The Round Rock School District is rolling out a new way to make fitness fun. The program combines biking and computers.
Friday afternoon, the Patsy Sommer Elementary School will become the first school in Texas to join a unique bike to school to program. By then, something will sit at the top of a pole in the schoolyard that the kids will think is really cool. It's called a RFID reader, and its "readin', 'ritin' and 'rithmetic" is designed to help cut down on the obesity epidemic.
"It is really an epidemic of inactivity, kids need an hour a day minimum and they do not get that in PE," said Leslie Luciana, the Director of Advocacy and Community relations at Bicycle Sport Shop.
So the Freiker Bike to School program encourages elementary school children to ride their bikes to and from school to get the extra exercise they need. Of course, to make the program work, you have to make it fun. Each one of the students will be given one of these computerized chips and as they ride their bikes to school and pass under the RFID reader they'll hear this...beep, beep.
The computer tag will be placed in the child's bike helmet. The reader will sit atop a pole in the school yard.
"It gets 100% of its power from the solar panel which recharges the battery, then the computer talks to the Internet and uploads the data wirelessly to the schools Internet connection," said Tim Carlin, the Executive Director of Freiker, Inc.
The kids can then get on the computer, click on the Freiker website and see not only how they've done, but check out the results of other schools across the country who are using the program -- something that second grader Michael Hoffa likes a lot.
"Because I can challenge them," Hoffa said.
It cost about $5,000 to provide the RFID reader, the computer tags for the helmets and helmets for those kids who don't already have them. Various sponsors have covered that cost.
