West Fannin Elementary School students and teachers are excited to start incorporating more academics into athletic time in the gym now that the school is officially home to a Lu Interactive Playground.
“We’ve always said that we try to look at all the ways that we can integrate technology into the classrooms, however, the gym was one area that was left out,” Principal Alison Danner. “This was a great way to integrate technology into the P.E. facility.”
The playground, which was purchased using Title I funds, allows the gym to be transformed into an “immersive and interactive” space thanks to world-class audiovisual equipment and a blank canvas painted on the gym wall.
Danner explained that the new system allows students who may not be athletically inclined, but enjoy academics, and vice versa, to find a new way to approach an athletic and academic situation. She said. “They can off-set each other, and it levels the playing field for everybody.”
An example of what students are now able to do was seen last week in a video on the school’s Facebook page. Students were excitedly running around and preparing to select the correct answers to math problems under the glow of technicolor lights. As soon as a new question popped up, they quickly ran towards the screen and threw a ball at their selected answer.
The fun-filled video can be found at https://fb.watch/42fPX9nOEi/.
While students and staff are still learning the ropes, teachers will now have the ability to create interactive activities for the gym that incorporate the academic lessons students are learning in their classes.
“Teachers can create quizzes and have them practice, they can work on spelling words, there’s so many options,” Assistant Principal Milly Rice said.
Physical Education teacher Chris Mashburn spoke to the students’ enjoyment of the new playground stating, “It incorporates different subjects and combines them with P.E., so they can have fun learning classroom things outside of the classroom.”
School staff is excited to incorporate the Lu playground into parent events once schools are able to open back up without COVID-19 concerns.