How Heart Zones Helped Collect the Data
As fitness-focused technology pioneers and innovators, Heart Zones is on a mission to get America fit—and it starts in the classroom. Whether kids are engaging in person, or in a virtual or distanced learning environment, it’s important to provide PE teachers, schools, students, and families with tools that hold them accountable to do their personal best as they maintain healthy, active lifestyles.
That’s why we create innovative fitness technology software and data-driven programs that engage, assess, motivate, and empower students to pursue lifelong health. Using the Heart Zones Move app, our transformative group fitness system, we can provide students and teachers with an objective assessment of their personal fitness levels using heart rate and zone training to level the playing field. Finally, PE teachers are able to accurately and fairly assess students, and students can monitor personal goals and achievements in real time.
Heart Zones is routinely working to support and advance the physical education field by crafting programs and technology that works in both physical and virtual learning environments. We work tirelessly to fill the gaps in the industry, revolutionizing educational tools and providing accountability for programs as PE teachers tackle new hurdles like e-physical education. Our dedication to supporting industry advancement is also why we’re thrilled to read Dr. Nicole J. Smith’s research using the Heart Zones Move system. As an industry professional, Assistant Professor in the Department of Kinesiology, and Faculty Fellow in the Central California Children’s Institute at California State University, Fresno, aiding in Smith’s groundbreaking research is a privilege and honor.
In Dr. Smith’s academic article titled Using the Heart Zones Move Solution to Evaluate the Efficacy of Select SPARK Activities Implications for Practice, she uses the Heart Zones Move system to evaluate students’ participation in traditional relays and select activities from Sports, Play, and Active Recreation for Kids (SPARK), the world’s most researched physical education program that demonstrates positive outcomes associated with increasing MVPA and health-related fitness. In her paper, she describes her method using Heart Zones Move data to compare and contrast traditional relay activities with SPARK activities including Aerobic Bowling, Tag Team Traveling, and 4 Corners.
In Dr. Smith’s findings comparing Heart Zones Class Summary Reports for traditional relays and SPARK’s Aerobic Bowling, almost all students in the study recognized that SPARK’s bowling was more effective. Heart Zones technology captured MVPA%, showing it as much lower during traditional relays compared to SPARK’s Aerobic Bowling. Additionally, average heart rate during traditional relays was much lower in comparison after evaluating the Heart Zones summary data.
Next, when using the Heart Zones Class Summary Report data to compare SPARK’s Tag Team Traveling and 4 Corners activities, most students recognized that the MVPA% was great in both, but when faced with making a choice between the two activities, 52% thought Tag Team Traveling was best while 41% thought 4 Corners was best. Indeed, MVPA% was slightly higher during Tag Team Traveling, but average heart rate was higher during 4 Corners. Without the data to back it up, students’ claims and activity preferences would be difficult to understand—are students really getting the most out of their physical education program?
In this study, it was easy for students to recognize that SPARK lessons were more inclusive and fun, but it took Heart Zones data to prove that these activities actually drive better results and more health-enhancing MVPA. Without monitoring MVPA data using accurate technology, it would be impossible to evaluate individual effort, performance, and results.
Heart Zones gives teachers the data, knowledge, and skills they need to build more effective programs so that classrooms can be more supportive of students’ individual needs. We encourage you to learn more about Dr. Smith’s study and key findings by reading the entire paper.
Our team at Heart Zones would like to thank Dr. Smith for using our wearable devices and the Heart Zones Move system to gather data that contributed to this stunning research in her goal to advance the PE industry and its processes—we certainly share a common passion for our country’s PE teachers and students, so we appreciate her efforts.
If you’d like to learn more about Heart Zones Move and how it impacts and transforms classrooms, we’d love to invite you to schedule a free demo today.
Sources:
Smith, Nicole J. Using the Heart Zones Move Solution to Evaluate the Efficacy of Select SPARK Activities Implications for Practice. 2020. https://www.heartzones.com/smith_-using-the-heart-zones-system-to-evaluate-the-efficacy-updated/.