What would get more use and have a greater impact in your opinion? My budget is small and I would be able to only get a few. I am leaning towards the pedometer because they are simple, work well and the students would understand what the number meant. The heart rate monitor seems to be a little too complex and the younger grades might not understand. What are your thoughts?

2/25/15

Pedometers versus Heart Rate Monitors,

I have had the opportunity to be at two high schools in which pedometers as well as heart rate monitors have been purchased. By design and in theory, both are excellent ideas for integrating technology into the classroom but I have had nothing but negative experiences.

There are a number of factors that I tried to get people in both district physical education departments to think about before purchasing and it was to no avail. I tried to facilitate forward thinking and I believe the leaders intentions were positive but they were blinded by their enthusiasm.

The factors that I brought up and consequently ended up being the demise of their use are as follows:

1. Cost to upkeep-batteries, software updating, straps and pedometer bands.
2. The time it takes to clean and disinfect prior to another class using them during the same school day so as to prevent infections.
3. Time factor in putting them on, taking them off and storing during a class period takes away from activity time. Our class periods are 48 minutes long and the teachers that did use the heart rate monitors ended up only using them once.
4. Our inability to purchase enough to have each student utilize in our classes at the same time due to monies available and the variability in class sizes.(another topic in the discussion board)
5. Technology upgrades in both schools at the time were lacking in terms of wireless capability, band width and additional technological upgrades just to be able to integrate into our physical education classes.

These five factors ended up being the demise of the utilization of heart rate monitors and pedometers as well as the devices(lap tops, palmhelds) that were to be used to collect data. The school I currently teach and coach at purchased 25 heart rate monitors and they have only been used a couple of times and now sit in storage.

We also found that students really like using the simple training heart rate formula to figure out their range and then actually taking their respective heart rates during exercise.

Thank you.

Dean W. Tutas

Taylor,

We use both heart Rate monitors and pedometers at my school. I find both valuable, but accomplish much different objectives.

We use very inexpensive models of both. Actually the pedometers were given to our cafeteria staff for free through a product they were purchasing. they work great, but here is a list of cons.

Cons

1) Students spend more time shaking them to add up steps
2) Some pedometers wont register steps (making it look like the student hasn't moved at all)
3) Effectiveness of objective? What are you doing with the data afterwards?
4) Conversion of steps to mileage (Great lesson incorporating STEM, but a lot of time)

Heart Rate Monitors
We just have 5 hand held units. Students grip with both hands and it instantly gives them accurate heart rate. Add these to your lessons and the intensity increases. Students work super hard to get a real high heart rate.

Matt

3/5/15

Taylor,

I believe the pedometers would be better for the very reasons that you have stated on the discussion board.

In fact, with the explosion in popularity of the Fitbit, I am actually having students utilize them for keeping track of their daily activity if for example they are gone from school and need to complete make-up work or when they leave early for Spring Break to keep track of their active level while on vacation. Of course this would be the case if they have a Fitbit already.

Furthermore, I suggested to our administration that we contact Fitbit and see if we were to purchase a large quantity, for our P.E. Students K-12, if they would cut us a deal. Then we would charge all students a minimal fee too offset some of the cost and they would receive a Fitbit to keep, utilize in P.E. class and ultimately to promote fitness activities.

Therefore, after I complete the class or perhaps prior, I will be contacting Fitbit in California with my idea for our school.

I will keep you posted on what happens and the bottom line is any idea we can utilize to promote health, wellness and vitality is positive. If money is a problem there are ways to stimulate students to think about their health, wellness and fitness without breaking the bank.

Thanks you.

Dean W. Tutas

We have Pedometers and Heart Rate Monitors at my school. We had to use both for the PEP Grant that we won. The younger students love the pedometers and the older students hate them. You can do so many activities with the pedometers and the younger students. But, the only downfall is when they realize if the shake their pedometer, the numbers increase.

The heart rate monitors work good for the older students but take a lot of time to clean and get the data.Back to back classes make it difficult to download data and have them ready to go for the next class. I hope this helps!

If I had to pick I would choose the pedometer because it is easier to compare results between students. They also tend to be a lot cheaper as well.