Childhood obesity has risen alarmingly in Chile. According to the 2024 Nutritional Map published by the National School Assistance and Scholarship Board (Junaeb), 27% of the surveyed schoolchildren are overweight, and 23.9% are obese.
This diagnosis reveals the urgent need to promote changes in lifestyle habits from childhood. To this end, UBB, UDD, and Usach universities are leading the research project “Development and validation of a Gamified and Intelligent Educational Platform (PEGI) for teaching healthy eating and physical activity to SLEP schoolchildren.”
At our university, the initiative is run by a research team led by academics from the Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tito Pizarro, a pediatrician with a master's degree in nutrition, and Fernando Concha, a physical education teacher with a master's degree in health and human well-being education. The main objective is to increase knowledge and healthy behavior in healthy eating and physical activity among elementary school students through a virtual educational platform that combines technology and interactive learning.
AI and Gamification
Professor Fernando Concha explains that the idea stemmed from two FondeF projects that promoted the “Healthier Schools” initiative to encourage healthy habits in six educational establishments belonging to the Gabriela Mistral Local Public Education Service (SLEP) in the Metropolitan Region, resulting in the creation of a website and educational materials, among other products.
After that experience, “we realized that teachers, students, and the school environment needed technological tools that would make the process of learning about nutrition and physical activity easier and more motivating,” says Fernando Concha.
This led to the creation of PEGI, a digital platform that integrates artificial intelligence and gamification to teach concepts linked to healthy living in a fun and engaging way. “We will use educational materials validated by the school community in previous projects, which will be transformed into digital games and challenges adapted to the school curriculum,” says academic Tito Pizarro.
This tool is expected to scale up to the educational system and promote more active lifestyles, initially benefiting about 230 students from two public schools in both regions, as well as teachers, parents, families, and vendors who sell their products in schools.
Model in Education
The project will last 24 months, during which several tasks will be addressed. The first focuses on developing the platform and integrating interactive resources based on educational materials, then validating its effectiveness in selected schools by evaluating how it influences the eating habits and physical activity of children and their environment.
“We want to observe how daily routines are transformed: whether students increase their water intake, move around more, practice sports or physical activity, or integrate movement into their recesses and classes. That is our challenge, and that is why we are working closely with the SLEPs and educational communities, considering that the regions involved have very diverse geographical and social realities,” says Tito Pizarro.
Each institution will contribute to the development of PEGI. UBB will be responsible for the technological design, while Usach and UDD will integrate the validated educational content into the platform. Likewise, Junaeb, with its team of healthy schools for learning, will facilitate the projection and dissemination of this model at the national level.
“We are committed to a learning model based on play and doing, where knowledge is acquired through participatory and active learning, now by means of the responsible and fun use of digital platforms. Schools have laboratories and technology rooms that will allow them to make the most of this resource,” says Tito Pizarro.
Some of the expected outcomes include a steady increase in knowledge and practice of healthy behaviors, along with high approval ratings for the platform from teachers and students. “In the future, we hope this model will become a national benchmark for promoting school wellness and preventing childhood obesity,” concludes Fernando Concha.