HOW do you get schoolchildren to take more exercise? Why, take away their chairs, of course.
A team at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, has built a 鈥渃hairless classroom鈥� to encourage children to move around more. They hope the idea will help in the fight against childhood obesity.
Last week the team borrowed a group of 10 to 12-year-olds from a nearby school, and taught them their normal curriculum in a specially converted classroom. The children were given motion sensors to wear and allocated vertical work spaces to which they could attach laptops with wireless internet connections. They were also encouraged to walk around while watching or listening to podcasts of their lessons.
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Team leader and obesity specialist James Levine says early results suggest children were burning many more calories.
