Unit 5A: Keeping healthy Section 6: Measuring pulse rate
Objectives
Children should learn:
how to measure their pulse rate and relate it to heart beat
to repeat measurements of pulse rate
to represent data about resting pulse rate in a bar chart and to say what this shows
Activities
Outcomes
Children:
Ask children about the relationship between heart beat and pulse. Explain to children that pulse rate is measured as beats per unit time (minute). Show children how to measure resting pulse rate and ask them to take and record their own several times. Ask children to suggest why they didn't get the same result each time and why it is important to make several measurements. Ask them to contribute the result they think is most accurate to a class record of resting pulse rate. Help children to convert this into a bar chart where data is grouped. Ask children questions about the bar chart eg
Which was the most common range for pulse rate?
What were the highest and lowest pulse rates?
Were these very common?
describe the connection between pulse rate and heart beat eg the pulse rate tells you how many times the heart beats in a minute
measure their resting pulse rate several times obtaining reasonably consistent results
with help, represent data about pulse rate in a bar chart and interpret what this shows
Points to note
Children may focus on other effects of exercise eg feeling hotter. Teachers may need to re-direct their attention to the connection between exercise and increased pulse rate.
A graphing program or spreadsheet could be used to construct a bar chart.
This unit is divided into sections. Each section contains a sequence of
activities with related objectives and outcomes. You can view this unit by
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