Does your mom or dad like to have a cup or two of coffee in the morning? Does your sister have a cola habit? If so, they can help you with this experiment, aimed at discovering whether caffeine affects the rate at which a heart beats.

The basics of your experiment would be to measure and record the resting heart rate of your subject. You'd then have that person drink a cup of coffee, some soda, or other beverage containing caffeine. You can determine the amount of caffeine they'll be ingesting by reading the label of the soda or coffee can.

Wait for 20 minutes after the beverage has been consumed, and then recheck the resting heart rate. Just be sure that your subject sits quietly during and after the time he or she is consuming the caffeine. Exercising would cause the heart rate to increase, with or without the benefit of caffeine.

Ideally, you could do this with three or four different people, and conduct three trials for each person. Record your results, and see whether the caffeine affected their heart rates.

Introduce your pupils to the properties of caffeine and its effects on the body with this printable science activity. Pupils will monitor the heart rate of experiment participants while they consume non-caffeinated and caffeinated beverages.
Grades
5
6
7
8

Featured Middle School Resources

Test Prep Strategies and Practice for Students

ACTIVITIES

Test Prep Strategies, Tools, and Practice Questions

Help set your students up for academic success with this packet of test-taking tips, test preparation strategies, and pr...

Add to Folder
creative writing
children's book
activities
classroom tools
language arts and writing
vocabulary
Create new folderCREATE NEW FOLDER
History of Earth Day Reading Passage and Quiz

ACTIVITIES

Earth Day Activities: History of Earth Day Reading Passage and Quiz

Help your students work on their reading comprehension skills while learning all about Earth Day with this reading compr...

Add to Folder
creative writing
children's book
activities
classroom tools
language arts and writing
vocabulary
Create new folderCREATE NEW FOLDER
Elements of Poetry Workbook

WORKBOOKS

Elements of Poetry Workbook

Use this poetry toolbox workbook to support your students to learn different poetic terms and devices, and then practice...

Add to Folder
creative writing
children's book
activities
classroom tools
language arts and writing
vocabulary
Create new folderCREATE NEW FOLDER

Related Resources

ACTIVITIES

The Sweetest Experiment – Chocolate and Solvents

The town of Hershey, Pennsylvania, has a slogan in which it claims to be the sweetest place on earth.

Add to Folder
creative writing
children's book
activities
classroom tools
language arts and writing
vocabulary
Create new folderCREATE NEW FOLDER

LESSON PLANS

What Materials Make the Best Crystals?

Growing crystals isn't difficult, and it makes a great science fair project.

Add to Folder
creative writing
children's book
activities
classroom tools
language arts and writing
vocabulary
Create new folderCREATE NEW FOLDER

ACTIVITIES

Making Eggs That Bounce

Did you ever try to bounce an egg? Don't! Not until you read through this experiment, anyway.

Add to Folder
creative writing
children's book
activities
classroom tools
language arts and writing
vocabulary
Create new folderCREATE NEW FOLDER

ACTIVITIES

Making Invisible Ink

This simple experiment is great for young kids, but must be conducted with adult supervision because it involves using t...

Add to Folder
creative writing
children's book
activities
classroom tools
language arts and writing
vocabulary
Create new folderCREATE NEW FOLDER

LESSON PLANS

Determining Your Speediest Shoes

You probably have at least a couple of pairs of sneakers, or at least what used to be called sneakers.

Add to Folder
creative writing
children's book
activities
classroom tools
language arts and writing
vocabulary
Create new folderCREATE NEW FOLDER

ACTIVITIES

Do Odor and Bacteria Go Hand-in-Hand?

You know how sneakers get during those hot summer months when you wear them all the time, sometimes without socks? They ...

Add to Folder
creative writing
children's book
activities
classroom tools
language arts and writing
vocabulary
Create new folderCREATE NEW FOLDER
loading gif