Education
Institute of HeartMath Funding Help

Program Descriptions

1. TestEdge®

TestEdge® is a proven, research-based learning readiness and test preparation program. It instills in students a solid inner confidence and motivation to succeed. Based on scientific research on the "physiology of performance," the program utilizes various HeartMath tools to help students overcome fear, indifference, and other emotional states which impede cognitive functioning. The program teaches students "Stress Smarts" and "Test Smarts" so that they can better access their academic knowledge. Pre- and post-data from controlled studies in Minneapolis and Houston reveal statistically significant improvements in both behavioral and academic measures among high school students taking graduate exit exams. Students have demonstrated effective problem-solving, focusing, and listening skills that shorten learning cycles and produce positive test results.

This supplemental program for middle and high school students can be taught in six to eight hours. The fully scripted lessons included in the teacher’s kit makes teaching TestEdge easy.


2. The emWave® PC/Mac Stress Relief System

The emWave® PC/Mac Stress Relief System is a scientifically-validated, interactive learning system that improves learning, performance, and behavior. It has become a cornerstone of both behavioral management plans and high-stakes test preparation. It’s an easy-to-learn educational technology that objectively monitors the heart’s rhythms and confirms when students are in a coherent mode—in sync. It helps students learn to self-generate physiological stability, a solid foundation for ability to focus, comprehend instructions and subject matter, and develop positive self-esteem.

Using the emWave PC/Mac, students learn how to stabilize their emotions and nervous systems at will—even when taking important tests that would otherwise cause high anxiety, robbing them of their mental clarity and ability to perform.

The emWave PC/Mac helps students reduce learning and performance blocks, such as test anxiety, poor memory recall, low motivation, and discouragement. This technology was created especially to help students get past behavioral and attitudinal gridlocks due to peer pressure, anxiety, and stimulation overload. This is why the emWave PC/Mac Stress Relief System benefits students in the home environment as much as in the classroom.


Features

  1.  
  2. Hardware

    1. The Hardware

    A rugged and reliable finger sensor continuously monitors your pulse and sends the information to the computer.

  3. Hardware

    2. Easy to Use

    The information is interpreted and displayed on screen as a real-time graph of changing heart rhythms. Students learn how their attitudes affect their heart rhythms and performance.

  4. Hardware

    3. Getting In Sync

    As students make internal shifts, they learn to stabilize their emotions and balance their nervous systems.

  5. Hardware

    4. Playing the Games

    Three interactive games engage the students as they learn to master their own physiology and reach the zone of effective learning and performance.

  6. Hardware

    5. Review Sessions

    Part of the fun of learning is to see individual progress. In this mode, students track their progress overtime as they learn to access their higher thinking skills at the times they need them most.


Minimum System Requirements

  • Pentium 90 MHz processor
  • Microsoft® Windows® 95, 98, ME, Windows NT® Service Pack 4 or Windows 2000, XP
  • 32 MB RAM
  • 90 MB free disk space
  • One available serial port (not being used by a mouse or other device)
  • CD-ROM drive

3. The Inside Story

The Inside Story booklet is full of information vital to the physical and emotional health of middle school, high school and college students. Drawing on the latest research in neuroscience and emotional physiology, this engaging and visually pleasing text helps students understand the interplay between their bodies, emotions, attitudes, and performance.

Designed to meet many of the national standards for health education and psychology classes, The Inside Story guides students through key ideas that promote healthy awareness and behavior, including a series of reflective activities and a research-based stress management tool called Freeze-Frame®, demonstrated to reduce emotional turmoil, anger, hostility, and depression.


The Inside Story

The Inside Story will…

  • Teach a research-based stress management tool
  • Improve attitudes and behaviors
  • Increase focus and achievement
  • Help students perform at their best

Engaging and student-centered…

  • Clearly written and entertaining
  • Includes the latest scientific research critical for the student health and well-being
  • Addresses standards in health education and psychology
  • Includes illustrations, diagrams, and student exercises

Content Standards Addressed by The Inside Story:

National Standards for School Health Education

The Inside Story addresses the following standards:

  • Students will comprehend concepts related to health promotion and disease prevention.
  • Students will demonstrate the ability to practice health-enhancing behaviors and reduce health risks.
  • Students will understand the variety of physical, mental, emotional, and social changes that occur throughout life.
  • Students will demonstrate the ability to use goal-setting and decision-making skills to enhance health.

National Standards for the Teaching of High School Psychology

The Inside Story addresses standards in all four areas of the Biopsychological Domain. These are:

  • Stress, Coping, and Health – identifies how stress reactions hinder our effectiveness and proposes alternatives that lead to a healthier existence.
  • Biological Bases of Behavior – addresses how the brain processes information and how the body adapts to the demands of its environment.
  • Sensation and Perception – examines how the brain makes meaning out of the physical sensations generated by the environment.
  • Motivation and Emotion – examines the drives and needs that direct behavior, including sex, thirst, hunger, and social needs, as well as the range of human emotions.

4. HeartSmarts®

Used in numerous schools across the US, the HeartSmarts’ program helps students manage stress, improve academic motivation and focus, and reduce conflict. In development for over ten years, HeartSmarts takes an in depth approach to character education for students in grades 3-8.

A Dade County, Florida, middle school has used the program as an elective course for the past six years. A case history is included above. A controlled physiological study conducted with the Miami Heart Research Institute along with a behavioral measurement carried out by the Institute of HeartMath demonstrated statistically significant improvements in a wide range of behaviors, including anger and stress reduction, family compliance, peer empathy, and academic motivation. The results were published in Integrative Physiological and Behavioral Science and later highlighted in an article published by Harvard University’s Advancement and Civil Rights Project called, Opportunities Suspended: The Devastating Consequences of Zero Tolerance and School Discipline.