The IHT ZONE heart rate monitor has been a staple of Stallsmith’s program since 2016. Students wear the monitors and benefit both during and after their class session ends from feedback that includes:
- Real-time heart rate feedback that shows students how hard they are exercising
- A post-session summary that shows students if they met that day’s goal for minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity
- An email report with detail including a graph of the student’s heart rate throughout the session, minutes spent exercising in each heart rate zone, and more.
“The reports are integral to what we’re doing,” Stallsmith said. “They allow much better, much more real conversations…the conversations we need to have with kids.”
Part of the conversation focuses on the actual data students will need to understand as they continue to lead, the teacher hopes, active lifestyles as adults. Another part of the conversation focuses on engagement, something that has continually improved as students have more choice in each day’s activity.
Stallsmith’s decision to incorporate student choice into his program – rather than stick to a game-based regimen that previously worked – increased engagement exponentially. There are still days where students must focus on specific skills, but more days include activities they’ve told the teacher they like, including skateboarding.
“I wouldn’t have thought to do that before,” Stallsmith said, “but that has really gotten students involved. And the more kids are involved, the more they get involved. I tell them, if you can do an activity (at home), come tell me about it and I’ll make a lesson for it. I told them if you want to learn about skateboarding, I’ll call Tony Hawk if I have to.”
Glen Crest Middle School (Ill.) PE teacher Kelly Nordlund also saw her students become more engaged when she gave them a choice of activities during class. Students who prefer competitive sports can play volleyball or basketball. Those who prefer individual activities use a fitness room where they can try Zumba, dance, yoga or use fitness machines.
“It’s nice that I can show my kids they don’t have to run a mile,” Nordlund said. “They just have to keep their heart rate in a specific zone for whatever our goal is for the day.”
The IHT ZONE heart rate monitors enable students to see exactly how they are doing without comparing themselves to other students. That’s another motivating factor.
“It’s heart-rate specific to them,” she said. “Regardless of your fitness level, your target heart rate zone is tailored to you. If you are an elite soccer player, you can be zipping around our field and barely get into the yellow zone. But that’s because your cardiovascular fitness is crazy good and you can sustain what you’re doing.”
PE teacher Kelly Nordlund reviews a student's heart rate report after a class.
Like Stallsmith, Nordlund expects that engaged students today will translate into adults who want to maintain or improve their fitness in the future. She tries to give students a them-sized version of the things many adults pay thousands of dollars each year to do at health clubs and gyms.
“We try to relate the value of this to kids,” she said. “You are getting this for free in your school day. I want to hit home with them how important their health is, the lifelong aspect of this. In this day and age, it’s so easy to sit still and play video games or be on your phone. That’s what I’m really hoping they take away from our classes – the importance of getting active and staying active.”
That should be the bottom line: engaging students with activities they enjoy so they become motivated to give their best effort. The data from the IHT ZONE heart rate monitors tells teachers exactly what they need to know about how students are engaged in class. The first realization? Students are more likely to give their best effort when engaged in an activity they choose to do.
“I’m beginning to wonder: does it matter what we do as long as they’re in the (heart rate) zone as long as we want them to be there?” Hudson High School (Iowa) PE Teacher Sean Leonard said. “If they know how to get there and stay there?”
Shortly after introducing the IHT ZONE heart rate monitors, Leonard and his colleagues began personalizing class by allowing students choose from fitness activities that motivate them the most. The results supported his theory.
“Of the 44 minutes (class duration), I think we wanted them in their target zones for at least 30-35 minutes,” he said. “I’ll tell you what: they’ve done a really good job and they’re learning what it takes to meet those goals.”
Those early results changed his teaching philosophy. Backed up by heart rate data, he can comfortably give students their choice of activities and trust that they’ll get the work done.
“They know the activities they really like to do, but that we’re still going to get the fitness benefits out of them,” he said. “The data will really tell us a lot.”
Further, Leonard said, students are learning what a beneficial workout feels like so they can duplicate their effort without the benefit of a monitor, should they need to as they become young adults.
“They’re learning about pacing and what it takes to get in their zone and then stay in it,” he said. “So when they don’t have these monitors, they have a good idea when they’re working out on their own in the future if their workout is helping them the way they want it to or not.”
Boost Student Wellness with IHT ZONE heart rate monitors:
