1. ENGAGE:
   There are several ways to engage students in this activity. You could start by showing Better Health, which can be streamed from the the South Carolina Educational TV website or the Apple Learning Interchange to show your students the importance of good health. This could be followed by the hands-on activities Serving Size and/or Your Energy Needs in the Educators Guide. Start the Energy Challenge web activity with a story involving Norbert and Zot as astronauts going to Mars in need of exercise to maintain good health. You could discuss the relation between exercise, heart rate, and good health. Squeak, an engaging multimedia authoring environment, will grab the attention of young learners.
2. EXPLORE:
   In the Exercise Challenge, your students should explore different ways to make Norbert and Zot's heart rate average 100 counts per second over the 60 minute period of their exercise regime. For each different set of choices for the target heart rates for the six segments of their exercise regime, your students should explore the difference between the values in each segment to the average using the red bar above the graph. Next. they can explore and improve their ability to estimate. Finally, your students will explore how their heart rate changes as they exercise, the reliability of their data, and the effect of data gathering techniques. If you choose to do the extensions involving modifying Squeak, you can challenge your students to explore how the Squeak Exercise Challenge works.
3. EXPLAIN:
   Have your students explain the concept of average in their own words. Have your students explain the process of estimation. Have your students explain how they took their heart rate data and what they conclude from the data. To prepare students for their oral presentation, assign as homework the task to write out answers to the preceding questions. Encourage them to accompany their words with pictures they draw.
4. EXTEND:
   Close this window and follow the link in the Teacher Information area for a list of extensions with ideas ranging from straightforward to very challenging. You can modify the suggested extensions to fit the class time you have available.
5. EVALUATE:
   Have your students evaluate how reliable they believe their data to be and how their method of data gathering effected the results. Finally, go to the NASA CONNECT web site to have your students submit their data and plots and we will post them if they are good examples. They can save their HeartRate projects with their data and plot using the publish button on the navigator flap.