Middle School Science Project Help

[[old] freestyle]

My 7th grade son is doing a science fair project and is interested in how exercise affects health. We have considered some basic questions -- i.e. How does gender effect heart-rate response to exercise. And how long does it take an average 7th grader's heart to return to normal after exercise. Of course, we plan to use the Concept 2 as the form of exercise, regardless of the question.<br />Does any one have any other ideas on how to incorporate questions about exercise into a science fair project? We would like to keep it simple (but interesting) -- the fewer variables, the better.<br />Thanks<br />

[[old] Citroen]

<!--QuoteBegin-freestyle+Oct 12 2005, 03:25 AM--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(freestyle @ Oct 12 2005, 03:25 AM)</b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Does any one have any other ideas on how to incorporate questions about exercise into a science fair project? We would like to keep it simple (but interesting) -- the fewer  variables, the better.<br />Thanks <br /> </td></tr></table><br /><br />Take a look at the schools stuff on the UK Concept2 website<br /><a href='http://www.concept2.co.uk/schools/' target='_blank'>http://www.concept2.co.uk/schools/</a><br /><br />Start at: <a href='http://www.concept2.co.uk/schools/guide.php' target='_blank'>http://www.concept2.co.uk/schools/guide.php</a>

[[old] ebolton]

Do you have a heart rate monitor?<br /><br />You could prepare graphs of heart rate versus time for a given rowing program for several people rowing the same piece on the rower. Then, pick one of them to row the same piece again keeping the identity secret from your son. See if he can identify the repeat rower by comparing the new graph with the previous graphs.<br /><br />I've got my own science fair story I may post under the "off-topics" section, because it has nothing to do with the rower.<br /><br /><br />Ed

[[old] jamesg]

Exercise is about the only thing that doesn't affect "health", whatever that may be.<br /> Smoking, drinking, overeating, lack of exercise, cars, desks, drugs..: now these sure have plenty of effect, but there are so many of them it won't be easy to disentangle the results.<br />Anyway, as is standard scientific practice, first you develop a theory, then you find a system to test it, then you demolish it and develop a better one.

[[old] bw1099]

Some thoughts from an experimental scientist...<br /><br />Keep in mind that there is a lot of variability between individuals. An experiment with say 10 boys and 10 girls would be better that an experiemnt with 1 boy and 1 girl.<br /><br />With human subjects, there are a lot of things that you can't do for ethical reasons. (Like putting one group on steroids, or even having one group eat a pile of cookies.)<br /><br />You want something interesting and fun.<br /><br />I like the relaxation of heart rate as a response. <br /><br />There has been a lot of discussion on this forum about strength vs power. Perhaps you could compare the performance of different types of athletes, and compare erg performance with how much they can bench press, or some other way of quantifying strength.<br /><br />bw