Science Project

My son did one where he had about 8 swimmers drink water during a workout, and another group drink gatorade. These were the upper age-group level swimmers. Then at the end of practice, he had them swim a 50 yard event where they had a recent race time that they knew. The measurement was: how far off the race pace was each group. Its far from perfect science. But the kids were very interested in helping out, as was the coach. Their practice lasted about 1 hour, 30-45 minutes. Anything less than that, I doubt there would be any difference. Good Luck!

How old is Mini-Stud? Mini-stud is 10. It has to be presented at the science fair...so I guess if it's in the water it could be filmed. I am sure my daughter will love the prospect of presenting her father in a Speedo to the school...serious negative cool points... :rofl:

UUHHHH but you're "SwimStud" . . . ergo speedo should be just fine.

OK, how about this: Get one of those bathroom scales that measures body fat percentage. Take it to a Masters workout and an age-group workout. Record each swimmer's percentage of body fat. Then have each swimmer get into the deep end of the pool. Have the swimmer try to float, vertically, with his arms at his sides. Look for a correlation between percent body fat and how deep they sink when they try to float. The hypothesis would be that the higher the percentage of body fat, the higher they will "float". I suggested the Masters and the age group kids because I am assuming that you'd see higher body fat percentages among the Masters, and lower ones among the age group kids.

I did a science project in high school related to swimming. I predicted that in the 100 free, if a swimmer was first after the first 25, they would finish first in the race. I had an entire high school season to gather results, but there are always races going on that could be used. The results were that if you first after the first 25, there was about a 70% chance that you would finish first.

Mini-stud is 10. It has to be presented at the science fair...so I guess if it's in the water it could be filmed. I am sure my daughter will love the prospect of presenting her father in a Speedo to the school...serious negative cool points... :rofl:So I guess cold water shrinkage, would not be an age appropriate science experiment…:party2::censor:

Ten is fourth grade these days? Are they expected to present a hypothesis, or is it merely descriptive (such as which mammals swim faster and which swim slower)? Perhaps the actual conduct of the trial doesn't have to be filmed, although a photo of critical elements -- swimmer diving into water, somebody holding a stopwatch -- might add color. If this is a one-subject, one-trial experiment, maybe physiological adaptations during a long swim: heart rate and respiratory rate at different parts of the swim. What does Mini-stud have an interest in? I think river otters are cool. VB Mini-stud is 10. It has to be presented at the science fair...so I guess if it's in the water it could be filmed. I am sure my daughter will love the prospect of presenting her father in a Speedo to the school...serious negative cool points...

How about an evaluation of track versus grab start or new angled blocks versus older flat blocks? Which is faster? Which gets your further out, etc. That might have zero interest to your daughter but I sure would be interested in your findings. Ten has been fourth grade since at least the 70s.

Ten is fourth grade these days? Ten has been fourth grade since at least the 70s. Remember, it is February. With age cutoffs, kids are entering Kindergarden age 5 (which is normal, but then they're aging up right away. For example: a kid with a Dec birthday has to wait until he/she is "5" to enter Kindergarden. They won't take him as a 4 3/4 y/o because of the "4," so he enters school as a 5 3/4 y/o kndergardner and turns 6 three months later. Thus, he began school this year as a 9 3/4 y/o 4th grader, and then "aged up" during the year. I don't have Stud's kids' birthday's memorized, but chances are something like that is the case. Kids are a lot older these days than when I went to school. My elementary school cutoff was December 1 and I know we had SEVERAL kids with birthdays around then. They were always the last to turn whatever age the rest of us were. Now, its September 1.

How about heart rate with differrent strokes? Swim all 4 50Y and compare which one raises the heart rate more. Or swim 100,500,1000 and take the heart rate after each,compare. My son had considered this one for his project.... How much does the kick contribute to each stroke? Swim 1,2,3 or all 4 strokes with your feet immobile(tie 'em together) and time. Repeat, this time using your stroke plus kick. It helps that you are volunteering as a test subject since you can make sure the data taken is acurate.