Amelia came up with the idea. She also wanted to determine if all fruit snacks pouches had the same number of snacks within, but we decided that "heart healthy" fit much better into curriculum.
"Heart Healthy" began with this question:
"Which activities will raise my heart/pulse rate the highest?"
Our result, from the list of activities we came up with, was..... jumping jacks!
Does your elementary school child need a science project idea? Do you want something that does not require a lot of materials? This is a great one! It just takes some patience to do all the testing, but the bonus here is that it adds exercise into the child's day.
Here is a detailed list of materials and a procedure:
MATERIALS:
Ball, video game, and water bottle can be swapped out for anything based on the activities you choose. We selected the following activities: walking, jumping jacks, up/down stairs, lifting an object, playing a video game, passing a ball.
--
Stopwatch/Timer
(must
able to track 3 minutes and also 20 seconds)
-- Objects
for selected activities:
-- Ball to
pass
-- Video
game system
-- 20-oz
water bottle
-- Assistant
to count the participant’s heart/pulse rate
-- Paper and
pencil/pen to write the results
PROCEDURE:
-- Make a list of activities you will
perform
-- Perform an activity (other than
resting) and use a timer to track activity for THREE minutes
-- Immediately have the adult
assistant feel for your pulse and count the beats for TWENTY seconds and that number X 3 = your heart/pulse
rate or “beats per minute”
-- Write the result on your list next
to the activity
-- Over 5-8 days, perform each
activity and track heart/pulse rate immediately afterward.
Do not do activities
back-to-back; let heart rate slow before testing again.
-- Repeat each activity TWO times to
make sure your heart/pulse rate number is correct.
If the two numbers are very
close for the same activity, data is good. If numbers are very different for
the same activity, repeat that activity and count again until you have matching
data. This ensures that your count wasn't a mistake.
-- For resting heart/pulse rate, have
assistant count beats per minute in the morning.
-- When you have two close numbers for
each activity and resting, put each activity on a line to show which activity
had the highest number.
