Activity Title: 'Biking the Tanami'

Subject Area: Physical Education

Grade Levels: 5th + 6th

Students will investigate their own level of fitness. This is done through calculating the recovery rate of a person’s cardiovascular system.   Practical application of this activity can be a whole class lesson or incorporated into one of several classroom stations. As a group activity, students may work ingroups of two-five members. It is recommended to comprise each group of a range of abilities and learning levels.

Close monitoring of these groups keeps a balance within the group participation so that one student is notdominate in completing the work at the station while others are uninvolved.

Each member is required to document work completed in their journals with feedback and calculations. The groups are given twenty minutes per station to complete their research and work before moving on to the next station.

Materials:

• stop watch or watch with second hand
• journals
• pencils
• map of the Northern Territory, Australia showing the aboriginal community of Yuendumu and cattle station Moolooloo.

Background and Procedure: You are about to set out to ride 330 miles through the infamous the Tanami Desert from the Aboriginal community of Yuendumu to the cattle station (ranch) of Moolooloo. The temperature will be over 100 degree and there is no water other than what you will carry with you. So it’s a good idea to find out how fit you are before setting out!

The purpose of this lesson is therefore to measure your own level of fitness. This is done through calculating the recovery rate of a person’s cardiovascular system.

A traditional way to do this investigation is measuring the pulse before and after exercise to determine the time taken for an individual’s heart rate to return to normal.

Pair up with someone and make sure you have:

• A stopwatch (1 between 2), and
• Your journals and pencils.

One member of each pair measures the pulse of the partner. Holding the wrist (or any other point of the body they know for checking the pulse), they count the number of heartbeats per 60-second period. They can count how many beats in 15 seconds and then multiply it by 4 to get the total number of heartbeats per minute. Once the figure is found, it is recorded into their journal. Then the person whose heart rate was checked pedals on the bicycle for 2 minutes. No pulse is checked immediately afterwards. Exactly 4 minutes after the 2 -minute biking session the person’s pulse is checked again for a 60 second period. The findings are written down. The partners switch roles and repeat the process.

Analyze and Conclude:

When you are all finished you will now interpret the data. You should have two figures written in you journals, your pulse rate at rest and pulse rate 4 minutes after the exercise burst.

• Subtract one from the other to give the 'recovery rate'; this represents your fitness (the lower the figure, the fitter they are).
• Once everyone has a figure for their personal fitness, a class average can be calculated and posted onto the website. A comparison can be made once other schools post their ‘fitness average’ as well.

Lesson Extensions:

You are bicycling the Tanami Track from the Aboriginal community of Yuendumu to the cattle station (ranch) of Moolooloo. Locate these two places on the map provided.

The distance is approximately 330 kilometres.

1. Convert the kilometres by multiplying the distance by 0.62.
2. How many miles did you travel?
3. What towns near you are that distance from each other?
4. According to the map, are there services available if you should be in need of supplies?
5. How does this affect your travel plans?