Christopher Marangon

Marangon’s innovative program, “Exergaming”, was developed to help students create healthy lifestyles through physically active play. Through the program, students at Birchwood Elementary School will participate in “physically active” video games that combine the interest in video games with high-energy music and a fun cardiovascular workout. The video games will promote movement, friendly competition, cooperation, and fitness as well as leadership and confidence among the students. The students’ progress will be tracked to show the effectiveness of the program in terms of their levels of overall health and wellness. The program will benefit teachers by allowing them to engage more effectively with their students and assist not only teachers, but parents and the students in regards to behavior issues by fostering positive relationships. While the program will begin in physical education classes, the goal is for it to be broadened to recess, lunch, after school programs, and other schools to include a total of approximately 3,000 students. Marangon, who lives in Flanders, hopes the project will help students achieve stronger self-esteem, improve their aerobic fitness, and ultimately reduce their chances of developing diseases such as heart disease and diabetes that are associated with obesity.