Pulse depends on height and weight of someone and how fit they are.
Daljit appears to be the fittest of the boys. He has the lowest resting pulse an duding the exercise his heart rate went up high to 155 considering he has a resting pulse of 55. As Daljit is very fit, his heart rate returned to 55 quickly in a very short time span of 10 minutes. This is shown by the straight line running from 20 minutes to 30 minutes. Daljit is the tallest and lightest of the boys which allows him an advantage of having little weight to carry in proportion to his height and his lungs taking in more oxygen to let his body work properly as he covers a larger surface area.
Stan is next in height after Daljit and although he shares the same weight of 60kg with Sean and Aaron who are shorter than him. Stan in turn has the next low resting pulse of 65 to Daljit’s of 55.
Sean is not fit. As shown on the table, he has the highest resting pulse.
Aaron is not fit either. He is the shortest and weighs 60 kg. This makes him heavier because he has a smaller surface area to spread his weight. The changes in Aaron’s heart rate are comparable to that of Stan, but I can determine that Stan is much fitter because he has a much lower resting pulse.
Anne is the fittest of the girls who took part in the exercise. She has the lowest resting pulse of 45 which already shows that she is fitter. She, like Daljit has the lowest peak rate showing that she wasn’t very tired at the end of the exercise and returned to her normal heart rate quickly.
Also, Anne is the tallest of the girls at 1.85 and light at only 50kg which is an advantage as she has little weight to carry for her height and making her easier to maneuver.
Rhona is the next fit girl in the pack. She is 0.05m shorter than Anne and weighs 5kg less. As shown on the graph, Rhona has the next low peak rate to Anne and her heart rate returned to normal quicker than Marj and Jane’s.
Marj is unfit. She is the heaviest of the girls and third tallest. She reached the highest peak rate of 145 of all the girls.
Jane is probably the least fit girl in the group. She weighs just as much as Anne but is much shorter than her with a difference of 0.25m. She has a resting pulse of 60 but didn’t return to her resting pulse after 20 minutes of concluding the exercise.
Both boys and girls started off with a high pulse rate because the lines on the graph are steep.
Rhona, Marj and Jane had similar results as shown by the graph. The lines are very close together and follow a similar trend. However, after all been given the same time span of 10 minutes for their pulse rates to return to normal after the exercise was terminated. It was clear that Rhona, Marj and Jane are fit respectively.
The order was determined by close study of their resting pulse rates and their pulses after 20 minutes of quitting the exercise. At 20 minutes on the table of results, Rhona’s heart rate had returned to normal- 55, Marj’s heart rate lowered to 65 with her original resting pulse being 60. Jane had decreased to 70 with her original resting pulse rate at 60. Since all their pulse decreased at a rate of 10, it was evident that Jane still had further to go before reaching her normal resting pulse.
Order of fitness
BOYS:
GIRLS:
Evaluation
If I were to carry out this investigation again, I would like to know the ages of the pupils. Although older does not necessarily mean fitter, I think it will help improve the reliability of the results. This is because; an older person would have or might have participated in more activities than a younger person and would be fitter if they were the type who does a lot of exercise.
The information we were provided with about the pupils does not include what the exercise involved. Knowing the type of exercise involved in the experiment would be relevant because some of the students might have a weakness at a particular activity which will be a total benefit for those who possess a natural ability or participate in the activity or something similar. For example, if the exercise was badminton, a tennis player will have an advantage over a football player as they can adopt their tennis skills to it, appearing to be better or fitter.
I think that the period of day and weather conditions will be important to know in this investigation. Performance and results will be affected if the exercise took place in the middle of the day in scorching hot sun or early morning in the cold, pouring rain. Knowing the period of the day the exercise took place will make the results more reliable.
Also, I would like to know the diet of the pupils. This will help make the results more reliable as fitness includes type of food, food composition and amount of food intake. For example, a non-smoker will have an advantage over a smoker because their lungs are fresher and work efficiently to its preeminent. Whereas the efficiency of a smoker’s lungs is reduced drastically by tar and nicotine intake which means they will exhaust quicker as their lungs won’t take in as much oxygen .
Alcohol and drug intake will affect lung capacity and other parts of the metabolism which will affect the results of the exercise.
Current medical and medical history of the pupils will be helpful to know. This is because an asthmatic pupil is likely to perform deficiently compared to a non asthmatic pupil. An asthmatic pupil’s heart rate is likely to go up and high quickly and return to normal slowly compared to a non-asthmatic participant.
To evaluate if the order of fitness I devised was correct, I would have the pupils participate in a series of activities which will take place at the same time, same place and under the same conditions. This will ensure that the results are reliable and can be consulted if the need arises. If the conditions are different or altered in any way, it will inevitably come to the merit of at least one of the pupils. An example is a situation where the pupils need to survive 15 minutes on a treadmill and do 25 star jumps. A pupil who does firstly 25 star jumps and then the tread mill activity will appear fitter than somebody who does firstly 15 minutes on the treadmill and then the star jumps. This is because the tread mill activity is more tiring than star jumps and doing the treadmill first will affect performance on the star jumps.
I would have the pupils take part in a Fartlek. Fartlek requires the pupils to walk for a set time, jog for a set time and then sprint. This will test their speed, agility and endurance. I will also have them run a set distance to test their speed. Swimming makes a great sport for them to take part in as it will test their speed, endurance and lung capacity. Cycling will also test their endurance, agility and suppleness.
