Last year Kyle Hurst, a science teacher at Foothills Middle School in Weantchee, WA, received a $1,000 grant for “Dynamic Review Games”. His goal was to blend physical activity with learning by creating games around classroom material. The grant allowed him to purchase equipment to use for the games.

We visited the school when they first started Dynamic Review Games. On a nice, sunny, perfect Wenatchee day, Kyle’s students were playing a game of frisbee golf – with a twist. Cones were placed around the field as a marker where the frisbee should land. Once the 3 or 4 person team landed all their frisbees, they would answer a series of questions related to material they were learning in class.

The students were excited about being outdoors and engaged in the material. They told us how much more fun it was to be able to include “play” into learning, and many thought they absorbed the information better.

Kyle asked some of his students to provide some feedback on how they felt about the Review Games, which we recently received. Their responses showed that the games were a motivator, improved their learning, helped with attendance, and got them to be more active.

Here are some of the things students had to say:

“Thanks for this, its made me want to go to science more often and my learning improved!”

“I think that the games are a fun educational way to learn. To be honest its the highlight of my day.”

“The kick ball game helps me remember the answers more, like last year the only reason why I remembered the answers on the test was because of the game.”  

“They help me to remember things that we haven’t gone over in a while, and I may have forgotten. When I don’t get to play because I get a question wrong, it encourages me to study harder.” 

Thank you, Kyle, for taking your students “outside the box” and going the extra mile to make learning meaningful to them!

And thank you to all of our donors who help the Community Foundation support school initiatives that engage students and encourage them to stay in school. We couldn’t do it without you!