What was you favorite nutrition/ health game that you played today? Why? What did you learn or what helped solidify good practices you already knew about? Which audiences would this work best for?
Miley G. Fave: Personal Trainer Cooking, because I liked the way you could click on diff. countries all over the world and find out what types of cuisines are popular there, as well as how to make them. It helped solidify how easy cooking is, and how you really don't need a ton of ingredients to cook something that is tasty and healthy. I think this game might be useful for people who are hesitant on trying new recipes, or who just don't do much cooking in general, because it talks you through the steps, allows you to go backward, forward, they will repeat the instructions, make you a grocery list, etc.
Celsa I liked the nutrition decision website and games. I could see myself using those with my 3-5th grade students. The nutritional label game was colorful, interesting, engaging and educational. The explanation on serving sizes and reading nutrition labels helped reinforce concepts that one tends to forget if not practiced regularly.
Nicole The favorite nutrition game I played today was the Eat, Move game. I like this game because it tells you how ever much you eat how much exercise it takes to burn off. I think some people don't realize depending what you eat how much work it takes to burn off what you eat. I think this is a good game for everyone to know and to play. Especially Middle and High school age because this is when some kids stop playing sports and stop becoming active. This can show them they need to exercise so make up for what they eat.
I liked the Humana game bicycle race. The instructions were easy, the challenge increased with each level, there was a competition while having to balance my energy supply to keep going. I could pick up healthy food but unhealthy food deducted points. Fast learning. It is also social so I can challenge my grandchildren easily via an email.
Although this seems to be geared for middle school people, I enjoyed it immensely. I will challenge my older brother to compete too.
The game is a reminder that as we exercise we need to restore our nutrition as we go along. I was happy to see that a granola bar added lots of points. I think, though, that it should be a mixture of granola bar and water too.
My favorite health/nutrition game was the Playnormous food fury. The first few levels gave me visual and text clues to forming food chains. But to succeed at the higher levels, I had to think about which foods were healthy or not so healthy. The game focuses on awareness of overall food nutrition groups which is different that the usual food pyramid grouping. I think the game would help kids increase their awareness, but they may not translate this info into making healthier food choices.
I also thought the Nutrition Decision games were a fun way to teach kids about food levels.
I also enjoyed killing bacteria with fire and soap.
All of the games were appropriate for kids from about 8-12.
Gil Food Frenzy - Very educational on the computer for the food pyrmid. It is a similar game I play with elementary age students (3-5 graders) food pyrmid relays. It is educational on types of foods and also gets them to do some physical activity in the process. This food frenzy would go well with incorporating some sort of exergame.
Dawn I liked the food detective game since knowledge around food safety is lacking with kids but also with adults so think is good for both to reiterate the basic food safety guidelines. Besides food detective the other one that I liked since I didn't get into Food Fury or Food Frenzy very far was Nutrition Decision especially for older elementary and mid school students. Teaching kids about serving size and portion size is important also with adults. Also incorporated some math with calorie counting in one of the games which teachers may like but was a little limited. It would be good to give kids a sense of what their daily nutrition requirement is and than make the connection between reading the label of what they eat and calculate their total intake.
Laura My favorite game that I played today was Nutrition Decision. I liked this game because the general idea of the game was to learn how to read nutrition labels and decide the correct serving size needed. It will make me think twice before buying a product by looking at the nutritional label. I will be especially careful to look for low levels of fat, saturated fat, and sodium! I also like the fact that I was drilled over and over again on where to find the nutritional label and to make healthy choices. This game would appeal to the middle school audience.
I was very disappointed in todays nutrition games--they all seem to be practice, or "mastery" stage where already acquired knowledge is used.
Food Fury was playable--the others seemed too didactic and boring. The exception was Google calorie counter and Nutirmirror--but they are not teaching games either, they are for adults, and could be good for teens who already are motivated and understand the basic concepts.
All these games seem to be based on a "deficit" conception of children--the assumption that they are not motivated or even very intelligent, and they need to be bribed with primary colors and silly animations.
I would go as far as saying that there is some condescension in these games.
If the target audience is kids whose parents are ignorant of basic food and health concepts these games would not help them--like much of our horrible elementary curriculum, these games would only tend to separate those who already know from those who need to know--the ones who need games, or whatever works, to help them learn the basic concepts and also then to practice them and lets not forget--to put them into practice.
We need to encourage "Lisa Simpsons"--kids who will educate their parents and communities by becoming healthy young role models!
I wish I had the answer, but I think these particular games that we reviewed today have nothing to recommend them--I imagine they will be gone shortly.
Miley G.
ReplyDeleteFave: Personal Trainer Cooking, because I liked the way you could click on diff. countries all over the world and find out what types of cuisines are popular there, as well as how to make them. It helped solidify how easy cooking is, and how you really don't need a ton of ingredients to cook something that is tasty and healthy. I think this game might be useful for people who are hesitant on trying new recipes, or who just don't do much cooking in general, because it talks you through the steps, allows you to go backward, forward, they will repeat the instructions, make you a grocery list, etc.
Celsa
ReplyDeleteI liked the nutrition decision website and games. I could see myself using those with my 3-5th grade students. The nutritional label game was colorful, interesting, engaging and educational. The explanation on serving sizes and reading nutrition labels helped reinforce concepts that one tends to forget if not practiced regularly.
Nicole
ReplyDeleteThe favorite nutrition game I played today was the Eat, Move game. I like this game because it tells you how ever much you eat how much exercise it takes to burn off. I think some people don't realize depending what you eat how much work it takes to burn off what you eat. I think this is a good game for everyone to know and to play. Especially Middle and High school age because this is when some kids stop playing sports and stop becoming active. This can show them they need to exercise so make up for what they eat.
Joe Smith
ReplyDeleteI liked the Humana game bicycle race. The instructions were easy, the challenge increased with each level, there was a competition while having to balance my energy supply to keep going. I could pick up healthy food but unhealthy food deducted points. Fast learning. It is also social so I can challenge my grandchildren easily via an email.
Although this seems to be geared for middle school people, I enjoyed it immensely. I will challenge my older brother to compete too.
The game is a reminder that as we exercise we need to restore our nutrition as we go along. I was happy to see that a granola bar added lots of points. I think, though, that it should be a mixture of granola bar and water too.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteKerry
ReplyDeleteMy favorite health/nutrition game was the Playnormous food fury. The first few levels gave me visual and text clues to forming food chains. But to succeed at the higher levels, I had to think about which foods were healthy or not so healthy. The game focuses on awareness of overall food nutrition groups which is different that the usual food pyramid grouping. I think the game would help kids increase their awareness, but they may not translate this info into making healthier food choices.
I also thought the Nutrition Decision games were a fun way to teach kids about food levels.
I also enjoyed killing bacteria with fire and soap.
All of the games were appropriate for kids from about 8-12.
Gil
ReplyDeleteFood Frenzy - Very educational on the computer for the food pyrmid. It is a similar game I play with elementary age students (3-5 graders) food pyrmid relays. It is educational on types of foods and also gets them to do some physical activity in the process. This food frenzy would go well with incorporating some sort of exergame.
Dawn
ReplyDeleteI liked the food detective game since knowledge around food safety is lacking with kids but also with adults so think is good for both to reiterate the basic food safety guidelines.
Besides food detective the other one that I liked since I didn't get into Food Fury or Food Frenzy very far was Nutrition Decision especially for older elementary and mid school students. Teaching kids about serving size and portion size is important also with adults. Also incorporated some math with calorie counting in one of the games which teachers may like but was a little limited. It would be good to give kids a sense of what their daily nutrition requirement is and than make the connection between reading the label of what they eat and calculate their total intake.
Laura
ReplyDeleteMy favorite game that I played today was Nutrition Decision. I liked this game because the general idea of the game was to learn how to read nutrition labels and decide the correct serving size needed. It will make me think twice before buying a product by looking at the nutritional label. I will be especially careful to look for low levels of fat, saturated fat, and sodium! I also like the fact that I was drilled over and over again on where to find the nutritional label and to make healthy choices. This game would appeal to the middle school audience.
Stephen DeGiulio
ReplyDeleteI was very disappointed in todays nutrition games--they all seem to be practice, or "mastery" stage where already acquired knowledge is used.
Food Fury was playable--the others seemed too didactic and boring. The exception was Google calorie counter and Nutirmirror--but they are not teaching games either, they are for adults, and could be good for teens who already are motivated and understand the basic concepts.
All these games seem to be based on a "deficit" conception of children--the assumption that they are not motivated or even very intelligent, and they need to be bribed with primary colors and silly animations.
I would go as far as saying that there is some condescension in these games.
If the target audience is kids whose parents are ignorant of basic food and health concepts these games would not help them--like much of our horrible elementary curriculum, these games would only tend to separate those who already know from those who need to know--the ones who need games, or whatever works, to help them learn the basic concepts and also then to practice them and lets not forget--to put them into practice.
We need to encourage "Lisa Simpsons"--kids who will educate their parents and communities by becoming healthy young role models!
I wish I had the answer, but I think these particular games that we reviewed today have nothing to recommend them--I imagine they will be gone shortly.