Moran

Changing Body Proportions: Lab

Problem: How do the body proportions differ between adolescent male and females? Research: The ancient Greeks believed the perfect body was completely balanced. Arms and legs should not be too long or short. A persons head shouldn’t be too large or small. The extra-large muscles of a body builder would have been ugly to the Greeks. Infants and young children have much different body proportions than adults, and teenagers often go through growths spurts that quickly change their body proportions.

Hypothesis: The girls in my class are taller than the boys. These girls are maturing faster than the boys in the class.

Materials: • • • •

Tape measure Erasable pencil Meter stick Graph paper

Procedure: •

• • • •

In the data table in the Data and observation section, record the gender of each person that u measure. Measure each persons head circumference by starting in the middle of the forehead and wrapping the tape measure once around the head. Record the data. Measure each of the persons arm length from the top of the middle finger while the arm is held straight out to the side of the body. Record the data. Ask each person to remove his or her shoes and stand next to the wall. Mark their height with an erasable pencil and measure their height from the floor to the mark. Record the data. Combine your data with that of your classmates. Find the average of head circumference, arm length, and height. Then find the averages for male and female.

Make a bar graph of your calculations in step 5. Plot the measurements on the y -axis and plot all of the averages along the xaxis. • Calculate the proportion of average head circumference to average height for everyone in your class by dividing the average head circumference by the average height. Repeat the calculations for male and females. • Calculate the proportions of averages arm length to averages height for everyone in your class by dividing the average arm length by the average height. Repeat this calculation for males and females. •

Observation: My Table Data Gender Male Male Male Male Male Female

Head Circumference 55 56 59 55 56 58

Arm Length 70 71 70 67 78 67

Height 158 158 166 157 175 155

My Table Averages Gender Male Female

Head Circumference 56 58

Arm Length

Height

71 67

163 155

My Class Averages Table #

Male Head Circumference

Female Head Circumference

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Total

58 56 55 N/A 57 54 N/A 56

54 58 55 54 53 53 57 55

Male Female Male Femal Arm Arm Heig e Length Length ht Heigh t 72 67 164 155 71 69 163 155 73 69 162 161 N/A 72 N/A 158 68 65 158 158 71 63 168 156 N/A 72 N/A 161 71 68 163 158

Analysis: As we did this lab I noticed many things. First of all, in my class the adolescent males had a bigger head circumference. They also had a longer arm length and a longer height. Since we calculated these data’s correctly we got the data we wanted. When we tried to measure the head circumference, arm length, and height we had some errors. In my group we hardly made any mistakes. The only thing we did wrong was that we recorded the data in the wrong section. For example, the average male height was recorded in the male average height. In the closing stages, we fixed those errors.

Conclusion: I really benefited from this body changing lab. When we were wrapping up I found out that my hypothesis was wrong. It was the adolescent males who were maturing faster. Although my hypothesis was wrong I enjoyed this lab. My favorite part was when we scrutinized the data. We found out that the adolescent female are maturing almost the same time as the adolescent males. If you ever intend on doing this lab be sure to carefully record the data and measure it correctly.