The heart of the matter

Transition Times: A new science course stresses the importance of fitness

A new science module on the benefits of exercise was launched for transition year this week at Cork Institute of Technology.

Students of the new programme will attend a series of short lectures on the heart. It's not just a lot of biology, either: the lectures include practical demonstrations on taking pulses, respiration rates, blood pressure and simple fitness tests.

The module will be of particular interest to the thousands of students who are interested in careers in sports medicine and physiotherapy. It should also give unhealthy students a timely reminder of the importance of heart health.

"The concept of promoting the importance of exercise to a healthy lifestyle is very relevant in the context of the current public debate on obesity," says Dr Mark Glynn

of PharmaChemical Ireland,

a manufacturers' organisation,

who created the programme.

"Transition year can be an ideal platform to generate interest in science and encourage students to explore their science interests

outside the boundaries of the

Junior Cert or Leaving Cert

syllabus."

The sports-science

module is the second of

five modules in PharmaChemical Ireland's transition-year science programme, which was

launched last year. The first

module covered forensic science.

All the material is available free of charge from www.pharmachemical ireland.ie.