BIOLOGY DEPARTMENT

Exercise 9:
INVESTIGATING HEARTRATE

The heart is the center of human circulation, and in turn, the lynchpin to proper circulation of
blood throughout the body. There are several facets to measuring the heart’s performance:
among them are heart rate, blood pressure, and stroke volume. Of these, heart rate is the
easiest to measure without specialized equipment. Many things can affect the heart’s
pumping rate. In this activity, we will investigate some of these factors.

OBJECTIVES

At the end of the exercise, the student should be able to:

● Map out which selected factors can affect heart rate
● Relate the physiology behind how these factors affect heart rate.

MATERIALS AND SPECIMENS

Volunteers Computer, Phone, or Console

Chair Stopwatch/Timepiece

Music Player Attached Worksheet

PROCEDURE

Effects of Age on Heart Rate

1. Sit down comfortably on a chair with your feet flat on the floor.
2. Put you index finger and middle finger on the inside of the wrist, below the thumb.
3. Count the number of pulses you feel within 15 seconds.
4. Determine the beats per minute by multiplying this number by four.
5. Repeat steps 1 through 4 to 3 more persons of different age group from you.
a. Infants: below 1 year old d. Adults: 20 – 64 years old
b. Children: 2 – 11 years old e. Elderly: 65 years old and above c. Teens: 12 – 19 years old

Effects of Various Stimuli on Heart Rate

6. Perform the pulse taking procedure in Activity 1 on a person while they are calmly sitting on a chair
doing nothing.
7. Allow them to do a certain activity and take their heartrate again.
a. While the person is sleeping.
b. Just after doing 25 Jumping Jacks
c. After playing any popular action videogame (Mobile Legends, Valorant, DOTA2, etc.) d. After
listening to their favorite song.

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e. After drinking coffee

8. To ensure the individual treatment’s do not interfere with each other’s results, you can perform these
on multiple individuals, or on the same individuals over the course of several days.

REFERENCES
Ziser, Stephen W. (2018) Anatomy & Physiology Lab Manual, Austin Community College.

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Exercise 9:

Name(s): Opog, Angelo C. Date Performed: May 23, 2022

Section: 06048
Instructor: Hannah Shane Soriano

RESULTS/OBSERVATIONS
Table 1. Relationship of Age with Heart Rate (you only need to fill up 4 rows)
Volunteer Age Radial Pulse (Taken Heartrate (Radial
(Years) Over 15 Seconds) Pulse × 4)
Infants: below 1 year old N/A N/A

Children: 2 – 11 years old 24 96

Teens: 12 – 19 years old 18 72

Adults: 20 – 64 years old 19 76

Elderly: 65 years old and N/A N/A

above

Table 2. Effects of Various Conditions to Heartrate

Volunteer’s Volunteer’s New %Change In
Initial Condition Heartrate (HR2) Heartrate
Heartrate (HR1) (HR2 - HR1) ÷ HR1
72 Sleep 77 6.94%

72 Jumping Jacks 104 44.44%

72 Video Game 92 27.78%

72 Song 84 16.67%
(Title: For Tonight - Giveon)
72 Coffee 116 61.11%

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 BIOLOGY DEPARTMENT

GUIDE QUESTIONS

1. What is the relationship between age and heart rate? How will this affect your consideration for patient
care?
________________________________________________________________________
Your resting heart rate— the number of times your heart beats per minute
________________________________________________________________________
while your body is relaxed and at rest— does not change significantly with age. But
________________________________________________________________________
when you exercise, it may take longer for your pulse to increase and longer for it to
slow down afterward. Your highest heart rate with exercise is also lower than it was
________________________________________________________________________
when you were younger. Hence, we should be more careful of elderly patients
________________________________________________________________________
considering their changing physiological and behavioral patterns.
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

2. How do the various conditions affect heart rate? What is the purpose of the changes in heart rate (i.e.
Why must heartrate change with regards to jumping jacks?)
________________________________________________________________________
When our body experiences conditions such as extreme temperature, having
________________________________________________________________________
cardiovascular disease, feeling stressed or anxious, increase in activity level, it can
________________________________________________________________________
maintain a stable blood pressure and constant body temperature in part by dialing the
________________________________________________________________________
heart rate up or down. Therefore, when you do exercises like jumping jacks, your
________________________________________________________________________
heart beats faster since your muscles need more oxygen and nutrients as a fuel to
________________________________________________________________________
power that increased circulation.
________________________________________________________________________

4Biology Department: Human Anatomy and Physiology Laboratory