On average, children spend three to seven hours a day parked in front of a television. Whether it’s watching after school cartoons,the Disney Channel, or playing video games, the rate of child obesity has had adrastic increase throughout the course of the past 20 years. Let’sMove! a campaign launched by FirstLady Michelle Obama, has an ambitious but important goal: to solve the epidemicof childhood obesity within a generation. This nationwide effort has brought together community leaders, teachers,parents, and on February 28, 2013 at the Chicago Bulls White Sox Training Academy in Lisle, Illinois,just that is happening.
The 2013Pre-Conference Exergame Workshop is an all day event providing and explaining newphysical education methods to schools, and educating individuals on how to makefitness more enjoyable for children. Exergame researchers and physicaleducation specialists such as Stephen P. Yang, George Velarde, Dan Lawler, MattDiskin, and Sharon Warren will be speaking about the importance of fightingchildhood obesity and targeting specific areas of concern towards justthat. This all day event holds some ofthe latest and greatest equipment that allows children to play and have funwhile getting a quick workout. Attendees will find this event to be fun,educational, and inspiring as we move forward in creating a new physicaleducation experience that not only engages children, but also teachers andparents. Advocating a healthy lifestyleincreases academic performance, andbattles the fight against childhood obesity. The workshop is free for all who attend, and in the event that you cannot attend, all of the presentations willbe made available on the Exergame Fitness YouTube Channel. The next four years are going to bring bigchanges to physical education programs across the country, we hope that youbecome an advocate of change as well. These children are our future, let’s make our efforts count.