Science Investigation - Keeping active

How does exercise affect pulse?

This scientific investigation looks at how different exercises affect your pulse rate. To take your pulse rate, place two fingers on your wrist and count how many beats or pulses you can feel for 30 seconds.

You can complete this on a plain sheet of paper.

Planning

1) Choose three exercises that you will complete and write them below (e.g. running on the spot, star jumps, throwing and catching).

2) How long will you do each exercise for?

30 seconds      1 minute       2 minutes      3 minutes

Prediction

Which exercise do you think will give you the highest pulse rate? Try and explain why you think this.

Results

Record your pulse rate before and after each exercise

Exercise	Pulse rate for 30 seconds before exercising	Pulse rate for 30 seconds after exercising

Conclusion

1) Which exercise gave you the highest pulse rate?

2) Why do you think that this exercise gave you the highest pulse rate?

3) Find out why your pulse rate increases when you exercise and write an explanation below.