HEART BEAT DETECTION experiment

As part of our inquiry topic this term we have been looking into the impact of Science in our world and in our lives.  An experiment we did this week, was we were learning to (WALT) find a way / ways in how we could find out how fast and how strongly our heart is beating.

As part of our research we identified that a pulse monitor is commonly used for this. We also looked at how the heart works (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHMmtqKgs50).

This is the main parts of the heart.

Here is how you can make a simple everyday pulse monitor.

You will need: toothpicks, some blu tack, pen and a timing device

1) Push the end of your toothpick into a blob of blu tack so that it will stand up by itself.

2) Find your pulse by feeling the inside of your wrist.  Mark the spot with a pen.

3) Put your hand palm up on a flat surface and carefully balance the matchstick on the mark.  Then watch the top of your toothpick twitching back and forth.  This shows your pulse rate which is the same speed as your heartbeat.  

You can do all sorts of activities to measure your heart beat, try the following:

• Measure how many times your heart beats in 1 minute / When you wake up measure how many times your heart beats in 1 minute.
• Do some form of exercise for 10 minutes flat, and then repeat the above step.  Compare your results from activity 1 and 2.

We continue to find out more about the heart beat / pulse rate and how champion sports people, measure their heart beat and use it to identify how fit they are.