I received an email from Kaiser Permanente about a free video game from Scholastic. It’s supposed to teach food and exercise skills to 9-10 year olds.
Regular readers know that I love (and want) a Wii (see here, here, or here). It’s not for the fitness, rather it’s for the great gaming experience.
Unfortunately, the Incredible Adventures of the Amazing Food Detective is terrible. This is no Oregon Trail.
(Another edutainment game to check out is Food Force. If you want to look at a recruiting tool, check out the U.S. Army’s game.)
Of course, there is a show of diversity. Note the children’s “problems” within the game:
- Cole: too much junk food
- Catherine: not very strong.
- Michael: doesn’t exercise enough.
- Antonia: needs to play more.
- Emily: eats too much.
- Enrique: teeth and bones are weak.
- Matthew: tired all the time.
- Althea: skips breakfast.
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Kaiser Permanente
Play with your food
The childhood obesity case is about to get cracked!
The Incredible Adventures of the Amazing Food Detective is a fun and
free interactive, online video game for kids aged 9 to 10 that
teaches healthy eating and activity habits. In the colorful cartoon
game, available in English or Spanish, players solve the cases of
eight diverse kids who need to learn healthy habits. Kids can
also print out fun health information to share, such as games,
scavenger hunts, exercises and recipes.
The game is part of Kaiser Permanente’s commitment to fight childhood
obesity. In partnership with children’s publishing company
Scholastic, Inc., we’ve distributed the game as well as teacher and
parent educational materials to more than 5,000 public schools in the
communities we serve.
Play the Amazing Food Detective with your kids or pass it on to
parents and teachers you know. Together, we can raise healthier
kids…and have fun doing it!
Posted in behavior change, entertainment, fitness, food, marketing, technology
