Form 6 took part in a cross-curricular maths and sports project where they participated in various different fitness exercises and usedÌýtheÌýstatistics gathered to analyse the results. They found out that fitness can beÌýbrokenÌýdown into differentÌýcomponents. Health-related fitness includesÌýstrength, muscular endurance, cardiovascular fitness, flexibility and body composition. Skill-related components includeÌýagility, coordination, reaction time, balance, power and speed.ÌýThe children looked at predictions using hypotheses and focused on the relationship between cardiovascular endurance and lung capacity, height and agility, and the comparison between height and jumping distance. All the fitness tests provided data which could be compared to normative scores. These normative scores are indicators of how the participant has performed in comparison to the general population.
The children took part in a variety of fitness tests including the Illinois Agility Test which comprises aÌýweaving running course, marked out by cones, which had to be completed in the shortest possible time;Ìýthe National Multi-Stage Fitness TestÌýwhich involves continuous running between two lines 20m apart in time to recorded beeps. The speed at the start is quite slow and, after a minute the speed steadily increases and the beeps get closer together. Another test involved theÌýStanding Broad Jump where, from a two foot standing start, the children leapt as far forward as possible, repeating the test several times to record the best distance.Ìý
A common method of testing lung capacity is to use the Peak Flow Meter but the pupilsÌýused balloons to calculate their lung capacity by measuring the circumference after one maximum exhalation. From the circumference, they calculated the radius and then substituted this into the formula for the volume of a sphere. The next step involved the children plottingÌýthe data they had collected from all four tests on scatter graphs and making conclusions based on the correlations they found. One pupilÌýremarked, "Some of the tests involved as much mental stamina as they did physical but they were all interesting to analyse in terms of our aerobic fitness, strength and endurance. It was a positive way to help us set our own health-related fitness goals and to use our maths skills at the same time to predict and then discuss the results."
