TITLE OF EXPERIMENT: WARMING UP TO SUCCEED BACKGROUND: Running and exercising is a huge part of every child’s life: it helps with proper growth, development, and general the general well being of a kid. It is important however, for them to understand how to maximize their performance and maintain a healthy body through a proper warm-up or stretching session. Going into an activity “cold” (no proper warmups) your body is nearly two times more susceptible to an injury (KidsHealth). Children need to understand how a proper warm-up can have a positive effect on their performance in this activity and everything beyond. A vertical jumping apparatus has been a key medium for measurement of athletic performance (Used regularly at NFL Combines). It would be perfect in this situation because the kids can see how a proper warm-up can affect their performance. Being able to see the correlation between performance and the proper warm-up will hopefully entice the elementary school students to change the way they prepare for an activity. OBJECTIVE: The purpose is to show the effects of warming up and stretching on physical performance. HYPOTHESIS: Warming up and stretching will affect the height that the student can jump. DURATION: 30-45 minutes SET-UP TIME: 5 minutes EXPERIMENT’S RUN TIME: 20-35 minutes
TAKE-DOWN TIME: 5 minutes MATERIALS: ● ● ● ●
Jumping Apparatus (If Available) If Not Available Meterstick Tape
Tanner Lines, Max Green, Chase Duncan
Deinhammer Anatomy
PROCEDURE: With Jumping Apparatus
1. First, have each child measure how high their arm can reach by using the vertical jumping apparatus. 2. Then, have them jump without prior stretching by using the jumping apparatus to measure their vertical. Record 3. 4. 5. 6.
the distance the child jumped. Subtract the distance found in 1 from the new distance and record in the third column. Repeat for all students. After they find their initial vertical, have the children participate in various stretches including touching the toes, the quad-stretch, and the groin-stretch. Allow the students to choose what stretch they would like to do. Do all these stretches for thirty seconds. After stretching, have the students jump again and measure their vertical. Subtract the distance found in 1 from this new distance and record the difference. Then, have the children participate in dynamic stretches consisting of soldier-kicks, high-knees, and heel-kicks. All for thirty seconds. After the dynamic stretches, have each child measure once again their vertical. Subtract the distance found in 1 from this new distance and record the differences.
Without Jumping Apparatus
1. First, have each child measure how high their arm can reach by using the meterstick and tape. 2. Then, have them jump without prior stretching by using the jumping apparatus to measure their vertical. Record the distance the child jumped. Subtract the distance found in 1 from the new distance and record in the third column. Repeat for all students. 3. After they find their initial vertical, have the children participate in various stretches including touching the toes, the quad-stretch, and the groin-stretch. Allow each student to do what stretch they would like to do. Do all these stretches for thirty seconds. Tanner Lines, Max Green, Chase Duncan
Deinhammer Anatomy
4. After stretching, have the students jump again and measure their vertical. Subtract the distance found in 1 from this new distance and record the difference.
5. Then, have the children participate in dynamic stretches consisting of soldier-kicks, high-knees, and heel-kicks. All for thirty seconds.
6. After the dynamic stretches, have each child measure once again their vertical. Subtract the distance found in 1 from this new distance and record the differences. FIGURES, TABLES, DATA ANALYSIS:
Student Name
No Warm-Up
Static Stretching
Dynamic Stretching
CONCLUSIONS: The height jumped was altered based on the stretching done to warm up. QUESTIONS:
1. How do you think stretching can help you in the real world?
2. How can you take this activity and use it when you are playing a sport or activity? Do you think the results seen here will also be seen there?
3. Are there any other stretches, dynamic or static, which you think could help in other ways for various activities?
4. Do you already stretch before and after various physical exercises? If so, which ones do you already use?
Teacher’s Notes
Tanner Lines, Max Green, Chase Duncan
Deinhammer Anatomy
● Ensure the proper form and technique for the static and dynamic stretches ● The procedure utilizing the tape would probably be the easier method to test with
● Be wary of possible injuries which could be induced by the stretches and/or jumping
● Higher Level students can come up with their own stretches that they think will benefit their vertical
● Make it fun for them from the start so they are into it, maybe show them a quick clip or make the activity be rewarded with a prize at the end
● Allow the students water breaks if necessary ● Change the amount of time for stretching as needed ● Make sure students put forth full effort so that results are not skewed
Is this experiment your original idea? Yes ___ No ___ If no, please explain how you modified the procedure from the original and where the idea came from (for example, the URL if a Web site; the title, author, and year if a book or article; the name and contact information if a person).
*The experiment should test an actual hypothesis (and not just be a demonstration).
Tanner Lines, Max Green, Chase Duncan
Deinhammer Anatomy
Tanner Lines, Max Green, Chase Duncan
Deinhammer Anatomy