Teacher sheet · Ages 10–11 · about 45–50 minutes
What exercise does to your body
Lesson page: echoesof.science/school/exercise/ages-10-11/ · Pupil worksheet: echoesof.science/school/exercise/ages-10-11/print/
Learning aims
- Define physical activity and exercise.
- Know the guideline of an average of 60 minutes a day for ages 5 to 18.
- Use the talk test to judge moderate and vigorous effort.
- Name kinds of activity and their benefits.
- Plan and carry out a fair test measuring pulse.
Lesson plan
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
| 5 min | Starter: how does your body feel after PE? |
| 10 min | Read the text; demonstrate finding the wrist pulse. |
| 15 min | Pulse fair test in the hall. |
| 10 min | Results: bar chart of class means; discuss fairness. |
| 5 min | Quiz or the What kind of activity? game. |
Materials for the experiment
- A stopwatch or the classroom clock
- Space to move safely
- The record table
Safety: Leave space between pupils and use a non-slip floor. Pupils with a health condition follow their care plan and can be the timekeeper instead. Anyone who feels dizzy, unwell or in pain stops and tells the teacher. Pulse results are personal: no comparing or competing.
Common misconceptions
| Pupils may think… | Actually… |
|---|---|
| Exercise only counts if it is a sport. | Any movement that uses energy counts as physical activity: walking, dancing, playing. |
| Your heart beats faster because it is tired. | It beats faster to deliver more oxygen to working muscles. |
| Being out of breath is always bad. | Breathing harder is a normal response to vigorous activity and settles with rest. |
Worksheet answers
- The pulse rose more for harder activities (e.g. resting < walking < jogging < star jumps).
- Any two of: same length of each activity, same way of measuring, resting until back to resting pulse, measuring straight away.
- Aerobic: running, cycling, skipping. Muscle-strengthening: push-ups, sit-ups, climbing. Bone-strengthening: running, jumping.
- 30 × 4 = 120 beats per minute.
Quiz answers
- What is physical activity? Any body movement made by your muscles that uses energy. The WHO defines physical activity as any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that requires energy.[2]
- How much activity should 5- to 18-year-olds aim for? An average of at least 60 minutes a day. The NHS guideline is an average of at least 60 minutes a day across the week.[1]
- In moderate activity you can… talk but not sing. That is the talk test for moderate activity.[1][5]
- Which is a muscle-strengthening activity? Push-ups. Push-ups and sit-ups strengthen muscles.[5]
- You count 25 beats in 15 seconds. What is your pulse in beats per minute? 100. 25 × 4 = 100 beats per minute.[6]
- Why does your heart beat faster when you exercise? Your working muscles need more oxygen and energy. Muscles use oxygen to release energy; the heart pumps more blood to deliver it.[7][6]
Going further
Measure how long your pulse takes to return to resting after star jumps (recovery time). Keep results private and focus on what happens in the body, not on who is 'fittest'.
Sources used in this lesson
- [1] Physical activity guidelines for children and young people (NHS (UK National Health Service)): reliability High
- [2] Physical activity (fact sheet) (World Health Organization (WHO)): reliability High
- [3] Health Benefits of Physical Activity for Children (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)): reliability High
- [4] Physical Activity and Your Heart (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI, NIH)): reliability High
- [5] Types of Physical Activity (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI, NIH)): reliability High
- [6] Anatomy and Physiology, 19.4 Cardiac Physiology (OpenStax, Rice University): reliability High
- [7] Anatomy and Physiology, 10.3 Muscle Fiber Contraction and Relaxation (OpenStax, Rice University): reliability High
Full list with links and a note on each source's reliability: echoesof.science/school/exercise/sources/
Privacy: the lesson pages have no ads, no tracking and no cookies. Quiz answers and game scores stay in the pupil's browser. A short video for each age is coming.