The effects of walking and geocaching on high school physical education students' heart rate

Abstract

Physical education teachers are looking for new ideas that will help their students learn how to be lifelong movers. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of adolescent students' heart rate while walking and while geocaching. 25 subjects were taught how to use Polar heart rate monitors and Garmin eTrex Legend H Global Positioning system (GPS). The subjects completed a 30 minute timed self paced walking course and a30 minute timed geocaching course. Heart rates were recorded continuously during both parts of the study. The study found the mean heart rates as percentage of heart rate reserve for walking and for geocaching showed a significant difference (p = .04), and the overall means and standard deviation were .6&.06 walking and .63*.07 geocaching. The study also that found percent peak HRR for geocaching and walking, showed no significant difference (p=.06), and the overall means and standard deviation were .7!&.12 for walking and .85*.14 for geocaching. The results suggest that the subjects worked at a higher frequency and for a longer duration while geocaching verse self regulated walking. The percent of peak HRR showed that there was no significant difference.