The Beat of Life: Understanding Your Heart Rate
Human Health and Behavior- Grade:
- 7
- Teacher:
- Naomi Oesterle
To begin, our class started with brainstorming ideas. We asked: Does a person’s heart rate return to their resting rate faster after a period of light cardio (jogging) compared to a period of resistance exercise (sit-ups/weight-lifting). Our class came up with many possible variables that could affect our test and test subjects. For example, gender, age, consistent exercise, the time a person exercises for, and many more were all factors that could potentially affect our test. We gathered materials (stopwatches, pulse oximeters, and weights) and began testing. Test subjects’ heart rates were taken before they began exercising. Students and faculty members started with a light jog for one minute around the classroom. After one minute, subjects were told to stop jogging. We recorded the highest heart rate and the recovery time. We gave the test subjects a break and then began testing them for their resistance exercise. All steps were repeated for the test subjects’ exercise, but jogging was replaced with sit-ups or weight-lifting. After testing, we found that females and consistent exercisers had a faster returning heart rate. This information is important because it helps people learn about their cardiovascular health. Learning about cardiovascular health is important for the overall health of the body. If this experiment was to be conducted again we would change the exercises that were completed, and we would be more specific about the traits and habits of our subjects.
This is a stellar example of how to conduct a physiological study. Your focus on Heart Rate Recovery (HRR) rather than just maximum heart rate shows a sophisticated understanding of cardiovascular health. I was particularly impressed by your use of high-quality medical sources to frame your research and your ability to juggle multiple variables like gender and exercise type. Your finding that resistance training allows for faster normalization than cardio is a very interesting insight! You have demonstrated the precision, curiosity, and analytical skills of a true health scientist. Excellent work!
Very interesting project! You did a great job with the methodology and description of your work. The results and data visualization were also very well presented. Great job!