Everything Life Sciences Grade 10

Investigation: Investigating heart rates before, during and after strenuous exercise

Aim:

To investigate your heart rate before, during and after strenuous exercise

Apparatus:

• Have a stopwatch

Method:

1. Work in pairs on the field and ensure you have a stop watch.


2. One partner performs the experiment and the other records the results. Partners then
   swap roles.


3. Take the resting pulse (known as the ’radial pulse’) rate before exercising.


4. One partner runs quickly around the field twice.


5. Immediately after the run take his/her pulse.


6. Continue to take his pulse every minute for 5 minutes.


7. Record the results and plot a graph using the data pertaining to you.

Results:

Record your results here:

Time Heart rate (beats/minute)

Before exercise (resting)

0 min(immediately after exercise)

1 min (after exercise)

2 min

3 min

4 min

5 min

Observations:

Draw a line graph to illustrate your results on the following axis(show the resting pulse rate

as a separate dotted line on the axis).

Conclusions:

Write your conclusion

Questions:

1. Write a hypothesis for this investigation.


2. Write down the independent variable.


3. Write down the dependent variable.


4. Name ONE factor that must be kept constant during this investigation.

234 8.2. Circulatory systems in animals