For our final experiment in Research Biology (revolving around physiology), we have decided to perform an experiment based on heart rate and physical activity. Lucia, Mary, Melissa, and I want to test whether or not there is a correlation between heart rate and height. Therefore, the purpose of our experiment is to determine whether or not being taller means having a higher heart rate after doing physical activity or vice versa. Our current hypothesis is that the taller the person is, the higher her heart rate will be after taking part in some type of physical activity. We think this because taller people most likely have a higher heart rate because their bodies will be working harder to keep them moving and breathing compared to shorter people because they are bigger in size. We are going to test our experiment by choosing a minimum of twelve junior girls at Emma Willard School and having them partake in two stair runs in our science building. We are going to check their heart rate (pulse) before they move up and down the stairs and after as well as timing how long it takes their heart rate to go back to its normal rate (recovery time). In order to get the most accurate results as possible, we want to have our subjects run up and down the stairs as fast as possible to really get their hearts pumping. We considered adding the athlete vs. non-athlete variable into our experiment but decided to not have that be a part of our experiment in order to keep it more simple. However, that could be a possible source of error in our data because athletes might have a better recovery time, and their heart rates may take longer to rise if their endurance is better than a non-athlete. We will obviously need to test girls who are different in height while having a mix of short, medium, and tall girls. More details and info to come!
Our procedure will look something like this:
measure height
check pulse for 30 seconds
have them do the stair run (up and down three flights of stairs two times)
check pulse for 30 seconds
time how long it takes to get to recover back to initial heart rate
record all info
No comments:
Post a Comment