Muscle and affecting running project
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Wheties820
- Posts: 4
- Joined: Fri Apr 18, 2008 1:38 pm
- Occupation: Student
- Project Question: Adrenalin and running or cold and hot in running
- Project Due Date: 5/6/08
- Project Status: I am just starting
Muscle and affecting running project
Could i do a project about running timed in different temperatures or is that too many variables
Re: Muscle and affecting running project
You could certainly look at the effect of temperature on something about running--can you tell us a little more about what it is you're planning on doing?
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HeatherL
- Former Expert
- Posts: 895
- Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2005 3:59 pm
- Occupation: Professor
- Project Question: How do different animals adapt to their environment?
- Project Due Date: N/A
- Project Status: Not applicable
Re: Muscle and affecting running project
Hi Wheties820,
You have an interesting project idea! Let's think about what your variables would be. It looks like your independent variable will be temperature. You will have to think of a way to have your subjects run in different temperatures. You will then have to define your dependent variable; it looks like you're thinking about the dependent variable being the time it takes to run a particular distance.
When you ask about "too many variables," you may be thinking about what we call uncontrolled variables. The goal is to control as many things as possible. Here are a few things to think about:
- It will be best to keep your running distance the same for all your subjects.
- If temperature is the variable you want to examine, you should avoid using different times of day, because people perform differently at different times of day.
- You will want to watch out for a "training effect." If you have the same people run your race multiple times, they may get better (run faster) in later races. You may not be able to control this, but you should at least mention it in your Discussion. One way to "control" for this is to mix up the order of things: have some people run in cold first and then warm, and others do the opposite.
I hope you are not overwhelmed by these suggestions.
Please share more about your plans, and we'll do our best to help you!
Cheers,
Heather
You have an interesting project idea! Let's think about what your variables would be. It looks like your independent variable will be temperature. You will have to think of a way to have your subjects run in different temperatures. You will then have to define your dependent variable; it looks like you're thinking about the dependent variable being the time it takes to run a particular distance.
When you ask about "too many variables," you may be thinking about what we call uncontrolled variables. The goal is to control as many things as possible. Here are a few things to think about:
- It will be best to keep your running distance the same for all your subjects.
- If temperature is the variable you want to examine, you should avoid using different times of day, because people perform differently at different times of day.
- You will want to watch out for a "training effect." If you have the same people run your race multiple times, they may get better (run faster) in later races. You may not be able to control this, but you should at least mention it in your Discussion. One way to "control" for this is to mix up the order of things: have some people run in cold first and then warm, and others do the opposite.
I hope you are not overwhelmed by these suggestions.
Please share more about your plans, and we'll do our best to help you!
Cheers,
Heather