The Scientific Process
About one third of the people you ask about the scientific process will say that they think this particular part of science is boring. Another third of the people you ask will roll their eyes, and then continue the conversation, and the last third of people you ask about the scientific process, won't have a clue what your talking about. The scientific process is a way of describing to viewers about your experiment, by solving a problem. It has been in use since 384 BC, when Aristotle used it. Even great scientists use it to simply get themselves organized. So when your science teacher expects you to have a lab written up, including the scientific process, don't be surprised.
I was taught to remember the scientific process by PHEOC. The P stands for problem. In my project, Temperature Effects on Running, the problem was: What effect will temperature have on running? What will happen to the body in warm or cold weather? Will I be faster, slower, comfortable, or uncomfortable?
I thought this because, in cross country, our meets, were COLD! The problem is supposed to be an impact statement, telling why your project needs to be done.
The second letter is H, for hypothesis, or an educated guess. My hypothesis was: If I run in hot or warm weather, then I will feel more comfortable, and run faster. I think this because research on marathon Olympic runners show that a few more runners come from, trained in, and lived in warm climates. The hypothesis is an educated guess about what you think your results will be.
Next, is E as in experiment. The experiment is split into three parts, materials, procedure, and variables. The materials that I used were:
Two pairs of running shoes, two short sleeved shirts and tank tops and running shorts, a stopwatch, two locations with different temperatures, two water bottles
This section describes what you used to accomplish your tasks.
The procedure looks like this:
1. Gather Materials
2. Go to location
3. Time ourselves running one mile
4. Do assigned tasks (drink, stretch)
5. Take a break, get water
6. Record results (comfort level, time, tiredness, etc.)
7. Clean up area
8. Run again next day in same temperature as Step 2
9. Repeat steps 1-7
10. Run again next day in different temperature
11. Repeat steps 1-7
12. Run again in same temperature as Step 10
13. Repeat steps 1-7
The procedure is the exact order of things you are planning to do.
After the procedures, comes the variables. There are three types of variables used for the process. First, is the constant variables, which is everything in the experiment that stays the same, it is also the elimination of external variables. My constant variables were, readiness of people, stopwatches (using the same stopwatch), time of the day, and locations. I eliminated some of my external variables, like weather and physical features of locations, by staying in the same location, and running at night all four times. There were some, however, that I could not avoid, like body weight and physical condition of people.
Next, is the independent variable, which is the one variable you change in the experiment. Mine was the temperature that we ran in, because I had to change from hot to cold. Last, is the dependent variable which is like the one result that changes because of the independent variable. My dependent variable was the comfort level of the people running.
O, stands for observation. The observation section is reserved for graphs, tables, and data of the lab. My observations are graphs on a powerpoint, that are used in the Math post. I have tables, graphs, all made on Exel.
Lastly, is C for conclusion. The conclusion is basically where you describe your project and if your hypothesis was correct or not. My conclusion was:
Since I am a cross country runner, and my meets are usually freezing, I was wondering if there was a temperature that I would feel most comfortable running in. Also, a temperature that was good for my body. With a hypothesis that hot weather will be easiest, just from personal experience. I looked up some Olympic marathon runners, and where they came from and found that most were from mild climates, not too hot or too cold. This didn’t help me, so I did some tests and recorded them in a lab. I found that running in cold weather was less comfortable, but pushed us more. After that, I did some more research on the human body. I found out about certain leg muscles, how they are used, and what they need to work their best. I even found out something else, staying hydrated is one of the most important things about running. Without water, your muscles cramp up, making you feel less comfortable. The information worked out to perfectly go against my hypothesis. All of the information that I found on the human body helped me to figure out that our bodies work harder in the heat, which is why we ran better in colder weather, unlike my first thought . From my project, I can conclude that running in colder weather will help you to do your best, and although you will work harder, running in warmer weather is more comfortable.
The conclusion ends the scientific process. The process is easy to use, and I highly recommend you use it even when it is not assigned. It helped me stay organized and I learned along the way.
How To Run
Right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot. If you speed this process up, you are running! Wrong. How do you run, really? Picture someone running right now.
1. Raise one leg and extend knee
2. Move that leg forward and stomp the ground
3. Raise back leg, extend forward, and stomp ground
Easy, it is pretty much walking in a faster motion. Do you know how hard your body works to do such a simple task? Especially considering the weather. The warmer it is, the harder you body has to work to cool you down. It's first impulse is to sweat.
Eww, gross, sweating! You may think this, but sweating actually does help you, although controlling it is something that might help your peers. Your body lets the water inside of it raise up to the top of your skin, where you are hot. This way, it can evaporate, getting rid of some of your body weight, and as the air passes you, cooling you down. Just make sure you have enough water and salt in your system so you CAN sweat. When do you sweat? You sweat in hotter weather, when your body overheats. This somewhat proves that running in cold weather is a little easier for your body. This is putting it simply of course. If you need to know how, when, or why, I am definitely the person to ask. Keep watching for my scientific blog post.
Your body is getting happier with every word you read, believe it or not. Other than sweating, your body works hard to do these simple movements said earlier. Some of the muscles used in this process are your hamstrings and calves. These are probably the best known muscles of your legs, but they are actually groups of muscles. Flex your lower leg, or feel your lower leg when you bend your knee, and you will feel your calves. Now, flex your thigh or bend your knee and feel the back of your thigh and you will feel your hamstrings.
Your calves are made up of the gastrocnemius and the soleus.
These muscles also flex and rotate your heels, if they weren't strong, you wouldn't be able to lift up your calves from the ground at all. Some calf stretches that I recommend are touching your toes, and the lunge stretch. The lunge stretch can be done by placing your foot on a wall, facing the wall, and lean forward. The other way it can be done, is to lower yourself down into a lunge and push your hips forward, but keep your back leg straight. Without stretching out your calves before running, cramps you might get, will be even more uncomfortable, and it could lead to heel problems and heel and knee soreness, eventually.
The hamstrings are made up of the semimbranosus, and the semitendinosus.
With weak hamstrings, you could run, just not very fast. These muscles help you progress forward, by extending your hip and your lower leg. Confusing? Lean back using your back and relying on your thighs. Now try to run forward. It's difficult, also, without the bicep femoris, another muscle in the group, you would have some serious trouble trying to extend your knee. Some extremely useful stretches for your hamstring are the hurdle stretch, the splits, or as close as you can get, and simply touching your toes. The hurdle stretch is touching your toes, one foot at a time. All these stretches help to loosen up your hamstrings and make you more flexible for running. Without properly stretching out your muscle before you run, it could lead to knee injuries, or soreness in your knees and lower thighs for long periods of time.
The last muscle I am going to explain is the most important, Achilles tendon. It is not a muscle, however. The Achilles tendon is the tissue that connects the heel to the muscles in the calf. It is the strongest and thickest tendon in the body, and can often be confused as a muscle despite the name. It's time to exercise again! Push off your toes and then go back down to your feet about 20 times. Give it a few seconds and you will feel sore. This is not your tendon, but the muscles around it. Oh, and don't worry, the soreness will go away in a few minutes, hours, maybe. Some ankle rolls will help you loosen up.
When your heel touches the ground, it pulls on the tendons. This particular tendon supports your entire body weight when you push off the ground with each step. This is why most runners injure their tendons so much. If you push off the ground too hard, or explode, it will pull your tendon too far. The Achilles tendons get hurt easily, and the only ways to prevent them from getting injured is t rest them, and always be careful. If your Achilles tendon starts to feel funny, tell someone immediately, because it not a flexible muscle, or tendon, and once it starts, it gets worse, and worse.
As you can see, our bodies work super hard for us to do a simple movements, like running. So make sure you reward it, or train it at least. You can do this by sleeping and resting your legs and lungs. You can also stretch out your muscles so that they are ready to work. Or staying hydrated is always a good thing, to stock up on fluids so your body can sweat it off later. Thanks so much for listening, and I am sure your body will thank you too.
Math Math Math
Running is a lot of math by itself, but the real math happens when you finish. In a project like mine, I wasn't calculating the running, or the distance, although theses things are helpful to know. I was recording the amount of time running a mile took away, or added to my average in different conditions. The first time through, I decided to vomit all of my information into a table.
Order Blocks Temp Water Stretch Time
1 1 Cold no drink no 7.5 Sara 0.15
2 1 Hot drink no 8.01 Sara 0.26
3 1 Hot no drink yes 7.59 Sara 0.24
4 1 Cold drink yes 7.26 Sara -0.09
5 2 Hot no drink no 7.28 Dad -0.12
6 2 Cold drink no 7 Dad -0.4
7 2 Cold no drink yes 7.23 Dad -0.17
8 2 Hot drink yes 8.14 Dad 0.34
I realized it needed work, and my wonderful advisers pointed this out to me in my assessment meeting. Next, I took the times and changed them into fractions, the number of seconds over sixty, and then back into decimals, so that they made sense. This way it was easier to graph, and the graphs looked like this. Lastly, with some more of Mr. Giese's help, I changed and labeled the intervals, added labels to the sides, and titled the graph. I also changed the averages to decimals.
Now, I was confident and proud of my graphs, all I needed was an explanation. In these graphs, the intervals are measured by decimals, because the averages are in decimals too. If the number is negative, that means the time was subtracted from our averages. If the number is positive, it represents the time added to our averages. As you can see, there is a graph for stretching or not stretching and a graph for drinking and not drinking. These results are not typical, and my research shows that this shouldn't have happened. I am not worried, however, because if you look, the results are very, very close. Also, in the cold and warm graph, the results went perfectly with my research, and perfectly against my hypothesis.
If you were wondering, cold means 61 degrees and under, and hot means 70 degrees and over.
