Weekly Media Roundup: January 13, 201

Kids Roller Skate off Extra Pounds (Chicago Tribune, Illinois)

Some 8,000 children in Chicago suburbs are skating their way to better health thanks to Orbit for Kids Skate Free, a national program sponsored by Roller Skating Association International dedicated to fighting childhood obesity. Kids receive two weekly skating passes through the program, and more than 600,000 children across the country are taking advantage of the opportunity. “We know if they skate twice a week, we won’t have childhood obesity,” Orbit Skate Center owner Sandra Levin told the Chicago Tribune. “Childhood obesity is an incredible problem and overweight kids can be lean, mean machines if their parents take them skating each week.”

No Waffling on This After-School Program (Beloit Daily News, Wisconsin)

What do macaroni and cheese, calamari, filet mignon and s’mores have in common? They’re all culinary creations cooked in a waffle iron by students in Merrill Elementary School’s “waffle academy” afterschool program. School counselor Kathy Cerniglia and her friend Eileen Smith, inspired by Daniel Shumski’s book “Will it Waffle: 53 Irresistible and Unexpected Recipes to Make in a Waffle Iron,” created the academy to teach kids how to whip up easy, creative and fun snacks with their families after school. “You can cook anything in it and all you need is a plug,” Smith told the Beloit Daily News.

Students Are Building Their Way to a Better Future (Muscatine Journal, Iowa)

Students ages nine to 14 are helping the environment, learning important STEM concepts and improving their teamwork and problem-solving abilities through the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) afterschool program. Each year of the FLL program contains two main challenges: children design, build and program an autonomous robot, and then they collaborate to solve a real world problem based on a theme. This year’s theme is “Trash Trek,” so each project addresses trash and recycling – for instance, one group partnered with their local Hy-Vee to improve recycling of pizza boxes and plastic bags, while another tested whether no smoking signs decrease cigarette waste at certain intersections. “Besides the team building thing and communications skills, they can learn true technology skills that they can use in the real world,” team leader Chris Hoffman told the Muscatine Journal.

Library Offers Activity-Filled After-School Program (Washington Post, Virginia)

Students in the Cool After School program at the Bridgewater Branch of the Massanutten Regional Library system spent last Tuesday creating “Oobleck,” a fictional sticky substance from a Dr. Seuss book, learning the scientific progress and developing problem-solving skills along the way. The program runs twice a month and uses crafts to bring children’s books, current events and holidays to life for kids in kindergarten through fifth grade. Branch manager Bly Brown told the Washington Post that her favorite part of the program is “just seeing the children’s excitement and challenge. I really love how children and parents work together.”