How can you determine the intensity of the activity that you are participating in?
Day 1:
A Grades 7/8 Physical Education class was exploring the FITT principle and more specifically the concept of intensity. Mr. C informed the class that they were going to identify ways to determine the intensity of an activity. The learners had explored during a previous class the concept of intensity and that it refers to how hard you are working.
Mr. C instructed the class to get into partners or small groups and to begin walking around the gym. He chose to let learners make their own groups in turn creating an opportunity for conversation, keeping in mind that as the intensity of an activity increases the ability to carry on a conversation decreases. As the sound of music was heard over the speakers, the learners begin to walk and talk. This continued for about the length of a song. When the music stopped the learners stopped and stood where they were. (This was an ongoing practice that was used often by Mr. C; that is, music stopping was a cue to stop and listen for further instructions.)
Mr. C then asked the class, “What has changed since you began walking?”
The learners replied that they felt warmer, and their breathing rate increased, while some others identified no changes. One learner noted that their heart rate had increased.
Mr. C proceeded to ask if anyone else noticed their heartbeat increasing? He then demonstrated and gave the learners directions on how to find their radial pulse. Once the class had found their pulse they were instructed to count until Mr. C said stop. The learners counted for 15 seconds, and then said their number out loud.
Mr. C then instructed the class to jog with their group/partners when the music began again. If a learner could not sustain jogging, they were encouraged to speed walk. After about two to three minutes the music stopped again, and the learners stopped and listened. In the classroom, there were visible signs that the intensity had gone up—some learners were breathing heavier, some were flush in the face, and some were even sweating.
Mr. C then asked the class, “What has changed?”
The learners replied with responses such as heavy breathing, increased body temperature, sweating, and feeling their heart beating. Some even noticed that it was a lot harder to talk to their partner.
Mr. C again demonstrated and gave directions on how to find a radial pulse.
The learners found their own radial pulse and begin counting for 15 seconds. They said their number out loud and noticed that their heart rates had gone up.
Mr. C then had the class do one more activity. He instructed the class to run as fast as they could, this time, stopping the music after 30 seconds. The learners stopped and Mr. C instructed the class to find their radial pulse one last time. The learners began counting for 15 seconds and shouted their number out loud.
Mr. C then asked, “What has changed after sprinting?”
The learners responded with things such as they were sweating, they were very hot, they were breathing really hard, they could feel their heartbeat in their head, it was easy to find a pulse, and they could feel tightness in their legs.
Mr. C then asked, "How can you use these changes to determine the intensity of an activity?”
The learners were already aware of intensity zones, and they then connected these changes in their body to the changing intensity zones.
The learners were then required to complete an exit slip, reflecting on their own physiological changes that occurred. They were asked to write a summary of their body changes that occurred when they walked, jogged, and ran, and to comment on their new learning.
Day 2:
During the next lesson, learners continued to build on their understanding of intensity zones by completing a movement lab in which they explored intensity zones using only heart rate. They began by finding their resting heart rate and then worked through progressively harder tasks. They determined that intensity zones can be determined by your heart rate, and they began recognizing that walking, jogging, and running fall into different intensity zones.
Day 3:
After learners used the lab to strengthen their ability to find their heart rates, they begin grouping fitness activities and sports into intensity zones based on the physiological changes they perceived and their changes in heart rate. They learned that an activity/sport can be classified as high, medium, or low intensity based on the heart rate zone the learner can achieve while participating in that activity. In this lesson, learners were required to explore different sports/fitness activities and record heart rates during and after participation in these activities. Most learners were able to decide that basketball, soccer, and push-ups were a higher intensity than volleyball, baseball, and stretching based on their heart rates during and after participation (with some situational exceptions).
Upon completion of the study of Intensity, Mr. C continued in the next classes to focus on the types of activities and the amount of time you would need to participate in an activity to receive the maximum health benefits. Mr. C explained how certain health benefits can be achieved by working at an intensity level for a required length of time. He provided an example, explaining how a person who wants to run longer would need to work at a moderate intensity for 20 minutes plus. Or a person wanting to improve their speed would need to work at high intensity but for a short period of time (completing a 20-to-30-metre sprint for 10 repetitions).
After completing the focus on the FITT principle, Mr. C had learners use their physical education and health journals to refer to their work on SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, timely) goals. He asked the learners, “How can you use heart rates and intensity zones to create a fitness/lifestyle goal?” The learners had understood previously that movement was important and being active was essential. After their study of the FITT principle, they now understood that working at a higher heart rate was also important. They also now knew that the type of activity or goal determined the intensity zone one needed to work at.
As the class moved to wrapping up their study of this topic, he asked the class, “What activity would you choose if you wanted to improve your endurance?”
The learners responded with jogging, biking, walking, swimming, and so on.
He gave an example of a gymnast wanting to improve their flexibility, and said that they would work at a low intensity but would hold the activity for about 30 seconds.
He asked the class, “What activity would you choose to improve your flexibility?”
The learners responded with stretching and yoga.
Mr. C then explained that you could improve things like speed and power when you work at a high intensity. He asked, “What sports require speed and power?”
The class responded with a variety of answers like hockey, basketball, volleyball (jumping for spike), sprinting, long jump, weightlifting, and so on.
To finish class, he asked the class to review their fitness goals that they created previously, and encouraged them to make their goals more specific. He prompted, “If you want to improve your endurance, how will you do that? If you want to improve your speed, how will you do that? If you want to improve your flexibility, how will you do that?”
The learners came up with more specific goals to record in their journals and brainstormed for ways to make them more specific, as well as attainable, after reflecting on all of the deep learning they had done over the past few classes!
*These descriptors represent the dimensions of global competencies in physical education.
**These descriptors represent the dimensions of global competencies in health education.
