HEARTS RACE IN SPORTS SCIENCE CENTRE

The launch of our new Sports Science Centre is redefining the way we teach health and fitness at Southern Cross Grammar.

Our newly launched Sports Science Centre has taken a shape of its own with state of the art equipment and technologies for students to partner their passion for Physical Education with science.

The recent installation of Heart Zones, a heart rate tracking software, has brought new opportunities to prepare Physical Education students for the many sophisticated pathways the field has to offer.

The software works with students wearing a heart rate device (in the shape of a smart watch) to track their heart rate in real time as they do a physical activity. The data connects to the large screen in the Centre, giving students and staff an overview of everyone's heart rates simultaneously.

"The introduction of Heart Zones is an exciting addition to our Sports Science Centre," Liam Ogden, the Head of Health and Physical Education, said. "With access to real-time data, the device opens new doors for our VCE Physical Education students to view, collect and analyse data, as data analysis forms a large component of the VCE Physical Education units."

2021 saw the launch of the Sports Science elective for our Year 10 students which sees students collect and analyse primary data from their own and others' physical activity to identify major fitness components and energy system contributions to refine and improve their performance in physical activity or sport.

"Our Year 10 Sports Science students are excited to incorporate the data from [Heart Zones] into their training programme as it not only tracks their progress but also feeds into what they are learning as part of the unit," Liam said.

The Health and Physical Education team are planning to introduce younger students to the software and teach them how to use it to set them up for further studies in the area in future years.

"We are planning to introduce the equipment to younger students from as young as Year 6 to Year 8 so that by the time they are in Year 11 or Year 12, when they are studying VCE or other Sports subjects, they will already be confident with using the technology and can get straight into analysing the data and applying it in their assessments and study," Liam said.

Introducing younger students to stateof-the-art fitness technologies such as Heart Zones and [training them] on how to use it goes beyond sharpening their fitness skills and training —it also prepares them for the exciting pathways in the Health and Fitness industries.

"Our installation of new equipment like Heart Zones shows our younger students, and senior students, that there's more to Physical Education than running around and getting sweaty," Liam explained. "By introducing students to data technologies and building their capacity in using these technologies, we open students to the many pathways in Physical Education such as Sports Science and sports rehabilitation."