Northwest Student Professional Network Meeting
A guest speaker attended the Northwest Student Professional Network meeting on Tuesday night and discussed several things including biomechanics.
The guest speaker is Kimberly Robertello who is Clinical Assistant Professor at
Robertello started off the meeting by talking about facilitating undergraduate research and how she encourages students to get involved. She then went on to talk briefly about what she does in her classroom and some previous studies that she has done. After the introduction, Robertello jumped right into the interesting stuff.
The current project that she is working on is dealing with the Nintendo Wii and biomechanics. Biomechanics is the study of the action of external and internal forces on the living body. For instance, Robertello has started to take a look at what the difference is between a tennis racquet swing and the “tennis” swing on a Nintendo Wii remote.
Robertello looks at the way the shoulder, elbow and wrist move between the two swings. The boxing game is also a great way to see the movement of these body parts, said Robertello.
“If the body parts move the same way on the game as they do in real life, the real question is whether or not you are getting the same workout,” said Robertello. “Biomechanics will help us figure this out and we can see if the Nintendo Wii is actually giving us a workout.”
Robertello stated that if the Nintendo Wii actually works you out, could it be used to help figure out things such as the optimum amount of pressure for stretching certain muscles or even using the Nintendo Wii for rehabilitation.
“It’s hard to tell if the Wii would be as effective as actual running and movement,” said Robertello. “I guess that’s why you do the study.”
Many of the students were familiar with the Nintendo Wii and several of the students even owned a console themselves. However, some students didn’t see eye to eye.
“I have the Wii Fit for the Nintendo Wii and it is one of the hardest things I have ever done,” said Kate Andrews. “I can barely do a push up on it and the yoga workout is even harder.”
Another student had a different opinion on the Nintendo Wii.
“No way Nintendo Wii gives you the same workout as running or actually playing a game of tennis,” said Joe Kerns. “Swinging a plastic remote in your living room is not the same as running around on an actually tennis court.”
The NSPN is a group of students that meet regularly on a week to week basis. The group encourages students to excel in networking, community service, and professionalism. Anybody is more than welcome to join.
Robertello encourages students that are interested in this study to join her. The group will meet again in 2-3 weeks and roughly ever week after that. You are able to sign up for her class if you e-mail her or drop by her office.
Kate Andrews, Kateandrews416@hotmail.com
Joe Kerns, JosephFKerns@hotmail.com
Lauren Beardsley, lcbeardsley@wsu.edu, 253-381-4680
Kimberly Robertello, krobertello@wsu.edu
Outline:
- Intro
- NSPN
- Introduce Robertello
- What she does
- Guts
- Nintendo Wii
- Biomechanics
- What the study is
- Student Quotes
- Pros about Nintendo Wii
- Cons about Nintendo Wii
· Get involved
· What the NSPN is
· Meetings
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