Obesity

Physical education is more important now more than ever due to the dramatic rise in obesity .  Getting the students excited about activities that get them moving and healthy can be a big challenge.  Students spend more than 40 hours a week doing sedentary activities such as watching TV, playing video games and playing computer games.  This along with poor diet and only 2 hours a week of physical activity is what has lead to the rise in obesity.  The physical education teachers have the difficult job of finding games and activities that not only get the students exited during class but also make them want to be more active outside of class.  Encouraging students to use games such as the Nintendo Wii and the Kinetic for play station will get the students active but also allow them to play video games.  These games may not be the most ideal way to get physical activity but for an avid gamer it is better than just sitting and playing video games.  These systems are expensive and the students who are most at risk for obesity are from low socioeconomic groups, and will probably not be able to afford them.  For this reason it is important to incorporate these games into physical education class.  These systems can be used as warm up activities for classes.  They could also be incorporated into a lesson with stations making them one of the stations.  In order to get kids excited about working out and getting healthy it is important to stay up on the newest technology.