AHPC winners
The
American Horsepower Challenge, sponsored by
The Humana Foundation, kicked off the second heat of the competition on Nov.16. 1,465 middle school students are participating in the challenge running from Nov. 16 – Dec. 11, 2009, and Jan. 11 – Feb. 5, 2010. The Humana Foundation will once again award grant monies for school wellness activities or services to the top five schools with the highest average step count. The competition is designed to show participants how easily physical activity can be worked into their daily schedules.
Hula hoop contest
Students in 61 middle schools from Pennsylvania, Michigan, California, South Dakota, Florida, Montana, Oregon, Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Arizona, Arkansas, Virginia and Louisiana will be wearing a pedometer, which automatically uploads steps into an online game.
AHPC winning schools
The following Pennsylvania middle schools won the first challenge of the competition that ended May 29:
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Midland
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Deer Lakes
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Franklin Regional
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Hopewell Memorial
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Beaver Falls
A ceremony acknowledging these schools and participating students was held on Oct. 26 in Beaver Falls, Pa. The Humana Foundation presented each school with a check representing their portion of the grant. State Rep. Jason Altmire attended the event, congratulating the students for placing first ahead of 19 other congressional districts.
AHPC award ceremony
The winning schools walked 14.8 million steps or 5,637 miles. This is the equivalent of burning 253,000 calories or 873 slices of pepperoni pizza. This is also the equivalent of walking from Philadelphia, Pa., to Austin, Texas, two times!
Congratulations to all schools who participated in the spring challenge and best of luck to every student logging steps to compete in the fall and winter heats of The American Horsepower Challenge!
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DISCLAIMER ALERT: The ideas expressed in this post came out of my own head, were researched by my own eyes and were expressed by my own hands. They are not intended to serve as medical advice in any way, shape or form. And they do not reflect the views of Humana Inc. or any of its subsidiaries. I take full responsibility if you think this post is awesome or not awesome.
I have been fortunate enough to work on a program designed to show kids how much fun and how easily fitness can be integrated into their daily schedules. Sponsored by The Humana Foundation and developed by the Humana Games for Health (HG4HTM) team within Humana’s Consumer Innovation Center, the program is designed to help combat childhood obesity in elementary and middle school aged children.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, childhood obesity has tripled over the past 20 years with 34 percent of American children currently overweight and 13 percent being obese. Overweight and obese children with poor diet and sedentary lifestyles face increased risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, asthma, joint problems and an overall poor health status — problems historically associated with much older adults.
The success of the program can be attributed to the merging of video gaming with physical activity. The program translates steps walked into an online race where students compete against other schools in their challenge. Kids already play video games so integrating physical activity into an online game keeps the kids interested in playing. The participants wear a pedometer that automatically uploads their activity into the online game every time they pass by the access point placed in their school. The more steps you take, the more points accumulate that you can trade to ‘purchase’ accessories for your avatar like hats, scuba masks, tiaras, bling necklaces, etc. Each student at a school is on a team to see who can log the most steps, which power a virtual school bus around the world. As the class logs aggregate steps, these points can be used to ‘purchase’ upgrades for their school bus.
What makes The American Horsepower ChallengeSM unique is that 20 members of Congress from 14 states nationwide were honorary participants with the 67 schools and 1,585 children from their districts.
The success of the program, which began April 20 and ended May 29, is in the numbers. Together, the kids and Congressional members walked 132.34 million steps – 50,129 miles or twice the circumference of the Earth!
Another remarkable statistic is that students increased their activity 58 percent during the challenge over their normal activity level. This increase in activity is equivalent to walking 4,579 miles, the roundtrip distance from Washington, D.C. to Bakersfield, Calif., or burning 205,623 calories – the same caloric content as in 709 slices of pepperoni pizza!
Congratulations to the winning schools – Midland, Deer Lakes, Franklin Regional, Beaver Falls and Hopewell Memorial middle schools of Rep. Jason Altmire’s Pennsylvania 4th district. The schools walked 14.8 million steps, walked 5,637 miles and burned 253,133 calories. The district increased their physical activity 32 percent during the challenge over their normal activity level. This is equivalent to walking roundtrip between Philadelphia and Austin two times or the same caloric content as 1,206 chocolate bars!
The winning schools will each receive a $5,000 grant for health-related purposes from The Humana Foundation.
Additional congratulations to Rep. Geoff Davis of Kentucky’s 4th district for placing first in the step count competition among the 20 Congressional participants. Davis had 162,738 steps or the equivalent of walking 61.6 miles.
With a proven track record, the Horsepower ChallengeSM program is a great way to introduce healthy activity in a non-invasive manner into the classroom. As physical education requirements are reintroduced into the curriculum or as a health maintenance option, the Horsepower ChallengeSM keeps kids moving.
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DISCLAIMER ALERT: The ideas expressed in this post came out of my own head, were researched by my own eyes and were expressed by my own hands. They are not intended to serve as medical advice in any way, shape or form. And they do not reflect the views of Humana Inc. or any of its subsidiaries. I take full responsibility if you think this post is awesome or not awesome.
I slept most of the flight to Salt Lake City. When we were close the sound of the tires descending woke me up and I looked out the window. I saw patches of murky brown swamp and cyanic waters below. The Salt Lake looked a little gross this time of year. But the mountains were gorgeous. Outside it was 70 degrees; yet the mountains were capped with snow.
I always forget that Utah has some of the best scenery this country can offer. They also have more children than I’ve ever seen in my life. They’re everywhere. Like iPhones.
The setting for one of the schools. Photo by flickr User humanagames.
Earl Hurst, President of Humana of Utah told me that his state was one of the largest producers of kids in the country. I am not surprised. Salt Lake is a very family friendly place. There is plenty of stuff to do outdoors and great schools to attend when you’re grown up. That’s one of the reasons why we’re so excited to launch the Horsepower Challenge (HPC) there. We have a new version of the game: 2.0, and its better and more exciting than ever (if you aren’t familiar with the HPC you can read about here). A quick rundown: the HPC is an online, social video game that is powered in the real world by your steps. Participants wear a wireless pedometer called an actiped that earns them points in the game. Points can be used to buy cool stuff for your (horse) avatar and collectively the steps move your team around tracks surrounding different world landmarks (Taj Mahal, White House, Great Pyramids, etc). Schools compete against other schools for prizes. Students learn about their new locations once they’ve walked there. The most active school wins. 2.0 takes all this and makes it look really slick; check it out at horsepowergame.com.
Humana of Utah sponsors the Utah Horsepower Challenge because healthy behavior and wellness needs to start an early age. Parents realize this; it’s why we see students starting to take the ‘walking bus’ to school (http://bit.ly/paTmc) and the success of ‘exergames’ like Wii Fit. Childhood obesity is a problem plaguing our planet. The Horsepower Challenge is one small step toward getting kids to start thinking about health.
The plan was to launch this game at four schools around Salt Lake. This required coordination beyond anything I’d done in a while. 250 participants had to be registered for the program using a brand new system. But I had a lot of help from the Salt Lake Humana Office and we tackled the registration head on. We had four launch events and four registration events in four days and it all went smoothly. We learned a lot about the game and what really motivates sixth graders.
How many of you have already bought something in the game? Photo by Cynthia Dickerson.
The kids were wild about the game. We had crowds of children clamoring for swag, running up and down the isles of gym, and jumping in place to test out their shiny new actipeds (which are actually black plastic with a matte finish). We brought Coach Boylen of the Utah Utes to one school and had TV stations and newspapers show up in droves. We had Big Blue of Utah State and their head basketball coaches at another event—they brought the kids to their feet and their voices to a resounding din. Every time we went to a launch the kids got riled up and excited to compete against the other Utah schools. They were motivated to step it up in order to outfit their horse avatar. They were full of questions and vigor. It was a rush.
My work didn’t end when I left Utah. Now I have the distinct pleasure of helping the schools take care of lost or broken pedometers, figuring out why someone didn’t get their steps, and answering questions like: why does it cost 5,000 steps to buy the afro wig? The answer is: it’s totally worth it. All of it. Because everyday I get comments in my email from the students telling me how much fun they’re having. Kids are taking this home, walking with their parents, challenging their peers, and moving their teams around the world. The newspapers are talking about how kids need to get out and be more active. A reporter on Channel Five Utah is wearing a pedometer. An ecstatic PE teacher hugged me.
Earl Hurst, President of Humana Utah talking to the students. Photo by flickr user humanagames.
This is all about taking something fun and making it healthy. We want to be where people already enjoy going and make their experience better, in every part of the world. What are you doing to stay healthy?
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DISCLAIMER ALERT: The ideas expressed in this post came out of my own head, were researched by my own eyes and were expressed by my own hands. They are not intended to serve as medical advice in any way, shape or form. And they do not reflect the views of Humana Inc. or any of its subsidiaries. I take full responsibility if you think this post is awesome or not awesome.
It was still dark when I awoke a few weeks ago and heard the buzzing of my alarm through the chill, musty air. The shower of the motel ran rusty for a few seconds before things cleaned up and the bathroom filled with steam. I washed, put on a shirt and tie, ate my Captain Crunch, and got in the car with Jean (@sleepyhorses). We got lost on the way to Inez Middle School but found it in the end, nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains. Morehead State University has teamed up with Inez middle school to improve the health of Martin County, Kentucky. Their health product of choice: The Horsepower Challenge.
Last year we partnered with Morehead State University to run one of the first Horsepower Challenges. If you missed my last post about the Horsepower Challenge, it’s an online game powered by steps that are recorded using high tech, wireless pedometers. You can find out all about it at www.horsepowergame.com. This year Morehead State is resurrecting the program in a second iteration as part of their drive to make Martin County, KY a healthier place. Jean and I visited to help install the program in two middle schools and a community center.
Most of the kids remembered the program from before, and this time the prizes (shoes, RipSticks®, and Bikes) coupled with the scope of the challenge (bigger than last time and coinciding with the American Horsepower Challenge) brought them to a muted frenzy. The kids were excited and full of questions like,
“What happens if I attach the actiped to my dog?”
“Well my boy,” I replied, “that simply won’t work. The accelerometer in the actiped makes it cheating-proof, so if you want to earn the patriotic jumpsuit for your horse avatar, you’ll have to walk for it!”
Kids.
I had a great time hanging out with the students that day and was surprised to see a lot of teachers and parents that wanted to participate too. A great way to get your kids to exercise properly is get involved yourself. Children learn through emulation and positive example. If you’re a health nut your kids might resent it a bit, but if you take a balanced approach to health and genuinely enjoy it your kids will thank you when they’re fit.
Inez is a calm and quiet place. The air is still, and long stretches of hill and forest are unbroken by industry. It is a great place for kids to run around. I have faith in that land. I won’t be discouraged by the youth-obsession with Twilight and American Idol, (half of the registered usernames had some form of Edward or Twilight; most of the girls asked me if I know Anoop Desai, who, oddly enough, I went to college with) because as soon as I returned to Louisville, I checked and saw that the students were already racking up steps (last check, 4.2 million steps from 299 participants).
Their baseline testing (when they walked normally for seven days before stepping it up) ended two weeks ago and the challenge started last Monday. Already we’ve seen a nice improvement in their step count. The challenge will end in a few weeks and we’ll get to see how improved they really are. Stay tuned – get pumped!
Photo by Flickr User humanagames
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DISCLAIMER ALERT: The ideas expressed in this post came out of my own head, were researched by my own eyes and were expressed by my own hands. They are not intended to serve as medical advice in any way, shape or form. And they do not reflect the views of Humana Inc. or any of its subsidiaries. I take full responsibility if you think this post is awesome or not awesome.
