Help students Learn How to Save Lives, While Having Fun

What's more impactful than empowering your students to save lives? The Be The Beat School Challenge will help your students learn lifesaving Hands-Only CPR and how to use an AED while competing with other schools for points and prizes!

WHAT IS THE BE THE BEAT SCHOOL CHALLENGE?

Students will tour through an online lesson with fun, engaging sections about how the heart works, recognizing a sudden cardiac arrest, performing Hands-Only CPR and using an AED.

Each time a student completes a section, they earn points for your school. The school with the most points in your division will win a prize package from the American Heart Association and gets a chance to create a music video to be featured on BetheBeat and in other American Heart Association materials. Best of all, it's FREE! Learn more about the challenge below, or register your school now.




  • EDUCATIONAL VIDEOS

  • AED TO THE RESCUE

  • HEART TREK

WHY COMPETE?

75% of cardiac arrests happen outside a hospital (like at home or even at school) this lifesaving information could be the difference between life and death of someone your students love. Moreover, the The Be the Beat School Challenge also supports National Health Education Standards to promote personal, family, and community health. Not only can the program integrate with your physical education, science, and health class curricula or CPR mandates, but it can help students:

Comprehend concepts related to health promotion and disease prevention
Use decision-making skills to enhance health
Access valid information to enhance health

High-resolution graphics, 3-D models, and dynamic quizzes give students a high-end digital learning experience while having a blast.

HOW IT WORKS

Schools will be split into 5 divisions based on enrollment. The school in each division with the highest completion rate per class will win. Each of the five winning schools will be asked to submit an essay, which will determine the grand prize winner.

The challenge begins mid-February and runs through April. Sign up now to start planning, so you and your students are ready to go when the competition begins!

WHAT STUDENTS LEARN

The school challenge offers videos, games and quizzes about recognizing a cardiac arrest, Hands-Only CPR, how to use an AED, and a 3-D exploration of the heart. Upon finishing the modules, students will have to answer a quiz in order to pass the section.

WHO CAN COMPETE

Any school, any class, or any individual student can compete the challenge. Principals or school nurses can register their school and encourage classroom teachers to make the challenge part of the lesson plan. Classroom teachers and school leaders can register their class to compete. Students can register and compete on an individual level earning points for their school, or can compete as a member of a classroom (we think it's more fun when everyone's working together to win!) The modules should take about 10-15 minutes to complete, depending on distractions and the student, of course.

In addition to schools and classrooms, student service organizations, leadership clubs and afterschool programs can also register for the challenge.


Register Now

Need help? Have questions? Click here.

Lesson Plans

Download Lesson Plans and materials to help you incorporate Be the Beat into your curriculum.

Celebrate Your
Students' Success

Download a certificate of completion once your students have completed the activities in the lesson plans or on the site.

CPR and AED Training


To take the learning further, the American Heart Association offers products designed especially with teens in mind. The CPR Anytime® all-in-one kit teaches the core skills of CPR in 22 minutes in the classroom or home. CPR in Schools® utilizes a modular format that can be taught over several class periods. Both programs utilize the research-proven Practice-While-Watching method to provide maximum hands-on time and improve retention.

Call 1-877-AHA-4CPR or visit the Class Connector to find an AHA instructor near you.

School Spotlight

Beginning in 2004, Open Door Christian Schools in Elyria, Ohio has been piloting a full-scale program to teach lifesaving CPR skills to students from Kindergarden through 8th grade. Students first learn about emergencies and how to make 911 calls, how to relieve choking and use an AED. In 6–8th grades they get a quick CPR course using CPR Anytime©. By high school, they take a CPR certification course under the guidance of health and physical education teacher Lowana Dunckel and school nurse Kim Shumate. Heartsafe Kids© is enthusiastically received by students and we believe it will pay big dividends in future lives saved.

Spotlight Archives

Nurses to the Rescue!

School nurses are a critical link in the chain of survival, providing crucial ongoing and emergency care for students.
Connie Carmany, RN, BSN, BA
Heartsafe Kids© Program Director

Chairman,
SCAA of NE Ohio
E-mail

Guest Column

Heartsafe Kids©: A model for addressing cardiac arrest in a community

Each year in the U.S., nearly 300,000 people suffer cardiac arrest outside hospitals, and most don't get CPR from a bystander. Without immediate CPR and defibrillation, a victim's chance of survival decreases each minute. For the past 50 years, adults have been taught CPR yet the statistics aren't improving.

I created Heartsafe Kids, an innovative, age-appropriate, reality-based, technology-rich approach to teaching lifesaving CPR and AED use in schools designed to help turn the sudden cardiac death statistics upside down!

From an early age, children will learn critical skills to help save a life which will be reinforced as they progress through school. By the time they graduate, we hope to have created a generation of CPR/AED-savvy students who have the confidence and willingness to save a life.

Through our Heartsafe Kids program, students learn the following skills:
  • K-3: Recognizing an emergency, 9-1-1/EMS access, obstructed airway, AED introduction
  • Grades 4-5: Review, choking prevention and relief, AED use
  • Grades 6-8: Choking prevention and relief, CPR with AED
  • Grades 9-12: CPR/AED certification, risk factors, healthy lifestyle
  • High School: Skill proficiency, mock rescues, emergency rescue system, mentoring younger students

Heartsafe Kids started in 2004 at Open Door Christian Schools in Elyria, Ohio. We now reach schools in a three-county area with the help of many partner and industry organizations.

So, why should you teach emergency lifesaving skills in schools?
  • To meet AHA or federal and state guidelines
  • Training can be integrated with other curriculum goals in health, safety, social studies, PE and technology classes
  • Students are eager and empowered by learning lifesaving skills
  • Helps build self-confidence and good citizenship among students

©Connie Carmany, All Rights Reserved
Guest Archives