7,000 students getting monitors to encourage activity, fitness

It’s called the largest single experiment in getting kids more active in Snohomish County.

The Gear Up &Go program involves handing out nearly 7,000 watch-sized electronic devices to fifth-graders at 15 school districts throughout the county. The devices will measure the activity levels of participating students throughout the school year.

“To my knowledge, this is the first time such an extensive effort has ever been undertaken in Snohomish County to encourage an entire group of children to get more physically active,” said Dr. Gary Goldbaum, health officer for the Snohomish Health District.

The hope is that providing kids with ongoing measures of their activity levels will increase their off-the-couch time.

“You might think it’s a gimmick,” Goldbaum said. “It’s not. It’s based on long-standing evidence that feedback can make a difference in people’s behaviors. They’ve got something giving them positive feedback.”

A program kickoff event is scheduled Saturday in Snohomish.

Students at Everett’s View Ridge Elementary School got to test out the devices, called Sqord PowerPods, earlier this week. Their responses started nearly from the moment they lifted the devices out of their white-and-red boxes. “This is so cool,” said Cienna Schmidt, 10.

The Sqord is like a pedometer with some technological tweaks. The device also measures the intensity of the child’s activity. The more time the kids spend on get-up-and-go activities, the more online points they earn.

These points allow them to create online cartoon characters, called avatars. As they earn more activity points they can “bling it out,” said Carly Kaufman, a program manager for the Gear Up &Go initiative.

Students can check in on their progress at computers programmed to keep a running tab on their activity. These sync stations will be located in participating schools and YMCAs in Snohomish County.

Parental permission is required for students to participate.

The information gathered in the project will allow data to be collected and mapped in a number of ways.

It can track and compare the progress of individual classrooms and among schools, creating competition within the same school district and against other districts.

The information will be compiled in such a way that schools can be color-coded, similar to a weather map, to indicate where the most and least amount of student activity is occurring, said Scott Forslund, a Premera Blue Cross executive who brought together a number of community groups a year ago to begin work on the project.

Other information will be overlaid on the maps, such as whether parks are located close to schools and if sidewalks are plentiful in surrounding neighborhoods. That will help determine whether they influence student activity levels, Kaufman said.

In May and June, 200 students in the Everett, Edmonds and Marysville school districts were involved in an initial test of the Sqord project.

Jan Anderson, a fitness instructor at Everett’s View Ridge Elementary School, said only a limited number of students were able to participate at her school. “The other classes were just green with envy,” she said, asking, “How come I can’t get one?”

Anderson said she saw the patterns of Sqord-wearing students change even during the short trial period. “Out on the playground, some just jogged in place while they were talking,” she said. “I finally had to say, ‘You’ll have to keep your feet quiet or I can’t be heard.”

One of the questions the project wants to answer is whether students who step up their activity levels in fifth grade will continue at those higher levels as they progress through school.

Regular Healthy Youth surveys of students in the sixth, eighth, 10th and 12th grades, which include questions on activity levels, will be one way to measure that, Forslund said.

Gear Up &Go is being funded in part through in-kind contributions, including free memberships being offered to participating students by the YMCAs in Snohomish County.

In addition, five organizations, Verdant Health Commission in Lynnwood, Premera, Providence General Foundation, The Everett Clinic and Precourt Sports donated $335,000 toward the youth fitness project.

Anderson said students in last spring’s pilot program reported that it had an effect on other family members, too.

“Some of the kids say ‘I got my Mom and Dad to go bike riding with me,’” she said.

The project’s success will be determined by the nearly 7,000 students across the county, who will be strapping the devices to their wrists and making choices about how to fill their time.

Some may be like View Ridge fifth-grader Andrew Hoerr who rated his current activity level, measured on a scale of 1 to 10, as a 3.

Hoerr said he thinks that wearing the Sqord will change him from walking during recess to more running and jumping.

Classmate Cienna Schmidt, who said she often plays in her back yard, said she thinks that getting online points for activity will motivate her fellow students.

“It feels cool to be testing something new,” she said. “Not a lot of people get to do it, and it’s unique.”

Sharon Salyer: 425-3393486 or salyer@heraldnet.com

Gear Up &Go

A kickoff event for the Gear Up &Go program is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the Stocker Farms Corn Maze, 8705 Marsh Road, Snohomish. Visitors can learn about the program and try out activity-monitoring technology. There also will be jump ropes, hula hoops and a dance party.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Former Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy Jeremie Zeller appears in court for sentencing on multiple counts of misdemeanor theft Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Ex-sheriff’s deputy sentenced to 1 week of jail time for hardware theft

Jeremie Zeller, 47, stole merchandise from Home Depot in south Everett, where he worked overtime as a security guard.

Everett
11 months later, Lake Stevens man charged in fatal Casino Road shooting

Malik Fulson is accused of shooting Joseph Haderlie to death in the parking lot at the Crystal Springs Apartments last April.

T.J. Peters testifies during the murder trial of Alan Dean at the Snohomish County Courthouse on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Bothell cold case trial now in jury’s hands

In court this week, the ex-boyfriend of Melissa Lee denied any role in her death. The defendant, Alan Dean, didn’t testify.

A speed camera facing west along 220th Street Southwest on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023 in Edmonds, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
New Washington law will allow traffic cams on more city, county roads

The move, led by a Snohomish County Democrat, comes as roadway deaths in the state have hit historic highs.

Mrs. Hildenbrand runs through a spelling exercise with her first grade class on the classroom’s Boxlight interactive display board funded by a pervious tech levy on Tuesday, March 19, 2024 in Marysville, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lakewood School District’s new levy pitch: This time, it won’t raise taxes

After two levies failed, the district went back to the drawing board, with one levy that would increase taxes and another that would not.

Alex Hanson looks over sections of the Herald and sets the ink on Wednesday, March 30, 2022 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Black Press, publisher of Everett’s Daily Herald, is sold

The new owners include two Canadian private investment firms and a media company based in the southern United States.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.