With the grant funds provided from a Phase I STTR grant to Coram Technologies, Dr. Toft developed a novel method for teaching CPR in high schools, called “HEART CLASS” (www.Heart-Class.com). This interactive film has become the cornerstone for her current work to create more engaging and effective methods to teach CPR to the public, and to save lives.
The film depicts a realistic cardiac arrest in a basketball coach during team practice. The actors in the film choose to call 9-1-1, begin CPR, and use a defibrillator to successfully resuscitate their coach. The film was designed specifically for the high school classroom and available to stream online. HEART CLASS included a “Teacher’s Intro” instructions for how to set up the classroom. Teachers separated students into 2 teams, team HEART and team CLASS (Figure 1A). Each team had 4 groups of students (group 1, 2, etc.) who performed CPR during each of 4 opportunities in the film (Figure 1B).
Figure 1A. Classroom separated into 2 teams while watching HEART CLASS
1B. Graphic from Teacher’s Intro showing teams separated into 4 groups (group 2 highlighted) to perform CPR during HEART CLASS film.
The interactive film paused to ask questions of the teams who were watching (Fig. 2A), and in this manner taught proper CPR technique through interactive rather than passive learning (Fig. 2B). Students who were watching in a classroom performed chest compressions along with the heroes of the film as the drama continued. The only responsibilities for teachers were to “press play,” click the answer chosen by students, and then choose which team performed better CPR during each round.
Figure 2A. Example of team-based question from HEART CLASS, with scores for each team in upper corners
2B. Still image from HEART CLASS demonstrating CPR technique.
The film lasted 18 minutes, provided 4 opportunities for students to perform 2 min of CPR, and required no expertise from the teachers. HEART CLASS has been endorsed by the Kentucky chapter of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and received an “FWA of the Day” award from FWA, the industry leader to showcase cutting edge innovation in digital design and development. It has also been promoted by Teach For America (TFA), a non-profit organization that places recent college graduates into underserved high schools on short-term teaching assignments. The Appalachia chapter of TFA plans to implement this film in several high schools during the 2019-2020 school year. Furthermore, HEART CLASS will be implemented in many high schools in Alaska starting Fall 2019, with the support of the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development (DEEP).