Health-saving technologies in maths and physics lessons

Human health is a topic of conversation relevant enough for all times and peoples, and in the XXI century it becomes paramount. The state of health of Russian schoolchildren is of serious concern to specialists [1].

The health of a student is primarily affected by social and psychological adaptation, as well as the environment, parents, school environment and people. For people aged 6 to 17, the main environment is school, since children spend more than 75% of their time in a school environment. During this period, people are forming an individual's personal growth, development and formation of health for the rest of their lives, and the human body is most sensitive to all environmental factors.

One of the main tasks of a modern school is to preserve and strengthen the physical and mental health of students, to form a responsible attitude of children and adolescents to their health.

According to recent studies by educational researchers, the educational system reveals a number of factors that are detrimental to children's health.  Currently, 20-45% of children suffer from many illnesses (visual impairment, spinal curvature, postural disorders, stress, depression, etc.) due to the causes identified.

To combat these disorders, the researchers suggest:

1) Organize lessons that will be based on health promotion (the use of gymnastics, exercises, etc.);

2) The use of learning technologies that have a positive impact on children's health [4].

Studying at school is a serious burden for a student. Children do not move much, they sit in place for a long time, they have hypodynamia and static muscle tension increases. With each year of training, the need to process an increasing amount of information increases, and as a result, all this creates prerequisites for the development of various kinds of health abnormalities in children – impaired posture, impaired vision, the occurrence of hypertension, obesity. An important role in maintaining and strengthening the health of a student is played by a healthy lifestyle based on physical activity, rational nutrition, proper daily routine, and the absence of bad habits [3].

There are quite a lot of educational technologies. In addition, one of the main criteria for the quality of any educational technology should be a "certificate of safety" for health [3].

Many years a pupil spends within the walls of the classroom, and therefore a teacher and a pupil cannot form a valuable attitude towards health without a complex of work. A pupil can be considered to be in good health if he or she:

- Physically - knows how to overcome fatigue, his health allows him to cope with the learning load;

- Intellectually, if he/she has good mental abilities, observes imagines and learns self;

- Morally - honest, self-critical;

- Socially - communicative, understands humour and can tell jokes;

- Emotionally, he is well-balanced and is able to be surprised and admired.   

Nowadays, modern educators often use health-saving techniques.

Every teacher strives to constantly ensure that the mental health of his or her students is maintained at a positive level and that children's nervous systems are more resilient to deal with stresses [1].

The development of interest in mathematics and physics among a large number of pupils depends to a large extent on how they are taught, on how well the teaching is structured. I make sure that every pupil works actively and enthusiastically [4].

I incorporate not only the rational but also the emotional sphere into the teaching process. In neurophysiological and neuropsychological literature, the theory of functional asymmetry of the brain is widespread; it is treated in such a way that the right hemisphere is all artistic and intuitive and the left hemisphere all rational and logical. It should be taken into account that the right hemisphere perceives all new information, transmits it to the left hemisphere, leaving itself a copy in the form of images [4].

It is very good when during physics lessons pupils fantasize, imagine, think up an experiment - it helps not only to develop pupils' creativity but also to overcome tiredness, frustration and dissatisfaction, because pupils can, concentrate only on what is interesting to them. For example, I suggest that the pupils fantasize about making fire with ice. They start to think actively, they gain confidence in their abilities (because even the wrong versions are encouraged), and their negative attitude towards the teaching process diminishes. Anxiety is reduced. At the end of all the reasoning and suggestions I read to the children an excerpt from Jules Verne's "Captain Gutteras' voyage", where the same problem is solved by the doctor [3].

The teacher's voice and inner calmness are important for calming the nervous system and relieving tension. The teachers may suggest, if necessary, that the children close their eyes and imagine themselves in the forest after a thunderstorm, when it has just rained and the wet leaves on the birches are glistening and the grass is covered in silver drops. When the forest smells so good and it is so easy to breathe! Ask them to imagine lilies of the valley, lilacs and to inhale their wonderful smell slowly, steadily, deeply in order to prolong such pleasant moments of virtual stay in the forest.

In physical recesses be sure to include simple exercises for the eyes, as they not only serve as a prevention of visual impairment, but are beneficial for neuroses, hypertension. These exercises do not take much time and, as practice shows, are enjoyed by children. Children can perform vertical eye movements up and down; horizontal right and left; clockwise and anti-clockwise eye rotation; close their eyes and imagine the colours of the rainbow one by one as clearly as possible. Draw a curve (spiral, circle, broken line) on the blackboard before the lesson; invite the eyes to "draw" these shapes several times in one and then in the other direction. In upper grades you can perform polygon construction without turning your head, with one eye movement, looking for a geometric figure or a sign with a new mathematical term placed in the classroom [1].

As a rule, children are very restless and monotonous lessons tend to fatigue children quickly, especially in maths and physics lessons where they have to puzzle over tasks that they don't understand. In this case, the teacher should change the type of lesson so that children do not get bored. Often, moving audio-visual lessons where children move around a lot can be used, or clips from films and cartoons related to the topic can be shown to the pupils to relax the child's mental health [3].

However, this tactic should not be used too often. Frequent and rapid changes of scene lead to fatigue, not only mentally but also physically. Children will simply not be able to adapt to different types of lessons so quickly, e.g. every day. It is optimal to use this technique at least twice a week.

Also, as an option, one of the health-promoting techniques can be to offer homework with an active sport. When offering homework, the physics teacher could, for example, let the students run for 3 minutes around the house and time them. Will the pupil be able to complete, in what time, 3 laps around the house or school.

At the end of the lesson, the teacher may discuss not only what has been learned, but also what was liked about the lesson, what questions they would like to repeat, and what types of tasks they would like to do. It is useful to make mood charts during the lesson [2].

In order to carry out health education, it is not enough for teachers to obtain all pupils' health records from their parents at the beginning of school and to use the pupils' health characteristics to differentiate teaching material in the classroom, to encourage children to follow the doctor's instructions together with their parents and to introduce hygienic recommendations into the teaching process. A good teacher who cares about his or her pupils should at least give the children at least some physical breaks, exercises and active learning activities in nature, if there is a possibility to do so.

Above all, the teacher should set an example for the pupils on how to stay healthy. Only when a healthy lifestyle is the teacher's norm, only then will pupils believe in and accept the pedagogy of health promotion [2].

In conclusion, we can say that every teacher should have a good understanding of what his students are doing and why they are doing it, regarding their studies. Only if the teacher can change his attitude to the tasks of the learning process, he will be able to achieve his goals. As well as the correct use of health-saving technologies, they will be able to help him achieve not only didactic goals, but also the development of students with maximum preservation of health.

1. Abramova, G.V. Health-saving technologies at mathematics lessons [Electronic resource] / G.V. Abramova // Shkolny Naroda [Official site] - Mode of access: http://school11kgd.narod.ru/abramova.htm (date of reference: 19.05.2022).

2. Selevko G.K. Encyclopedia of Educational Technologies Volume 1 / G.K. Selevko. - Moscow: Scientific and Research Institute of School Technologies, 2006. 816с.

3. Shalkina S.V. Health-saving technologies on mathematics lessons [Electronic resource] / S.V. Shalkina // Sentyarbskiy fetival. - Mode of access: http://festival.1september.ru/articles/311946 (date of reference: 19.05. 2022).

4. Shalin, V. K. Technologies of exercises for schoolchildren / V. K. Shalin // Nauka i mire. - 2020. - № 4 (56). - С. 45-49.