Exerbraining for Schools: Combining Body and Brain Training

The growing obesity problem has reinforced policymakers and educators to devise strategies that encourage introduction of novel and engaging physical activities in schools. At the same time, the gaming industry has introduced a game genre that requires the player to be physically involved in the game (e.g. Nintendo Wii, Kinect). In fact, exergames (physically activating games) is an emerging trend that may influence also the implementation of the physical education curriculum and classroom activities in the near future. In this paper we discuss the possibilities and limitations that exergames can provide for schools. We review exergaming practices that have been introduced to schools and propose a new form of exergaming, exerbraining that combines both body and brain training and thus could fit well to school context. We report the results of the case study in which we tested an exerbraining game involving mathematical content. The results showed that students enjoyed playing the game a lot and exerbraining games can provide effective learning solutions for schools. © 2012 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of the scientific programme committee of VS-Games 2012