Year 4 and 5 students at St Peter's School in Rockhampton have been gearing up to complete a virtual walk of the Great Wall of China, as part of a CQUniversity research project.

Students will wear a personal pedometer to measure the number of steps they take on a daily basis and will get the chance to add the statistics into an interactive website.

The students are supporting each other along 'the wall'

This website will track the progress of the teams along the Great Wall of China and other research resources will provide related educational activities.

The project is a sequel to the 10,000 Steps - Workplace Walking Challenge which revealed that team-based walking challenges are effective at increasing participants' physical activity.

Project coordinator and lecturer in Health and Physical Education at CQUniversity David Lapere said after the success of the Workplace Walking Challenge, researchers from CQUniversity were encouraged to apply the core concepts of the project to the primary school setting.

"Exploratory research has since been conducted to determine how the walking challenge concept could be used to achieve the dual objectives of increasing children's physical activity and increasing core learning outcomes across the key learning areas of year 4 and 5 students," Mr Lapere said.

Some of the participating students

"After input from the teachers at St Peter's School, CQUniversity has designed an innovative curriculum unit that will provide high quality learning experiences for the children which they will enjoy and find particularly interesting in the lead up to the Beijing Olympics."

The students gather to plan their journey