Health: Heart Demonstration Using a Tennis Ball

Health: Heart Demonstration Using a Tennis Ball

Dick Moss, Editor, PE Update.com

A tennis ball can help you demonstrate just how hard the human heart works to supply your body with blood.

Have your students squeeze a tennis ball in one hand. This is about the same amount of force it takes the heart to contract and push blood through the body.

Then have them squeeze the ball 60 times in one minute. Instruct your students that this is how hard the heart works, every minute of the day.

For some perspective, at 60 beats per minute, the heart beats 3600 times per hour, or 86,400 times per day. (If a student wants to try squeezing the ball 86,400 times, by all means, let them try).
       
References:
1. “Taking Heart.” Phantastic Phinds for Phys-Ed, Volume 4, Number 6, 1994.
2. Rinehart & Winstgon Holt, Holt Lifetime Health, Steck-Vaughn Company, 2009.


To download the pdf version of this
article, click here: Download Now



© 2012, Physical Education Update.com, www.peUpdate.com

Bookmark and Share

Printer-Friendly Format