District/School Administration PK-16 Program Support Educational Technology
Technology Toolkit

Straight from the Heart
Carver Public Schools

Evidence of Effectiveness

Instructional objective: The students will be able to use heart rate monitors and will demonstrate an understanding of the correlation between activity and heart rate.

Evaluation: To measure the students' progress in meeting the health standards, the teachers observed the students using the heart rate monitors during project activities. Visually reading the monitors and examining the spreadsheet data enabled the teachers to measure the students' accuracy in reading and recording their heart rates. The teachers were able to use the writing project, which included analyzing and assessing heart rate data, to help determine how well the students met the standards.

To measure the students' progress in meeting the technology standards, the teachers evaluated the students' spreadsheets and graphs, which were created with Microsoft Excel. The teachers also examined the students' final writing projects, which were created with Microsoft Word.

Student improvement: The use of heart monitoring technology and computers had a positive impact on students. The use of heart monitoring technology allowed students to observe for themselves how heart rate impacts fitness. The students were eager to use the monitors to obtain accurate heart rate readings because they visually saw their heart rate while at rest, during activity, and at recovery. The students wanted to know why they got the readings they did, and in many cases, wanted the opportunity to use the monitors again in order to achieve better readings. The students were motivated to safely pace themselves during activity while being accountable, and the comprehensive health teacher was able to safely assess and address cardiovascular fitness through immediate feedback.

< Learning Standards      Contact Information >