip" and games like "Food Fight!"
Biggers felt Energy Extreme provided an opportunity for students to encounter textbook material in an engaging online environment. St. Bernadette's fifth-grade class became one of five classes in Wisconsin to pilot the course with CHEC.
St. Bernadette is a small school, enrolling about 150 students, kindergarten through eighth grade, and is the only Catholic school to join the pilot. According to Biggers, the St. Bernadette faculty is enthusiastic about technology-based learning. "More and more, our teachers are insisting on assignments being done on the computer, often involving Web quests and PowerPoint presentations," he said.
Biggers found the multimedia approach reinforced textbook material for students with different learning styles. "The program caters to the needs of children with different learning styles," Biggers said. "I saw some of the kids, who otherwise really struggled, engaged with this and really getting something out of it." Biggers observed this positive outcome despite the fact that St. Bernadette's computers were running an older version of Windows (Windows 98) and were not equipped with headphones.
Biggers was delighted to find the practice students had with making healthy decisions through e-learning carried over to their real-life choices. "It's a very good self-teaching tool," Biggers said. "I have seen my students make good choices when they bring snacks to school."
Biggers plans to use the course again. "The fourth-graders enviously looked at my students for having this chance," he said. As St. Bernadette's upgrades its systems and hooks up new headphones, Biggers' future students have something to look forward to in health class.
|
|
| |
|
|
