Westborough students get fit for the Olympics
By Melissa Muntz Community Reporter

Westborough - Preparations for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing are several years in the making. Olympic athletes have been working their entire lives to make it to China.

Mill Pond Elementary School students only have 10 weeks to get there.

"Be Fit for Beijing" is a school-wide fitness challenge that will take children around the world to the Summer Olympics through physical activity.

Each grade level will be responsible for traveling a 4,000-mile leg of the journey to China. The fourth grade will travel from the United States to Africa, the fifth grade will travel from Africa to Eastern Europe and the sixth grade will travel from Eastern Europe to China.

The kids will travel the 4,000 miles by exercising at home, with 15 minutes of continuous exercise equaling one mile traveled. They will log their exercise in a journal each night, and their individual miles will be added together to reach their destination.

Each child can attempt to travel 60, 80 or 100 miles of aerobic exercise, and the progress of each grade level will reported through school-wide announcements and charted visually on a large world map.

PHOTO/MELISSA MUNTZ Students at Mill Pond Elementary School prepare for their "Be Fit for Beijing" journey.

Be Fit for Beijing was created by gym teacher Erin McCarthy and sixth-grade teacher Chris Rogers. Rogers said the two came up with idea when trying to figure out how to integrate heath education with world geography and literature.

"I think there's a lot of interest surrounding the Olympics with the kids because the idea of diff erent nations coming together to compete is compelling to them," he said. "And there's such a range of sports on display that there's something for everybody to get interested in."

Rogers said it's important for kids to realize just how easy it is to fall into a rut where you aren't getting any physical exercise at all because you're playing video games or watching television.

He's hoping that the Be Fit for Beijing program will get kids in the habit of daily exercise, the eff ects of which will last well beyond the 10-week time period.

"It's good for them to see that exercise happen in a variety of diff erent ways and that the important thing is to get out, get your heart rate up and stay active," he said. "We're hoping they learn to balance the diff erent parts of life like the foods that they eat, the exercise they get and the academic expectations at school."

Sixth-grader Deepinder Singh is anxiously waiting for his grade's leg of the trip to begin.

"It's a good program because kids in the U.S. need to be healthy and we're not so much so we need to get better," he said.

Financial support for the project comes from the Mill Pond Parent Group as well as a grant from the Metrowest Community Health Care Foundation.

Students who achieve any of the mile targets will be recognized in June at Mill Pond's annual Field Day and receive a gold, silver or bronze bracelet.

Do you know an educator using innovative ways to teach? Contact Melissa Muntz at news@communityadvocate.com with your suggestion.