At the intermediate kids participate in an obstacle course every Friday. Teacher Lizzie Daniels came up with the idea from hearing it at a conference in Dallas. She designed it similar to the show, American Ninja Warrior, which features all kinds of athletes that go through a course with different challenges which usually include climbing a rope, jumping walls, and crawling across a big net suspended in the air. 

“We have been doing the obstacle course for the last three years,” Daniels said. “We wanted to do something like the show because all the kids love it so we knew they would really get into it.”

They have done the course before , but this year, they have bigger challenges and incorporate technology. Each kid has a lanyard with a QR code on it. They have a Samsung tablet which they use to scan the code every time they complete a lap. The lap normally consist of trampolines, jumping through tires, rock wall, cargo net, and then the kids go outside and complete an eagle lap around the back of the bus loop which is a quarter of a mile. After scanning, it goes into a website database, and each week, the top 50 gets posted.

“This year, we use tablets to keep track of the kids’ progress,” Daniels said. ““The past  years, the course had been challenging because I had to make sure the kids were not cheating, but with this new technology, it tracks their laps so I know exactly how many laps each kid did.”

After receiving all the data, they tally up the average of all the kids in each class and post the top classes and top grade level. They also recognize the people who beat their goal that they had previously set.

“We know that some people just are not that fast so we try and make it fair by setting goals for each person each week ,” Daniels said. “So if one kid does two laps one week, we tell them to try and do three because we know they are working just as hard as the kids that get five laps.”

Daniels applies for a grant every year to attain new obstacles. This year, she applied for monkey bars, new holds to go on the wall, swing steppers, plank walk, and a peg board which is actually on the real show. 

“I applied for a bunch of new grants,” Daniels said. “The plank will be more for core and balance because some people do not have a lot of upper body strength so this really gives them a chance.”

They do it on Friday with the whole grade level, so usually 120 kids. 

“The kids love it,” Daniel said. “Our kids are more excited about Fridays then they have ever been because even though we have done this course for the past years, now it is a competition, so everyone wants to win.”

She will continue this till next semester, doing it in three class periods.

“One time a kid did ten laps in one class period which is equal to two and a half miles, and he did that in 25 minutes,” Daniel said. “I just ask everyone to do their best so I am also just as proud of a kid that only does two laps, but I can tell works just as hard.”