What was your first experience with Physical Education technology?
Bennett Ranch Elementary generously was loaned Heart Zones’ monitors during the 2019/20 school year. The loaner set was provided by Sandy Moore after we met at the SHAPE Colorado Conference. At the start of the 2023/24 school year, Mr. Wells met with Sal Edwards during the PE Tech Council meeting and started discussing the possibility of using heart rate monitors in partnership with the Foundation for Global Community Health.
What do you find most fun for you and for your students using Heart Zones Move Solution?
Ben remarks how “the ease of use is one of the best things about the heart rate monitors, all of the students at Bennett Ranch, Kinder-5th, can put them on and take them off without much issue.” Also, he has found the monitors to be durable and to hold up well with active students. Bennett Ranch has started to use the curriculum slowly to introduce the students to the different aspects of the heart rate monitors. Click on the images below to see how!
Describe your P.E. Program before and then after using Heart Zones… What changed?
Prior to having the heart zones monitors, the students focused on tracking their pulse through learning how to count from the body points. There were discussions on how to manage your breathing during activities to see how they are doing. Once the students had the heart rate monitors, the students took more ownership in how active they were. Now they continue to track their activity levels and are beginning to realize how important moderate to vigorous activity is for the every day.
"It is great to be able to see how active I am when I am in PE!”
~ BRES 5th grader
“My 1st grader is becoming aware of what his heart is doing and will say how his heart is beating faster!”
~ BRES parent
What challenges have you faced with Heart Zones?
One of the challenges that had to be overcome was having a place for the projector to be displayed for students to be able to see their data in real-time. Once Ben Wells created his projector cart setup, the students had more interest in using the heart rate monitors since they could see their own data in real time.
Funding is important. Share how you were able to secure the funding.
Currently Bennett Ranch is working in partnership with Heart Zones and the Foundation for Global Community Health to have the students at BRES use heart rate monitors to collect objective data and help students increase their own activity levels.
Ben Wells, the physical educator at Bennett Ranch Elementary, has 15 years of physical education at all levels K-12. He earned his Bachelors of Science in Sports and Exercise Science from the University of Northern Colorado and a Masters in Education with a focus on Integration of Technology in the Classroom from Walden University.
In 2016, he was named Secondary Teacher of the Year by SHAPE Colorado. Ben has been using technology in physical education in a variety of different ways from laptops, tablets, laptops, cameras, drones, interactive walls and more!
You can email Ben Wells at benjamin.wells@d49.org and follow him on Instagram @bresphysed or Facebook at BRES Physical Education.
Reach out if you’d like to visit to see all these PE tech tools in action at Bennett Ranch Elementary at 11243 Londonderry Drive in Peyton, Colorado.