4) (NAPS)—Physical education is scoring goals with parents by teaching students how to achieve and assess cardiovascular fitness. Since cardiovascular disease is the number one killer in America, this can be an important lesson. New technology is being used to promote lifelong fitness and safely monitor students’ physical activities. There have also been instances where a monitor has malt detected a student’s heart problem. Manyschools are purchasing equipment such as heart rate monitors to assess and document each student’s progress. The monitors read a student’s heart rate. Knowingthis, a teacher ean determine the proper heart rate limits so the student exercises in specific heart rate zones, qualifying the student for a grade based on reaching and keeping in those heart rate zones. “With heart rate monitors, teachers can now document progress using objective assessment rather than observation,” said Beth Kirkpatrick, a former physical education teacher and advisor to Polar which manufactures the monitors. “This prevents errors of judgement on student performance and effort. This was not possible before. Teachers relied on The use of heart rate monitors is helping to personalize physical education classes. subjective observation.” Monitors such as Polar’s new E Series wristwatch type monitors also record and store data that can be downloaded into a data base for teachers to create reports. These monitors are used in kindergarten through 12th grade physical education programs. “More than 10,000 schools have already found that Polar heart rate monitors provide the only means possible for quantitatively testing the success of a physical education program,” said Philippe Duleyrie, president of Polar Electro, Ine. For more information, call (800) 290-6330 or visit www. polarusa.com.
