But does the hearts work rate depend on what we are doing?
Aim: To extend my experimental skills by investigating an hypothesis relating to human physiology.
Investigation: To discover the effect of differing body states on the pulse rate of a 13/14 year old male. The body states are lying down, seated, standing up, jogging on the spot
Prediction: I predict that the more strenuous the activity, the higher the heart beats per minute (BPM). Therefore, jogging should be the highest, followed by standing, then sitting, then lying.
Variables: There are three kinds of variables, dependent, independent and controlled. In this investigation, the dependent variable is the BPM. The independent variable is the state in which the person is taking their pulse, i.e. standing, jogging on the spot etc. The dependent variable is the BPM (beats per minute). The controlled variable is the amount of time left between testing the BPM of two different body states.
Equipment: Graph paper
13/14 year old male
Stop clock
Chair
Method:
- Select activity (lying down, seated, standing up, jogging on the spot).
- Find pulse in wrist.
- Begin counting the pulse at the same time as starting the stopwatch and starting the activity.
- Time activity for one minute before stopping the stopwatch.
- Record the results.
- Wait for at least two minutes before repeating the test again.
- Record the information and take an average of the two BPM's.
- Transfer information on to a graph.
Safety: As with every Investigation, safety has to be taken in to consideration. With this investigation, particular attention should be given to the following aspects:
- If a person is asthmatic, ensure their inhaler is close by, just in case anything goes wrong.
- Make sure that when the person is lying down, their head isn't below anything that could fall, or near anything that could injure their head.
- If a person has a specific medical condition that forbids them to undertake any of the above activities, then DO NOT ATTEMPT TO CARRY OUT THE EXPERIMENT ON THE PERSON IN QUESTION.
Results:
Graph: See next page
Conclusion: In conclusion, this investigation shows that a persons BPM increases the more strenuous the activity is likely to be. This proves my prediction right.
Evaluation: I feel that the investigation ran very smoothly, however, if time had allowed, I would have liked to have run a few more tests to widen our information, in order for us to form a more accurate conclusion. For example, increasing the number of activities to test, and increasing the amount of times we tested the BPM.
