Integrated Project-based Learning: Combining PTE Standards and Academic Standards
Use this template for planning and sharing ideas for projects. This template is based on the 6 A’s:
Authenticity* Academic Rigor* Applied Learning* Active Exploration* Adult Connections* Assessment
Project /Title of Project / Fear Factor, Unplugged
Project Developed by / Shirley Hubbard/Becky Gummerson
E-mail Address / /
School / Cassia Regional Technical Center/Burley High School
Pathway / Small Learning Community/Academy / Allied Health/Mathematics
Course Title(s) / Health Professions/Algebra1
Time Frame / About 1 day (can vary)
Authenticity /
Briefly describe your project. Include the key question and provide an overview of what students do and learn. Tell why the question is meaningful to the students and where one might see a similar question tackled by an adult in the workplace.
Key Question / Is pulse rate a good indicator of “Fear or Excitement”?
Overview / This project will help determine the relationship between emotions, brain, and body. Student will learn how to take pulse rate and determine each participant’s resting pulse rate. A situation will be set up that will involve some type of emotional reaction. The pulse rates will be taken immediately after the activity. The data will be recorded and a comparison made for each participant. A suggested situation would be to participate in 3 different amusement park rides that temporarily may cause fear, anxiety, or a higher level of emotion.
Vocabulary/Key Terms /
List vocabulary words and key terms essential to student understanding.
Pulse/Heart rate, Physiology of Fear, “Fight or Flight Response”, Adrenaline, Sympathetic and Parasympathetic nervous systems
Active Exploration * Applied Learning * Adult Connections
/
What classroom-based, community-based, and career-based activities does the project involve? Include a description of the active exploration, applied learning, and adult connections in the project (as needed).
Active Exploration How does the project engage students in real investigations using a variety of methods, media and sources? What field-based work will students perform? How does student learning and service support active career exploration? Students will learn to take pulse rates; students will actually ride in an amusement park and take their pulse before & after and analyze their own data.
Applied Learning How do students apply what they have learned and researched to a complex problem (e.g. designing a product, improving a system, creating an exhibit, organizing an event). Students can apply what they learned into their own personal life; investigate medical professions; managing group data
Adult Connections Who from the community, workplace, postsecondary and/or industry partnership works with students on the project? Medical personnel could teach about brains, emotions, pulse rates.
Classroom Activities / Community Activities / Career ActivitiesInto: Discuss information in student packet on pulse rate values, and what happens in the brain and body when we feel afraid or excited.
Activity: Student will learn proper pulse locations along with learning how to count a pulse. With adequate practice the students will then go to a local amusement park and ride 3 designated rides. A pulse rate for each person before and after each ride will be recorded.
Assessment: This data will then be evaluated and conclusions drawn as described in student handout. / Medical personnel to teach proper evaluation of a pulse / Medical Professions
Academic/PTE Rigor /
Standards Use the space below to list the state content standards and PTE industry standards addressed by the project. (A list of the content standards is available at http://www.sde.idaho.gov/ContentStandards/default.asp. This page, which includes selected high school level standards, is designed to let you easily create a list of standards you are addressing. You may then copy and paste the list into this template.)
Idaho State Math Course Standards
Algebra 1
AI.2.1.1 Make decisions about units and scales that are appropriate for a given problem.
AI.1.3.2 Apply number sense to contextual situations and judge reasonableness of solutions.
AI.3.1.1 Represent linear patterns and functional relationships in a table and as a graph.
Orientation to Health Professions for Secondary Schools (HP 130) and Fundamentals for Health Professions Standards State of Idaho
3.0 Communications in Health Care
Given information about communication barriers, good listening skills, computer use,
telephone etiquette, and related careers, the student will be able to perform the tasks presented with a minimum of 70 percent accuracy.
5.0 Leadership and Followership
Given information about team building, problem solving, critical thinking, time management,
student organizations, and related careers, the student will be able to perform the tasks
presented with a minimum of 70 percent accuracy.
7.0 Medical Terminology
Given information about prefixes, suffixes, word roots, reading medical terms, abbreviations,
and related careers, the student will be able to perform the tasks presented with a minimum of
70 percent accuracy.
11.0 Anatomy and Physiology 11
Given information about the endocrine system, reproductive system, nervous / sensory
system, excretory / urinary system, gastrointestinal digestive system, and related
careers, the student will be able to perform the tasks presented with a minimum of 70
percent accuracy.
School to Career Competencies Please check (x) the competencies addressed by the project
[x] Communicate and understand ideas and information
[x] Collect, analyze and organize information
[x] Identify and solve problems
[ ] Use technology
[x] Initiate and complete entire activities
[x] Act professionally
[x] Interact with others
[ ] Understand all aspects of an industry
[x] Take responsibility for career and life choices
Student Goal(s) Once the project begins, ask students to generate one or two personal goals.
To be able to accurately take pulse rates.
To be able to manage basic mathematical data.
Assessment
How do you and the students know the project is a success? What are your criteria for measuring students' achievement of the disciplinary knowledge and applied learning goals of the project? What evidence do they use to demonstrate their progress? What deliverables do they need to complete prior to the final exhibition? How will students self-assess?
They will determine the relationship between resting pulse rates and fear and other emotions by analyzing the data gathered. Adequate time will allowed between rides so pulse rates can return to normal. The compilation data will be analyzed using bar graphs and other statistical methods.
Recommended Resources / Sample Products /
Software or Materials Needed
(Examples) / Students, amusement park access, watch, note pads & writing utensils
Teacher-Developed Materials
(Examples of materials that can be shared with other classes. Please attach samples.) / Math teacher needs to learn how to take pulse rate. Website is included in handout. Student Data Handout.
Student-Developed Materials
(Examples of products that can be shared with other classes. Please attach samples.) / Student handout that includes an introduction, the process and analysis.
Websites Used
(Examples) / www.sciencebuddies.org
Final Words
(In a sentence or two, highlight your project’s overall value.) / Learning to take pulse rates and analyze data for different
situations regarding emotions.
Teacher Tips/Extensions
(Use the first person to share a useful idea that helps with implementation and ensures success. Make it chatty, informal.) / Might be restricted to access to an amusement park at the proper time & need to come up with another type of situation to analyze. (See the handout for ideas.)
Extensions
(List any ideas for students who may want to go deeper into the learning standards.) / May want to evaluate not only a pulse rate but evaluate if there are changes in blood pressure.
Timeline /
What sequence of teaching and learning experiences will equip students to develop and demonstrate the PTE standards and the Academic standards?
· Introduction - 20 min.
· Learn to take pulse rates – 30 min.
· Go to amusement park – varies
· Analyze data – 30 min.
(Adapted from the Boston Public Schools Signature Projects.)
Activity: Fear Factor—Emotion & Pulse Rate Name______
Oh, were you ever scared! Your heart pounded, your breath rate shot up, your palms got cold and clammy. Fear does that to us.
GOAL: The goal of this activity is to determine if pulse rate is a good indicator of fear or excitement.
Introduction
Fear is much more than simply a reaction in your head. It's an automatic adrenaline rush to prepare us for fight or flight. Your whole body responds to fear, especially your heart. We've all experienced that familiar pounding sensation in our chests after someone or something has startled us.
But what happens when we are just mildly frightened, or even just a little excited about something? Does our heart rate change accordingly? In this activity, you'll find out. First, you'll need to set up a situation that temporarily makes the students a little anxious or scared. Then, you'll ask them to compare their heart rates before and after the stimulating event by taking their pulse.
Scientists have known for a long time that emotions like fear, anger, frustration, and anxiety cause the body to produce an automatic "flight or flight" response. This involves nerve and chemical signals that fire instant messages from the amygdala, a peanut-sized structure deep within the brain, to the heart, lungs, and other organs of the body whenever we sense fear or strong emotions. Additional nerve groups, called the sympathetic system, originate within the brain stem's medulla region and use adrenaline-like chemicals to stimulate the heart and accelerate its rhythm. Neighboring nerve fibers of the parasymphathetic system provide inhibitory signals to the heart and other organs to calm things down again, so we don't stay in a constant state of heightened alert. The balance between these two systems provides the right mix of up and down responses that keeps us safe and aware when danger is near or stress is present, and relaxed and calm after the stressful situation subsides.
Terms, Concepts and Questions
· Pulse
· Heart rate
· Fear
· Physiology of fear
· "Fight or flight" response
· Adrenaline
· Amygdala
· Medulla
· Sympathetic nervous system
· Parasympathetic nervous system
Questions
· What are you measuring when you take your pulse? What is a typical resting pulse?
· How is heart rate influenced by emotions like fear?
· What happens in the brain and body when we feel afraid?
· What causes the heart rate to increase during a "fight or flight" response?
· What are the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems?
· How do the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems interact to produce changes in our bodies during emotional and nonemotional times?
· What is the amygdala and what does it do?
Materials and Equipment
· At least 10 students to be involved in the activity (more is better)
· Amusement park with at least two or three very fast, thrilling rides
· Watch
· Notepads or paper
· Pencils or pens
Experimental Procedure
1. Find at least 10 students that will participate.
a. Tell them the day for your experiment and explain that you will be asking them to ride some fun but potentially scary rides at your local amusement or theme park.
2. Practice taking your pulse. For details on how to take your pulse, your teacher can teach you or you can go to http://www.nemahealth.org/programs/healthcare/heart_rate_pulse.htm.
3. Before the day of the activity, you might visit the amusement park and scout out the rides to choose those you will want to include in your experiment. Try to select three rides that vary in speed and scariness, and even consider including one ride that is very calm and slow so you have a broad range of rides in your experiment. Check your own pulse rate before and after the rides that you choose to see how you respond to them.
4. Have the students ride the three rides you selected. You can call them rides A, B, and C. Each time ask the students to take and record their pulse before getting on the ride and then again as soon as they can after they get off.
5. Be sure to have them stand still or sit a few minutes before getting on the next ride so that their heart rates have time to return to normal.
6. Ask them to also rate each ride A, B, and C from 1 to 5 for "thrill factor," where 1 is the least scary and 5 is the scariest.
7. After the three rides, collect the students' data.
Analyze Your Data
- Determine the change in pulse rate for each person for each ride by subtracting their pulse rate before the ride from their pulse rate after the ride.
2. Calculate the average change in pulse rate for all persons on all three rides.
3. Add up their "thrill factor" ratings for each ride and calculate the averages for all three rides.
4. Make a bar graph with three bars showing the average change in pulse rate for rides A, B, and C. On a separate bar graph use three bars to show the average "thrill factor" rating for rides A, B, and C.
5. Do you see any differences in the average change of pulse rate between the three rides?
6. Do you see any differences in the average "thrill factor" between the three rides?
7. Is there any correlation between pulse rate and scariness of the rides?
Variations
· If you don't have an amusement park close by, you can still do an experiment to evaluate the connection between emotions and heart rate. Try using short videos or sections of movies as your stimulus for fear or excitement. You could choose a scene from a scary movie or an exciting sports event, for example. As in the original experiment, ask your volunteers to practice taking their pulse rates before watching any video and then before and after each video screening.
· Could use blood pressure readings instead of pulse rates
“Fear Factor, Unplugged”
Student Data Sheet Name______
Resting pulse rate: ______
(take 3 times and average them for base rate)
1st Ride Title______
Pulse rate before:______
Pulse rate immediately after:______
Difference:______
2nd Ride Title______
Pulse rate before:______
Pulse rate immediately after:______
Difference:______
3rd Ride Title______
Pulse rate before:______
Pulse rate immediately after:______
Difference:______
Your Analysis: ______
______
______
______
______
______
______
______
Your data will be gathered and compiled with all others in the group and the questions on the previous pages will be answered.
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