Heart monitors coming to Cohoes High
Wristband heart- rate monitors to help achieve best performance
COHOES, N. Y. » Physical education teachers at Cohoes High School will soon have a new tool to help students exercise as efficiently as possible.
The Cohoes City School District recently received a $ 650 Game On grant through Action for Healthy Kids, one of 300 schools in 12 states and the District of Columbia to share in funding to expand student access to in- school physical activity and healthy foods and improve knowledge and behavior involving exercise and nutrition. The district will use that funding to buy wristband heart- rate monitors to be used during physical education classes.
Physical education teachers at the high school, including Dominic Bondi, believe the monitors will help students get the most of the exercise they get in class.
“We hope that it increases participation within our class for a couple reasons,” explained Bondi. “We can set those heart- rate monitors for a certain target level so the kids can get to their target heart- rate zones, which is like their activity level. … Also with the bands, they’re Apple compatible, so with the computer, they pick up the band, put it on, they hit something and that checks them into my class. Once they check, in that monitor is activated.”
Bondi said students at the end of class will be able to see a minute- to- minute chart of their heart rate over the entire class.
“I can utilize that technology and information to send an email, which is connected to our students through Google, and our parents, so the parents of the student can have a weekly assessment of how the student is doing in physical education,” said Bondi. “We can set that up daily, weekly or monthly.”
The grants, funded by CSX Transportation and ranging from $ 500 to $ 1,000, can be used for a variety of wellness purposes, including physical activity components, such as funding for physical education, active indoor and outdoor recess, classroom energizers, walking and running clubs and beforeand after- school programs; and nutrition components, such as education, school gardens, taste tests and healthy classroom parties and celebrations.
“The funding from CSX connects schools with much- needed resources for their wellness initiatives and acknowledges the impact of physical activity and good nutrition on children’s health and learning,” said Rob Bisceglie, CEO of Action for Healthy Kids, in a news release. “Partners like CSX are not only helping us to make positive changes at the local level through school grants, but also to drive a greater national focus on the importance of health and nutrition in schools.”