GRADE 7 LIFE SCIENCE​
How Does Your Heart Rate? Student Sheets
Cells mean living things
How Does Your Heart Rate?
Examining the Effect of Exercise on Heart Rate
We often hear in the news, “eat healthy and exercise more.” The reason everyone
should exercise is not necessarily to lose weight, but to strengthen their hearts. The
heart is a muscle and needs to be exercised just like the skeletal muscles in our bodies.
PURPOSE
In this activity you will determine the effects of exercise on your heart rate.
MATERIALS
●​ Timing device with seconds (stopwatch or google “timer” and you will find a
“stopwatch” option)
●​ Plenty of space for students to exercise
SAFETY ALERT
Watch your heart rate carefully. If you feel dizzy or short of breath at any time, please
stop the experiment.
PROCEDURE
1.​ In the space marked “Hypothesis” on your student answer page, write a
hypothesis statement in the “If-then” format that explores the effect of jogging
on your heart rate.
2.​ Each member of the pair should collect their own data. Complete the lab with
one partner and then continue through the steps repeating the procedure with
the second partner.
3.​ Practice locating your pulse by placing your index and middle fingers over the
carotid artery in the neck. This artery should be located just under the jawbone
on either side of the throat. When you can reliably locate your pulse you are
ready to begin data collection. A 10 second pulse rate will be determined every
30 seconds over a 3 minute period of jogging in place.
4.​ When you are ready, note the time on a clock, or watch, and jog in place for 30
seconds. After 30 seconds, immediately find your pulse on your neck. Watch
the clock and count how many times you feel your pulse beat during a 10
second timeframe. Your partner can watch the clock if it is too difficult for you to
count and watch the clock.
5.​ Record your data in the data table on your student answer page.
6.​ Once your pulse has been recorded, resume jogging for another 30 seconds.
After this 30-second interval, stop, and count your pulse beats for 10 seconds to
record your pulse rate. Continue this procedure until you have jogged for 6,
30-second, trials. This will give you a total jogging time of 180 seconds, or 3
minutes, in 30 second increments
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GRADE 7 LIFE SCIENCE​
How Does Your Heart Rate? Student Sheets
7.​ Partner #2 should repeat steps 2-6. When both partners have completed their
trials, record your information on the class data table as your teacher instructs.
HYPOTHESIS______________________________________________
If I jog for a certain amount of time my heart would start to increase .
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
DATA AND OBSERVATIONS________________________________
Seconds
Heart Rate per 10 seconds
25
30
27
30
8
30
30
11
30
15
30
31
r=
15
CONCLUSION QUESTIONS_________________________________
30
1.)​ What is the numerical value for your slope (a) _____________ and y-intercept (b)
25
________________.
2.)​ What happened to your heart rate as the time increased?
went up and went down.
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
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GRADE 7 LIFE SCIENCE​
How Does Your Heart Rate? Student Sheets
3.)​ Would time versus heart rate be a direct or indirect relationship? Explain your
answer.
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
4.)​ Another name for a linear regression is a “line of best-fit.” The correlation
coefficient ( r ) gives an indication of how well your points fit on the
mathematical line. When r = 1, or -1, there is a perfect fit and all data points will
lie on the mathematical line. Using your correlation coefficient ( r ), how well
does your data fit your line? Explain your answer.
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
___
5.)​ Look at the class data (boys vs. girls); is there a difference in the average heart
rate? Explain.
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
6.)​ According to the American Council of Exercise (ACE), a fit heart will beat less
times per minute than an unhealthy heart. Explain.
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
____
7.)​ List at least one variable that was not controlled in our experiment and how this
would affect the accuracy of the results.
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_____
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