About
A Virtual Learning & Physical Activity Challenge
Walk to Unlock Nebraska invites students and teachers to combine exercise and learning through a fun, competitive virtual platform that rewards physical activity with fascinating historical, geographical, and agriculture information about our state.
The program provides checkpoints along routes across the state for youth (and their teachers!) to virtually visit while tracking physical activity time, steps and/or miles. Walk to Unlock Nebraska was created with idea of combining academic enrichment and physical activity:
- This learning experience is targeted for students in kindergarten through eighth grade
- Multiple lesson topics include science, social studies, math, language arts, nutrition and more
- Integrated curricular ideas are included to be used as tools for learning both in the classroom and at home
- Virtual field trips are available to enhance the journey
Thank You to our Partners
The content included in each featured stop along the route was provided by our generous partners, and was reviewed by Nebraska Department of Education curriculum specialists to ensure it aligns with current educational standards. Teachers are encouraged to expand upon these ideas and think creatively as you and your teams virtually travel across Nebraska!
Physical Activity & Routes
According to the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, children and adolescents ages 6 to 17 years old should participate in 60 minutes or more of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity daily. However, just 24% of children reach this goal.
Creativity is a necessity when working with youth and this program provides exactly that to get kids moving! You’ll find numerous ways to accumulate the necessary miles to move your team across the routes and to unlock the markers along the way.
Four routes are planned to be completed by the 2023-24 school year. The Northern Loop and Eastern Sprint are the only routes active at this time.
How It Works
Sign-up
Teachers form teams in their classrooms and enroll on our website. The sign-up process is easy and the manager portal has step by step instructions for you whether you want to manage a single team, or form a league with other educators. After you sign up, you will be able to choose a route and dig into the site’s lessons and curriculum.
Exercise & Log
Students keep track of the various forms of physical activity they do, like walking, running, swimming or more. The miles they walk (or the time they spend exercising) is recorded by team leaders (teachers), combined with the other students on their team, and logged into the Walk to Unlock Nebraska website’s management portal. Miles are saved for each team and accumulated miles add up to progressively unlock markers and webpages along the site’s interactive state-wide routes.
Teach
Educators are in control. Each milestone on the map has a full page of educational content and resources such as videos, images, lesson plans and curriculum guides. Information and resources are sorted and available in various grade levels, and all curriculum is accredited. The route is fully accessible to team leaders from day one so they can plan ahead. Or they can simply share a link to their route with their students/parents and allow them to explore on their own. Each team is given its own individual team progress webpage.
Compete
Groups and teams work together to accumulate and log miles to virtually travel the state. But educators also have the opportunity to invite other teams to join them in a private league, to further motivate students to log more physical activities as they help their team to finish the route first. The manager of this league can manage their own team, and also monitor the progress of other teams who accept their invitation.