People become easily frustrated when asked to learn information and skills they do not posses and the only way to posses them is to try, fail, and try again! I teach my Teen Health students how to take their own and other students' pulse. Finding the pulse and counting it is challenging for them.
My students are young adults, their bodies are outwardly changing and their minds are in a state of change no human being known to me has adequately described.
Our school is an urban middle school with 1800 students of diverse backgrounds. Some have traveled the world and others have never been in an airplane. I find most are eager to learn about their bodies and the health issues that correspond to their development. They especially benefit from lessons that enable them to move, use a number of their senses, socialize/work with their peers.
My Project
The best way I can explain this is to describe the lab. Thirty-three students and I go outside to the open grass yard of our school. I put them in groups of two or three and demonstrate how to take a wrist pulse and a neck pulse. I circulate among the students helping those having difficulty. Usually there are too many who can't find a pulse. People get off task and I run out of class time.
The heart rate monitors will enable all student groups to learn how to take a pulse. Those in the group having difficulty can use the monitor. They can check their count against the monitors and if they can't find a pulse the old fashion way, they can still participate in the lab by using the monitor.
Being successful in science and health class helps these young people take a more active role in developing a healthy body, healthy habits, and a critical mind.
The heart rate monitors are a one time expense that the students will use during the year and for years to come.
It gives them a means to succeed at the skill of taking their pulse. I observe my students have a low tolerance for frustration. They need small successes to keep them on the learning track. I can't predict where the point is in their life in which they accept learning means overcoming challenges but the monitors will move them closer by being successful in the pulse taking lab.
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