Running head: ALLYN FAMILY FOUNDATION GRANT 1

Allyn Family Foundation Grant

Patrick Holman
Deer Valley High School
December 1, 2016
ALLYN FAMILY FOUNDATION GRANT 2

The Physical Education department at Deer Valley High School would like to incorporate

a new project for our classes, but unfortunately we are just short of the amount of heart rate

monitors we will need by half; we currently have 18 and would need 18 more to give the

monitors to all students in a class setting. Currently, we have the 18 heart rate monitors through

Gopher Performance. Students strap on a monitor once they come to class and the teacher

broadcasts the Gopher application to the projection screen where it shows current heart rates, if

they are in the target heart rate zone which is 50-70% of student’s maximum heart rate if

physical activity is moderate and 70-85% for vigorous activity, and how many calories the

student is burning throughout the class. For 18 heart rate monitors, the cost at $129 each is

$2,322 plus a shipping tax of $394.74 for a total of $2,716.74 total needed for this project.

Because we already have the rest of the materials required for this project, this would be the

grand total required if possible (Gopher Performance, n.d.).

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This year was the highest budget we have had so far at Deer Valley with $8,900. Most of

this money will go to repairing old equipment in the weight room, buying new sports balls, and

ensuring that our facilities needs are met. Our physical education department chair has stated that

we will not be putting money from our budget towards heart rate monitors because of the fact

that we recently acquired eighteen of them and due to the other aforementioned program needs.

The governing board consists of:

Michael Gregoire - Governing Board President, 623-445-5002

Ron Bayer - Governing Board Vice President, 623-445-5002

Kimberly K. Fisher, MAFM - Governing Board Member, 623-445-5002

Ann O'Brien - Governing Board Member, 623-445-5002

Ann Elizabeth Ordway - Governing Board Member, 623-445-5002

Deer Valley High School Staff:

Kim Crooks – Principal, 602-467-6704

Kevin Riegle – Physical Education Department Chair, 602-618-5443

An entire unit plan has been created for teaching students about their heart rates and

training and how we would go about incorporating these heart rate monitors into our classroom

which is attached to this document, but I would like to explain brief points in this document.

Heart rate monitors provide a real-life depiction of the intensity that students and future citizens

of this great country have to be in for optimal calories burned. Heart rate monitors are un-biased

so although different people have different body types (ex. athletic vs. overweight), students
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effort can finally be judged with objective-based evidence in our classroom! Each student works

at their own level for one student this could be walking briskly while for another student this

could be vigorous running). For example, just because Mark the star football player is

completing more ab crunches than Sally who is in the choir does not mean that he is working

harder; he is just better conditioned. With a livestream of heart rates of the class, teachers can see

how hard students are actually working regardless of students who just “go through the

motions.”

At Deer Valley, students will use heart rate monitors to track calories daily and student

numbers are broadcasted publicly while names remain anonymous. At the end of each class, a

report can be saved under a folder for the specific class to track calories burned in the class over

the year enrolled. Students will use external source “MyFitnessPal” to determine how many

calories they take in over a period of a week to find an average of calories burned as well as the

MyFitnessPal’s basal metabolic rate tool to determine how many calories they are burning by

just breathing and keeping warm daily. With the information provided by MyFitnessPal, students

will understand how many calories they are consuming on average from the morning to the end

with each item inputted as well as how many calories they are burning by doing nothing. With

the data from heart rate monitors showing factual information on how many calories are burned

during exercise in the class, students will be able to self-assess if they are burning more calories

than they are consuming (caloric deficit) or consuming more calories than they are burning

(caloric surplus). We will then have an accurate illustration of what leads to humans becoming

overweight and the reason for the obesity epidemic upon us.

Students will then go into why they should continue exercise in any form that they can do

by themselves to ensure that they will continue to be active for the rest of their lives and have
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opportunities to try physical activities they may enjoy. Students will have discussions on why

people might not go to the gym (do not want to look incompetent, are not in good shape, etc.)

and will talk about what other things they can do to prevent obesity in their own home

(preaching and consuming positive nutrition, using technology to log/keep track of their health

data, etc.). The end result would be that students understand that they are in control of their body

and right now they are doing may be doing great, but they need to continue to be healthy in an

unhealthy world.

The research on the use of heart rate monitors in physical education support positive

outcomes for the classroom. One elementary school study even found that heart rate monitors in

the physical education class increased the average step count of a physical education lesson from

89 steps per minute to 116 steps per minute (Clapham, 2008). Heart rate monitors are great

because students know that they are being evaluated based on their performance in the class and

when we incorporate technology into our classroom, students feel more excited to meet goals

and even compete with other students to be active. Studies have also shown that students view

physical education differently when technology like heart rate monitors are implemented into the

system which will in turn increase motivation for physical activity (Partridge, King, & Bian,

2011). Getting the recommended 50% of physical activity can be hard for physical educators

due to classroom management, so with tools like heart rate monitors to promote activity, physical

educators should jump at the opportunity to incorporate these into our classroom.

One study highlighted the positive effects of data being sent home in physical education,

proving that students get the grade they deserve based on the effort the son/daughter gave in the

class (Tipton & Sander, 2004). This now gives physical education programs accountability.

Teachers are no longer rolling out the ball and allowing students to just play, but with fitness,
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their heart rates are checked to see that they are in moderate to vigorous ranges when they should

be. It has also been shown that when questioned by administration or parents, heart rate monitors

now offer a new source of accountability that stimulate the interests of physical fitness of the

community at large. When parents can see the effort put in by their child, they can work with

them at home to promote and achieve the goal of sixty minutes of physical activity per day

which also helps physical education teachers meet standards of promoting physical activity

outside of the school day (Driscoll & Conner-Gray, 2008). When students are checking out their

current heart rate and understand where their target heart range is and where they should be at

during physical activity, they are definitely more likely to get to that point. They will especially

work to a higher goal if they know that their intensity level is being tested and if a percentage of

the class is based off of meeting specific intensities daily, they will ensure that they work harder

(Nichols, Davis, McCord, Schmidt, & Slezak, 2009). Now students will also know for when they

go out in the real world they know what their heart rate needs to be at for them to optimally burn

calories and they can self-assess their heart-rate based on prior knowledge to get themselves into

that moderate to vigorous physical activity zone. If they have the technology such as Fitbits,

Apple Watches, Garmin’s, etc. that can tell them how many calories they are burning and their

current heart rate, they will be able to utilize this technology as a tool for their own health in

daily living.
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References

Allyn Family Foundation. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.allynfamily.org/index.html

Clapham, E. D. (2008). An analysis of physical activity and elementary physical education

curricula using heart rate monitors and pedometers. Retrieved from

http://login.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/2124555

8?accountid=4485

Driscoll, L., G. Conner-Gray, B. (2008). Using heart rate monitors for effective teaching and

curricular accountability in physical education: a commentary. Retrieved from

https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Using+heart+rate+monitors+for+effective+teaching+and

+curricular...-a0180748342

Nichols, R., Davis, K. L., McCord, T., Schmidt, D., & Slezak, A. M. (2009). The use of heart

rate monitors in physical education. Strategies, 22(6) Retrieved from

http://login.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/2096880

8?accountid=4485

Partridge, J. A., King, K. M., & Bian, W. (2011). Perceptions of heart rate monitor use in high

school physical education classes. Physical Educator, 68(1), 30-43. Retrieved from

http://login.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1011398533?acc

ountid=4485

SPARK Physical Education Curriculum. (n.d.). Spark grant-finder tool. Retrieved November 7,

2016 from http://www.sparkpe.org/grants/grantfunding-resources/

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Tipton, J., & Sander, A. N. (2004). Heart rate monitors promote physical education for children.

Teaching Elementary Physical Education, 15(1), 14-16. Retrieved from

http://login.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/6200139

8?accountid=4485\