Creating New Opportunities for Individual Success
Portage Central (MI) Middle School PE Teacher John Dunlop has used IHT heart rate monitors in his program for almost a decade now. He started using them to collect objective data for students, parents and administrators. What he saw from his students confirmed he had chosen the correct tool for his program.
“It’s the kids who this doesn’t come as easy for who need to experience success and get some feedback as to what they’re really doing,” he said.
During his PE classes, each student has a goal specific to them. They must spend a certain number of minutes exercising in target heart rate zones. Depending on the activity, the target heart rate zones can vary:
- Blue heart rate zone indicates low-intensity activity
- Yellow heart rate zone indicates activity at an elevated heart rate
- Red heart rate zone indicates activity at a vigorous or highly elevated heart rate
Wearing IHT heart rate monitors during class, Dunlop’s students see their actual heart rate and a color indicating which heart rate zone they are working in at that moment. This information allows them to adjust their activity level accordingly. After class, they return their heart rate monitor and see immediately if they reached the day’s goal or not. They also receive an email detailing their session, including a graph of their heart rate throughout the session and a breakdown of minutes spent in each heart rate zone.
When students see that they met – or exceeded – their goal, they are understandably happy. Dunlop recalls a student who, prior to wearing the IHT heart rate monitor, rarely engaged in class. The monitor changed that. The first day the student wore the monitor, something was different.
“I saw a complete change in his attitude, especially at the end of class when he’s downloading and looking at his data,” Dunlop said. “He said, ‘hey, I did pretty good today!’ I don’t know if that kid has ever experienced success in PE (before).”
Elementary Students Connect Physical Activity with Emotional Health Wearing IHT Heart Rate Monitors
At Baldwin Creek (WY) Elementary School, PE Teacher Misty Atnip reworked her entire program around heart rate monitors in order to connect with students struggling to meet basic fitness goals.
She paired IHT heart rate monitors with circuit training workouts that had them hustling through different activities on a loop. As they began to spend more time exercising in the yellow and red heart rate zones, their fitness level increased.
“It increased the whole class’s approach to physical activity, not just those kids wo are competitive and athletic,” Atnip said. “It’s taken the whole group up. I feel like I have differentiated my learning to reach them now because now they’re getting that immediate feedback.”
Atnip noticed another benefit on top of improved fitness test scores.
“I’ve had quite a few kids when they reach their goal tell me, ‘I feel really good inside,’” she said. “They’re relating that endorphin release with hitting their target heart rate.”
Improving Academic Readiness
Atnip’s colleagues also provided feedback about the addition of the IHT heart rate monitors. They reported that students were coming from her PE class back to their primary classrooms engaged and ready to learn.
“I have teachers who come back to me later and they’ll say, ‘Oh my gosh, you know, they came back, and they were just ready to roll. They weren’t sluggish,’” Atnip said. “Now other teachers are asking me if kids hit their goal. It’s become a community effort.”
At schools where students may need extra time to be physically active, teachers have introduced zero hour programs where students can go through an organized workout before their school day officially begins.
At Winding Springs Elementary (NC), a new program – Eagle Fit – contributed to students raising their academic benchmark scores considerably from semester to semester. Students who participate in Eagle Fit meet each morning for a 30-minute activity session wearing the IHT ZONE heart rate monitors.
Prior to Eagle Fit’s introduction, students had just 1 PE class – 45 minutes long at the end of the day – each week. That’s not enough daily movement, Health and PE Resource Teacher Andrew Romberger said.
With Eagle Fit, students come daily and take part in a variety of activities and use the heart rate monitors to push themselves to reach moderate or even vigorous activity levels. Beyond physical fitness, the results of added physical activity show up in academic results.
“The teacher stopped me and told me about how a few of the students did on their recent benchmark testing,” Romberger said. “They went up 36, 31 and 18 points. It’s remarkable to see gains and jumps (like that) from 1 test to the next. And, the students are feeling better.”
The program benefits from administrative support. Campus Principal Matthew Slota understands the value of activity and makes time for it in the school day.
“Research is there to support the benefits and positive results/outcomes (of physical activity),” Slota said. “If we activate the neurons in the brain, you’re better prepared and you’ll retain more information.”
To further reinforce the benefits of physical activity, Slota implemented 20-minute recess periods for students and placed them strategically in the school day to lead into language and math classes.
“We want to get kids prepped and better ready to succeed,” Romberger said. “Dr. Slota understands that being proactive is better than being reactive. He gets it.”
Middle School Students Get a Jump Start Toward Success
Oskaloosa (IA) Middle School PE Teacher Betsy Luck implemented an early-morning activity period for incoming 6th graders to make sure they were ready for a more rigorous academic day than they had in elementary school. She created a 20-minute morning program where students can run, walk or move with a purpose prior to heading off to their English and math academic blocks.
“We wanted to give them a huge jolt of oxygenated blood flowing through their systems before they go down (to their math and literacy blocks), and also as sixth graders, to get those jitterbugs out so they can go down there and focus,” Luck said.
Sending students to their most challenging classes with active minds is part of her thinking. Like Slota, Luck is intimately familiar with the research detailing the positive impact activity has on brain development. She also wanted to increase the amount of active time the sixth-graders got each week.
The results, like her colleagues across the country, have been exactly what she hoped. Math and literacy assessment scores, which lagged a bit prior to the morning exercise program, are headed in the right direction.
“We’ve seen the scores come back (up) and that’s been a really positive thing,” she said.
Boost Student Emotional Health with IHT ZONE heart rate monitors:
