Elementary Pull-Out: Heartbeats

The Elementary Mathematician, COMAP's award-winning K-6 newsletter is available for the first time in electronic format. Each issue contains a collection of K-6 mathematic lessons that are fun to teach and exciting to learn.

Each issue of The Elementary Mathematician contains a Pull-Out section which includes thematic lessons based on the national census, wildlife, other cultures, technology, and provides a practical way to bring the concepts and pedagogy of the NCTM Standards into your classroom. 

Note: The information below was created with the assistance of AI.

Level of Mathematics
This activity is designed for 5th and 6th grade mathematics courses, with a strong focus on introductory statistics and data analysis.

Grade Levels: Primarily Grades 5–6

Mathematical Complexity: Low to moderate

It reinforces foundational concepts in data collection, representation, and interpretation

Encourages application of basic arithmetic, averages, and simple statistics

Prerequisite Skills
To successfully engage with this lesson, students should be able to:

Use a calculator for repeated computations

Understand and calculate:

Mean (average)

Median

Mode

Range

Collect and organize data systematically

Interpret numerical data and represent it using pictorial or bar graphs

Apply multiplication and time unit conversions (minutes to hours, days, years, etc.)

Application Areas
The activity integrates mathematics with several cross-disciplinary applications:

1. Health and Life Sciences
Students explore how physical activity influences heart rate.

Introduces the human circulatory system and healthy habits.

2. Data Analysis and Statistics
Students collect real-time data and analyze it through statistical measures.

Investigates relationships between physical traits (height, gender) and biological data (heart rate).

3. Physical Education
The activity requires walking, jogging, and jumping, linking PE and math.

4. Technology Use
Encourages use of calculators for solving real-world problems.

Reinforces technological fluency for mathematical computations.

5. Scientific Inquiry
Promotes hypotheses, experimentation (e.g., before-and-after physical activity), and interpretation of trends across time.

Subject Matter Overview
Mathematical Concepts:
Data collection: Students measure their heart rate under various conditions.

Statistical analysis: Compute average, range, mode, and median.

Graphing: Create pictorial or bar graphs to visualize data.

Unit conversion: Minute → hour → day → year → lifetime.

Hypothesis testing: Explore questions like:

Do boys and girls have different average heart rates?

Does activity time (AM vs PM) impact heart rate?

How do heart rates change over months?

Activities include:
Measuring heartbeat at rest and after physical activity

Analyzing changes in heartbeat due to exercise

Projecting heartbeats over a lifetime

Comparing personal data with family members

Correlation to Mathematics Standards
Common Core State Standards (CCSS):

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.5.MD.B.2: Make a line plot to display a data set of measurements; use operations to solve problems involving information presented.

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.6.SP.A.1: Recognize a statistical question and understand that a data distribution can be described by its center, spread, and overall shape.

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.6.SP.B.5: Summarize numerical data sets in relation to their context, including measures of center (median, mean) and variability (range).

CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP4: Model with mathematics.

CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP2: Reason abstractly and quantitatively.

NCTM Standards:

Data Analysis and Probability: Formulate questions that can be addressed with data and collect, organize, and display relevant data.

Connections: Connect mathematics to other subject areas and real-life situations.

Problem Solving: Solve problems that arise in everyday life.