Lab Report

SB1-03
2-15-2011
Introduction
In this laboratory activity, students will learn about, observe and justify the
connections between things related to biology. There were two parts in this lab, in
the first part, students will test their pulse rate and predict the connection between
the pulse rate and the physical characteristics and the effects of exercising on pulse
rate. In the second part of the lab, students will make a hypothesis of the
connection between the rate of clothespin squeezing and muscle fatigue, a
hypothesis stated for this experiment is that if a person squeezes a clothespin after
some exercise of his fingers, then he will be able to squeeze the clothespin faster
than the one who does no exercise before the squeezing. The students will also
design an experiment to test their hypothesis. After this lab, students are expected
to be able to observe and make connection between action and reaction.
Methods and Materials
Part 1
In this part of lab, thirty-three students' pulse rate was recorded by the
students themselves. The data was organized into a histogram, and the connections
between the majority pulse rate and the physical characteristics of the human body
were discussed. One of these connections were tested. The connection between
exercising and the pulse way was tested, students did a medium amount of activity,
such as knee bends, jumping jacks or push-ups, for one minute, then measured the
pulse rate. The results were collected into table form.
Part 2
In this par of lab, the students used clothespins to measure the efficiency of
their muscles on their fingers. The students were divided into two groups, one of
them supported that a person would squeeze more efficient if he or she did some
pre-execrises before the actual squeezing. The others supported that a person
would squeeze more times if he or she rested before the actual squeezing. Each
side had fourteen students, in the first group, they squeezed two times in total while
the other group squeezed only one time. Each of them squeezed for one minute.
The rate of squeezing per minute was collect and organized into table form.
Ziyi Lin

Period 4

Data
Part 1
Table 1
Pulse rate per minute

<51 51-60 61-70 71-80 81-90 >90

Number of students in this range 1

16

11

Graph 1
Part 2
Table 2 (Group 1)
1

135

60

130

100

215

230

200

208

158

120

180

230

140

150

120

110

130

120

10

200

190

11

258

187

12

111

107

13

122

110

14

199

178
Table 3(Group 2)

162

190

142

288

160

141

188

137

133

10

157

11

160

12

200

13

210

14

230

Discussion and Conclusions

In part one, the data shown that the majority of the students have a pulse
rate of 61 to 80. However, the pulse rate is not related to the height of the person,
at least the data does not show so. To justify this connection, that the height of a
person is related to his or her pulse rate, more measurements are needed to be
done. First, the height of each person participated in the pulse rate measurement
should be collected. Even so, thirty-three samples are not strong enough to justify
this claim, more samples are needed to prove the connection between height and

pulse rate. In part two, the data shown that the second group, which stated the
hypothesis as if the person rested before the squeezing, then he or she would be
able to squeeze the clothespin more times than the one who took exercise before
(table 1, table 2). In the first group, the amount of squeezing significantly decreases
in the second times they squeezed (table 2), this is because the muscle fatigue's
affect. The muscles tired after the first squeeze and created lots of waste chemicals.
There is no time for these wastes to go away from the body, therefore these wastes
remained in the fingers, therefore the efficient of squeezing decreases after
exercises.
A conclusion is that if a person rested before his or her exercises, then he or
she will perform better than the one who did not rest before the exercise.
Suggestions
In this lab, some possible sources of error are: counting error and the factor of
status of the person. However, these errors can be minimized by taking the average
of a large amount of people in the same period. For further experiment, students
can examine the connection between the pulse rate and the mood of the person, or
examine the connection between the physical characteristics and the pulse rate. For
example, to test the connection between the pulse rate and the mood of the
person, scientists could measure a person's pulse rate when they are happy and
sad, or at rest and watching horror movies. All in all making connection is a very
important skill to master and very useful in either daily life and scientific thinking.