Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

We have found a new project and could use some specific help. She wants to test the effects that music has on blood pressure. Her constant would be girls 13 years old and her change would be music styles. She would take the resting heart rate and then in a controlled setting play the same song/same length of time for each girl. The first time it would be classical, then the next time we would test rock and then the third time test inspirational music. All three types of music would be at different times/days and all would start with the resting heart rate. Do you have any suggestions to help her with this project? Or do you see anything that we would need to change or consider?

Hi there,

I moved your new post to a new topic, so that Experts will recognize it as a new thread.

This is a great project idea! One question I have is whether your daughter plans to measure blood pressure, heart rate, or both. You mention blood pressure initially, but then discuss heart rate as the dependent variable (variable you measure).

I would suggest conducting the tests at the same time of day. Heart rate and blood pressure can vary with a person's body rhythms, which change throughout the day. Taking measurements at the same time of day will help to control for this.

I would also suggest that your daughter ask her subjects whether they liked, disliked, or had no opinion about the music they heard (after the measurements). It would be interesting to see whether a person's preference for the music type affects how her heart rate responds.

I hope this helps. Please post again (in this new thread!) if you have more questions.

Heather

Her teacher has replied to this project and says that it needs to only be one person that you test with 4 different music types. She said if you test more than one it would be several projects. My question is dont you have to have more than one individual to take an average? Kenzie wants to do a group (4) 13 year old girls, all the same age and gender but she wants just one individual. Can you help me understand why she wants just one? the answer to your question is that we will only be testing blood pressure they dont want both tested due to complicating the experiment. We respect the teacher but they told us if we had questions to come here so I just am trying to understand. It seems like there are a lot of rules I was not aware of.

Hi!

As I understand it (perhaps the other Experts can clarify if I'm incorrect), I think the teacher is trying to ensure that each person is tested for all 4 types of music (with adequate time intervals in between, of course) to make sure results are more reliable. However, I think that several individuals should be in each group, since a larger sample size always produces a more accurate picture for results.

Hope this helps.

I understand what you are saying and that is what I was trying to get at but her science teacher told her only one person should be tested with each music on different days. No groups of different ages and not even one group of all the same age and gender JUST one individual. You would get the result for how that individual reacts on a given day to music but would not have anything to compare it to. This is why I asked if you should have more than one individual. We will abide nr the rules set but just wanted an understanding on this. It doesnt seem very scientific with just one individual being tested. Thanks for your time.

I agree with SciBuddyAK. This is an odd rule for the teacher to enforce. However, I think you can still take a BP reading before and after listening to music and compare. Not ideal, but work with what you can do.

Cheers,
Colin

Thanks for your input.

Hi,

I agree that is is unusual for a teacher to insist there only be one individual in the study. However, you could still do replicates for the same person. That means you could take your measurements for the same type of music on different days for the same person. That will allow you to see if the differences among the music types are consistent. For example, if you measured 4 music types on 3 different days, you could do the project in 12 days. Then you would have an average (from 3 trials) for each music type, which would increase the likelihood that any differences you observe are actual differences.

I hope that makes sense. Good luck!

Heather

Great advice from Heather. I fully support that plan.

Cheers,
Colin