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Measuring Heart Rate

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Open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday to Sunday
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1867 St Laurent Blvd, Ottawa, ON
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Measuring Heart Rate

Measuring heart rate
Download activity PDF

We all know the feeling of being sweaty, out of breath, and having a racing heart after a long run. In this experiment, find out how different types of exercise affect your body, and why these responses happen!

What you need

  • Stopwatch
  • Jump rope
  • Space to run
  • Paper and pen
  • Running shoes and gym clothes

Make it

  1. Change into gym clothes and put on running shoes.
  2. Place two fingers on the side of your neck, just under your jawline, or on your wrist. Can you feel your pulse?
  3. Using the stopwatch, count the number of beats you feel within a 15-second period. Multiply this number to figure out your beats per minute rate under normal circumstances.

Test it

In this experiment, you’ll test a variety of different exercises to see how they change your heart rate. The activities you’ll be testing are five minutes of running, jumping jacks, walking, skipping rope, and lying down motionless. To test them, perform each activity for five minutes, check your heart rate like you did in Make It Step 3, and then sit down for 10 minutes to allow your heartbeat to go back to normal. Then, you can test the next exercise.

Explain it

Exercise takes up a lot of energy, which is provided in a process called metabolism. When performing cardiovascular exercises like the ones you did, as opposed to something like weightlifting, the type of metabolism needed is aerobic metabolism. This type requires the gas oxygen (O2) to complete the process.

We breathe in oxygen, which our lungs send into our bloodstream. The role of our blood is to transport materials, and in this case, to transport that oxygen to the muscles that need it. The more intense the exercise (like running or jumping), the faster your heart needs to pump to get enough oxygen-filled blood to your muscles. The more rested you are (walking, lying down), the less oxygen is needed. The heart then slows down as to not waste energy pumping blood faster than it needs to.

Observe it

If you’ve ever gotten nervous before a presentation, a performance or a big game, you’ll know the feeling of your heart beating quickly and butterflies in your stomach. When your body thinks you might be in danger, the way it does when you start to feel scared of anything, it begins pumping more blood to your muscles and less to your guts. That’s the reason your heart races, and your stomach feels strange. This is called your fight or flight response — in scary situations, your body is preparing in case you need to run away or fight off an attacker. While in safe situations this response is just annoying; in emergency situations this bodily response helps you get yourself to safety.

Go further

Try this activity with friends or family and see if their heart rates are different than yours. Can you find any patterns? Some factors you could look at include their age, how muscular they are, and how often they exercise in an average week.

Measuring heart rate - materials
Measuring heart rate - step 2

Program Details

SCITECH
Canada Science and Technology Museum
Duration
75 minutes
Difficulty Level:
Easy
Program Location
Online
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  • View other programs related to Health & Wellness, Sciences, Medicine

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About Canada Science and Technology Museum

Canada Science and Technology Museum
The Canada Science and Technology Museum tells Canada's innovation story in an immersive, educational, and fun way.
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Contact Us

Canada Science and Technology Museum
1867 St Laurent Blvd
Ottawa ON K1G 5A3
Canada

613-991-3044
1-866-442-4416
contact@IngeniumCanada.org
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  • Plan Your Visit
    • Health and Safety
    • Hours
    • Admission
    • Location and Directions
    • Accessibility
    • Browse All Visitor Information
    • Buy Tickets
    • Online Resources for Science at Home
    • About the Museum
  • What's On at the Museum
    • Events
    • Exhibitions
    • Spaces and Studios
  • Bookings and Rentals
    • School Programs
    • Birthday Parties
    • Summer Camps
    • Venue Rentals
    • Travelling Exhibitions
    • Virtual Field Trips
    • Group Visits
  • Educational Programs
    • School Programs
    • Virtual Field Trips
    • Program Location
      • At the Museum
      • At Your School
      • Online
      • Browse all Educational Programs
    • Popular Links
      • 3D Educational Resources
      • Digital Learning Kits
      • Games and Apps
      • Online Resources for Science at Home
      • Tell Me About
      • Try This Out
  • Collection and Research
    • Research Institute
    • Research Projects
    • Collection Resources
      • Ingenium Collection
      • Collection Highlights
      • Conservation and Collection Services
    • Library and Archives
      • Library and Archives Services
      • Library Catalogue
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    • Open Access
      • Ingenium APIs
      • Open Data
      • Open Documents
  • Projects and Initiatives
    • Ingenium Channel
    • Curiosity on Stage
    • Women in STEM
    • Aquatic Science Initiatives
    • Climate Science
    • Innovation Storybook