Making Connections Lab Report

Title: The effect of exercise on the amount of times a student can squeeze a clothespin

Question:
Does exercise affect the number of times a student can squeeze a clothespin in one minute?

Hypothesis:
If a student does not exercise before squeezing a clothespin, then they will be able to squeeze it more times than a student who has exercised.

Materials:
- stopwatch
-2 Clothespins
-Pencil
-Paper

Methods: Step 1-Have one student exercise while another student rests for one minute
Step 2- Have both students squeeze a clothespin for one minute
Step 3- Record data
Step 4- Have the exercised student rest for one minute
Step 5- Repeat twice more
-Dependent Variable- the number of times the student squeezed the clothespin
I-ndependent Variable- the exercise

Data Collection: Student | Number of times the clothespin was squeezed | Average | | Trial 1 | Trial 2 | Trial 3 | | Exercised Student | 115 | 140 | 155 | 137 | Rested Student | 85 | 95 | 100 | 93 |

Discussion and Conclusion:
The data collected during this experiment did not support my hypothesis. The student that exercised was able to squeeze the clothespin more times in one minute than the student who did not exercise since they had a faster pulse rate. A faster pulse rate means more blood is being transported to the student’s muscles quicker which is why they were able to squeeze the clothespin more.

Suggestions for Improvement:
The fact that the student who exercised might not have been completely returned to a resting state in between trials might make the data less reliable. In addition, the rested student might not have had a physical condition as good as the exercised student, which might be why they couldn’t squeeze the clothespin as many times as the exercised student. When performing and investigation involving humans, variables must be kept the same. If they are not, the collected data becomes less reliable. For this experiment, the weight, physical condition, and diet of the students being tested could have influenced the outcome.

Suggestions for Further Research: If the weight of each student being tested is recorded and compared after several trials for this experiment it could show a connection between weight and the amount of times a student can squeeze a clothespin in one minute. Similarly, the diet of the students being tested could show a connection if recorded and compared after several trials.