Posts Tagged ‘pedometer’

Six Things to Consider Before Purchasing Pedometers for Your Classroom

Monday, July 27th, 2009

By Matthew Bassett

Part 4 of a 4 part series.

While teachers may find pedometers to be a valuable way to incorporate technology and to provide motivation, there are a few drawbacks. All of these should be considered before purchasing a class set and when developing lessons.

  1. Accuracy. Pedometers are not always 100% accurate. A pedometer can be fooled into thinking its moving when it is not. Pedometers are not always accurate with counting steps from obese children. This is due to the fact that pedometers need to be perpendicular to the ground for the sensor to work and obese children might not be able to get that position on their waist band.
  2. Cheating. A student can easily cheat using a pedometer. Students will quickly learn that shaking the pedometer can add steps, even while sitting. Also, a student can tap the top of the pedometer to add steps.
  3. Expense. Pedometers are cheaper than heart rate monitors but they can still be in the $10-$20 for each pedometer. When this happens it becomes very expensive for a teacher to have a class set of pedometers. This will cause a teacher to need to share the pedometers with groups of students and rotate the groups every class period.
  4. Missing in Action. Pedometers can be easily lost or stolen. Since they are so small a pedometer that is dropped can be difficult to find. A student can easily walk away with one of your pedometers during class and forget that they had one on.
  5. Instructional Time. Tracking data can be slow. Even if you get your students to fill out their tracking forms in five minutes, it has still caused them to lose valuable movement time. The first few times they use a pedometer you will be spending time helping to get them attached to waist bands and reminding them how to reset the pedometer.
  6. Break downs. A pedometer will break or need repairs. Since pedometers are small they will break from time to time with repeated use. They will need to be replaced. Also, pedometers are run on batteries. These batteries lose power and need to be replaced.

Despite these problems, I’ve found pedometers to be useful in my classes. You want to be able to keep your investment for a long time and having thought through these issues will help.

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Integrating Pedometers

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009

By Matthew Bassett

Part 3 of a 4 part series.

After students have learned to use pedometers there are a number of ways that you can integrate them into different subjects or concepts.

Perceived exertion. A pedometer can be used to work on perceived exertion, another physical education standard.  A student can make comparisons to the number of steps taken to a perceived exertion chart.  This chart was originally designed to work off of a person’s heart rate but a teacher can guide students to a moderate activity (through steps) and can help the student make a judgment on their location of the perceived exertion chart.

Multiplication. A teacher can use a simple math integration for every lesson while using the pedometers.  A student who has learned their stride length can estimate how far they have traveled by multiplying the number of steps by their stride length.  The result will be the approximate distance traveled.  Having students figure out this simple multiplication problem can be a simple cross-curricular lesson.

Estimation. I have students run across the field and ask them to estimate how many steps they would take in order to travel that distance.  They can also use some of their own knowledge of their stride length and field length to determine an answer.  This involves using division to find their answer.

Graphing. Having students graph the information that you have written down through the the tracking of data is also a useful math lesson.  After a few weeks of using pedometers, a class period can be devoted to graphing the data.

Compare and contrast. A Language arts integration can be to use the data to compare and/or contrast different types of activities.  Any time that you can ask a student to write about what they have been doing helps to deepen their content knowledge in physical education and helps to integrate language arts as well.

These are just a few of the ideas I have used to integrate pedometers into physical education and other subjects as well.  The sky is the limit and I encourage the reader to be as creative as possible in attempting to integrate pedometers into their lessons.

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Eight Helpful Hints for using Pedometers

Saturday, July 18th, 2009

By Matthew Basset

Part 2 of a 4 part series.

After purchasing pedometers you should spend a lot of time learning how to use them yourself.  After you’ve become familiar with this new piece of technology, you should think about teaching cues that will be necessary.

Here are some helpful hints to think about:

  1. Storage. Make sure that you use a storage system for your pedometers.  You can use a pedometer storage chart that can be purchased from a physical education catalog or you can use a tackle box from a local fishing supply store.  The key is to have the storage organized (and even numbered) so that the students know exactly where their pedometer belongs.
  2. Markings. Make sure you have the pedometers marked. This will not only allow for the storage to be organized but it will also allow you to find out who hasn’t turned in their pedometer.  No one will admit to having lost a pedometer or that they forgot to put the pedometer in the storage box.  Knowing that the pedometers have marked numbers on them will allow you to find the missing pedometer and, more importantly, know who was responsible.
  3. Distribution. A teacher must have a way to pass out and collect the pedometers.  This still goes with the storage system but if you have one long line of students waiting for the pedometers you might be wasting valuable time.
  4. Tracking of data. You need to know how you are going to track the data. Will you have a master sheet for yourself?  Will the students write down their scores on their own tracking sheets?  You can save yourself some trouble by not having the data recorded the first few times.
  5. Placement. A teacher must teach the pedometer placement.  A student should wear the pedometer on the waistband or belt above their right knee. Having pedometers secured on their right sides will allow you to see if a pedometer has dropped accidentally.  Some students will need to move their pedometers around the waist to the side to pick up more movement.  These are all things that a few class periods of practice can help students work out.
  6. Responsibility. A student must be taught to be responsible for the pedometer.  This not only includes putting the pedometer away at the end of class but also includes how to use a safety strap with an alligator clip.  These straps are designed to help avoid a pedometer being lost from dropping of the waist.
  7. No touching. Students need to avoid touching the pedometer while in the middle of class.  Most of the students will want to look at their scores.  The pedometers will not gather data while it is open, at least not effectively.  Also, students can use their hands to hit the pedometer and cause the pedometer to count steps when the student is not moving.  Not only should we be teaching about personal responsibility and integrity but a teacher needs to have a rule to not touch or the student will lose the pedometer.  A student should NEVER take the pedometer off of their waist band until the end of class when it is time to return the pedometer to the storage system.
  8. Instructional time. Using the pedometer data can be a very helpful tool for the teacher.  In a typical class period how much do you talk?  This time talking is time that a student isn’t moving.  If you are able to use a pedometer that tracks activity time it can help a teacher determine if they are getting the most out of their students.  After realizing that a majority of my students were not moving for 20 minutes of my class period it was time for me to reflect on how to change my teaching practices.

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Three uses of Pedometers in Physical Education–An Introduction

Sunday, July 12th, 2009

By Matthew Bassett

Part 1 of a 4 part series on pedometers in physical education.

Pedometers have become an easy tool to use in physical education.  A simple pedometer will track the number of steps a person takes.  A more advanced pedometer can also measure activity time (time the pedometer is moving), distance traveled and even calories burned.  Before using a pedometer, a teacher must decide the purpose for its use in class in class.

First, pedometers can be used to track data.  A student who wears a pedometer can record the number of steps, activity time, calories burned or distance traveled.  A teacher can use stations and ask the students to use the pedometers to track a whole class period, sections of a class period or to compare different tasks over time.

Second, pedometers can be used as a simple technology integration. Technology integration can help motivate students.  This motivation can increase movement quality or quantity since students can see physical data about their exercise.

Third, pedometers can now be used to track moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA).  Some of the newest pedometers actually have an MVPA function but these are more costly models.  Using a simple guide of 100 steps per minute can help move a student into moderate physical activity. We can now start using this guide as a way to track MVPA with out students without having to use expensive heart rate monitors or having to trust that students are taking their pulses correctly.

No matter which reason, or reasons, for using pedometers, a teacher interested in using pedometers must first experiment with how to use them.

Next week: Part 2–Eight Helpful Hints for Using Pedometers

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