1)

Question: How fast is your reaction time?

2)

Research: Record your research here and where you found this information (your bibliographical information.) You need to not only research about human reaction times, you also need to research about tests you can perform to nd out your own reaction time. Research: Reaction time is a measure of how quickly your body can respond to a something happening around you. This is the steps of how your body reacts to something going on around you: Stimulus - Sensory Neuron - Spinal Cord or Brain Motor Neuron - Response One test that we can do to test our reaction time is a ruler drop test, one with just a ruler and another with a word added.

3)

Hypotheses If we do the ruler drop test to test our reaction then I think

that our reaction times are going to be 309 milliseconds because we researched and took other tests. 4)Materials List Ruler Partner Reaction time table 5) First Lab: Your partner should hold out a hand and extend the thumb and index nger so that they are 8cm apart. You should hold out a ruler, the end exactly even with your thumb and index nger. Next, Your Partner should drop the ruler, you should grab it Record and measure where you caught the ruler. Second Lab:

1. 2. 3. 4.

Monica Francis

Monday, 26 November 2012 8:30:23 AM Hong Kong SAR China Time

1. 2.

Agree on a word that you are going to use with your partner as a signal to catch the ruler Do exactly the same things as you did in the rst lab but while your partner is holding the ruler say random words, when they say the word that you had agreed on they will drop it. Variables: Independent: Adding in words

Dependent: What is our reaction time Controlled: Always put your thumb and index nger so that they are 8cm apart, Drop the ruler, Measure results after each trial, Have the same partner and Always drop it at random times so that it comes as a surprise. 6) Data and Observation Without Words:

Trial Trial Trial Trial Trial 5 1 2 3 4

0.21 The ruler was taking a long time to drop. 0.14 Faster than last time. 0.19 The same. 0.20 Took longer for me to react. 0.18

Average

0.184

Monica Francis

Monday, 26 November 2012 8:30:23 AM Hong Kong SAR China Time

With Words

Trial Trial Trial Trial 1 2 3 4

0.19 Just staring at the ruler. 0.22 Harder with sentences 0.19 used enter in a sentence. 0.18 The same,

Trial

Average

5
0.20 0.196

Summary: When we nished our lab we looked at our averages and compared with one another. When we tested with the word it tended to be slower this is because the words ended up confusing us. The lab without the words was a bit faster because we always focused on just catching the ruler.

7) Discussion Questions: With Nicolaus and Evan Q: Was one of your averages slower than the other? A: The 2nd test that they did was slower than the rst. Q: Which lab was easier for you? A: The ruler drop test was easier for them, because for the track test we had to get up really fast and it took longer. Q: Did it get easier as you nished each trial?

Monica Francis

Monday, 26 November 2012 8:30:23 AM Hong Kong SAR China Time

A: After trial one it got easier but at the end it got slower because they got more tired. Q: Was your answer similar each trial or did it go up and down tragically? A: Sometimes it changed a lot but other times it stayed the same. Was your hypothesis correct? Evan: My hypothesis was not correct because my hypothesis was o.09 seconds and it turned out that my reaction time was 0.04. Nicolaus: For my rst test it was pretty close but for my second test it was really far off.

Conclusion:
You might want to put the Hypothesis separate from the introduction, because it sort of blends with the introduction too well.

For this lab I studied human reaction times. I found my own reaction time and the average time of the average human. All this took place during the time span of half a week, I did this lab with Rachel, another grade 6 student. During this lab, I learnt about the steps that your body goes through after something happens and you need to react. Our hypothesis was: If we do the ruler drop test to test our reaction then I think that our reaction times are going to be 309 milliseconds because we researched and took other tests. My partner and I did a lot of research and found a paper dedicated to human reaction times that had a number of experiments and variations of one that we could do. They mentioned two different versions of the ruler drop test, so we chose

You should probably include them. Are these your errors?

the ruler drop test. Our variables really helped to do this experiment by reminding us to make sure that we kept things the same and that we needed to change things. While we were doing the test we shook the ruler a lot which cause it to spin around. Below is our data from our ruler drop test. We did two different tests, one without words and one with words. How the with words test works is the that your partner and you agree on a word to trigger dropping the ruler. Your parter then says random words but when they say the word that you agreed on your partner drops the ruler.

Monica Francis

Monday, 26 November 2012 8:30:23 AM Hong Kong SAR China Time

Without words.

Tria Tria Tria Tria Trial 5 l1 l2 l3 l4

0.21 The ruler was taking a long time to drop. 0.14 Faster than last time. 0.19 0.20 0.18 The same. Took longer for me to react.

Avera ge

0.184

With Words:

Trial Trial Trial Trial Trial 5 1 2 3 4

0.21 The ruler was taking a long time to drop. 0.14 Faster than last time. 0.19 The same. 0.20 Took longer for me to react. 0.18

Average

0.184

Our rst test that we did was easier because we didnt have to concentrate on listening to the words that your partner is saying, but with the other test it was easier because all we had to do was focus on when the ruler was being dropped, you can see this information in our tables above.
Again, you should put your hypothesis separate from your paragraph.

My hypothesis is: If we do the ruler drop test to test our reaction then I think that our reaction times are going to be 309 milliseconds because we researched and took other tests. Our

Monica Francis

Monday, 26 November 2012 8:30:23 AM Hong Kong SAR China Time

hypothesis was quite far off because I thought that my reaction time was going to be 309 milliseconds but my averages for my reaction times were 0.184 and 0.196. I was denitely faster than what I thought my reaction time would be. I researched our averages were combined by the researched the average human reaction time and the online test that I took to get an idea of how fast I was.

One of the most important things that I learned during this lab was that different people have different reaction times. When I was doing my ruler drop test with Rachel sometimes her reaction time was faster and sometimes mine was. The part that I enjoyed most was data and observation because instead of just sitting there and trying to research things on my computer, my partner and I got to actually do our experiment. I think that I need to focus more on research in the inquiry cycle because when we were doing research I only went to 3 websites and didnt get a lot of information. On the next lab I will probably try to research more on the topic that we are focusing on. I denitely enjoyed this lab because we got to choose our experiment and did nearly all of it by ourselves.

Websites: http:/ /www.humanbenchmark.com/tests/reactiontime/stats.php http:/ /www.radford.edu/jkell/Reaction%20Times.pdf http:/ /www.humanbenchmark.com/tests/reactiontime/index.php

Monica Francis

Monday, 26 November 2012 8:30:23 AM Hong Kong SAR China Time