Schools Case Studies
Yet another use for Indoor Rowing - Study Support
Date Added: Thu, 20 Jan 2011
Related tags: Key Stage 3, Key Stage 2, Extra-curricular, Cross-curricular, Funding Ideas, ICT Links, Success Story
The Pilgrim Centre is part of the Playing for Success initiative. The centre is based at Plymouth Argyle Football Club and its main purpose is to deliver after school study support to Plymouth schools.
'Playing for Success' (PfS) is part of the Government's National Framework for Study Support. It is an initiative that establishes out of hours Study Support Centres within football and other sports environments. Its aim is to use the medium and environment of sport to motivate pupils aged 9 - 14 who are struggling with their study or who have become disillusioned by traditional learning styles.
PfS aims to include a 'wow factor' using ICT that is not available in schools.
Focus
The centre has developed a healthy living session which incorporates physical exercise linked with ICT applications. We identified Concept2 rowing machines and RowPro software as meeting the needs of the session and delivering a wow factor.
Activities
- The session is 1hr 30 minutes long.
- The pupils work in groups of 3 or 4.
- They row for 3 minutes
- Analysis of data - Numeracy Target.
- Footballers' food - Literacy Target.
- Review of personal exercise - Healthy Living Target.
- Plenary - feedback on calories used
- Setting healthy living target
Outcomes
- Pupil awareness of healthy living raised and targets set.
- Profile of rowing has been raised.
- Literacy and Numeracy tasks completed.
- Pupil response to the session was extremely positive especially to the use of the Concept 2 rowing machines which has added the 'wow' factor.
- Enjoyment of the session was high.
"I'd never been on a rowing machine before and it was excellent."
"The rowing made the exercise fun but tiring."
Recommendations
The RowPro software and Concept 2 as a whole meets our purposes for linking physical exercise with ICT. The set up used here was limited to a single computer and in an education environment this does not make it as accessible as it could be. However, a license that allowed installation on multiple computers would be much more suitable to school environments. I know that a RowPro schools package is now available for many computers and many users and that multiple rowing machines can now be connected to one computer.
Development
- Healthy Living Days.
- Incorporating Sunnato PC Pods into the sessions.
- Venue racing with other PfS centres.