After reading patti's post and talking over with the other teacher at my school we have also decided to go with the wand. All of the points made in the first post were pretty much which sold us, also I like the idea that it can be set up as a station and everyone gets a turn or it can be done as something quick where maybe only a select number of students check it.

Another question: I have seen in the PE books some posters talking about HR that I really liked, showing the target range ect... However, these posters are like 25-30 bucks and I can't help to think that I could either make my own or possibly buy one elsewhere for a much better price, anyone have any advice on this?

That sounds like a good idea. Another way we have used our heart rate monitors (we have a set of 20) is to make it a requirement that each student (high school level) must sign a HRM out (for a period of 2 days) at any point during the school year. They then have to wear it during a physical education class and download the results. Once they have these they are required to write a one paragraph summary of their experience and how they used the equipment, then a one paragraph reaction to their results. We find that this is a good way to make sure that they all get the opportunity to use the equipment, and discover how it can help them to get an accurate assessment of how hard they are working.

Hello-
Another option all together that can still measure many students at once is an InstaPulse. It is a hand held pipe, similar to a track baton. After a good workout, or actually any time during the lesson, students can just hold the sensors on the baton and it reads their pulse in about 5 seconds.
Hope this helps!

Any idea what the cost of the Instapulse is in comparison to heart rate monitors?

About 100 bucks! Pretty cheap compared to HRM's