OT Science Fair Project

[MommaBear]

My 5th grade daughter has a science fair coming up and I thought it would be cool to do something related to cheerleading. Most things I've found online are either too advanced for 5th grade or more gymnastics related (bars/beam). Any suggestions?

 

[Official OWECheer]

My 5th grade daughter has a science fair coming up and I thought it would be cool to do something related to cheerleading. Most things I've found online are either too advanced for 5th grade or more gymnastics related (bars/beam). Any suggestions?

What ssubtopic of science is she looking into for her project?

 

[MommaBear]

It's open to anything... She doesn't need to demonstrate anything. Everything is shown on a display board based on experiments she's conducted.

 

[Official OWECheer]

It's open to anything... She doesn't need to demonstrate anything. Everything is shown on a display board based on experiments she's conducted.

Maybe testing the effect of certain foods on the speed of one's tumbling?
Or she could find a team that isn't worried about death by fullouts and see what their hit rate is when they perform to their music, no music/counts, and another teams music?

 

[Pebbles49]

I immediately thought about doing research using the latest news and the trends in these areas...(hairgate, practice wear and uniforms)Start with a question, hypothesis about cheerleaders' appearance and what effect this have on the team winning percentage at major events and judging...Maybe, your daughter can use NCA and Worlds scores for so many years, I chose these events because their scoring are so detailed... So, I think this will fall in the realm of Cheer psychology...

 

[MommaBear]

I immediately thought about doing research using the latest news and the trends in these areas...(hairgate, practice wear and uniforms)Start with an question, hypothesis about cheerleaders' appearance and what effect this have on the team winning percentage at major events and judging...Maybe, your daughter can use NCA and Worlds scores for so many years, I chose these events because their scoring are so detailed... So, I think this will fall in the realm of Cheer psychology...

Can you see appearance score?

 

[Pebbles49]

Can you see appearance score?

No, this is what she will do her research on... She can use the judges scores and over the years, measure how high the scores were for the different teams based on appearances of the team who won each year...

Tbh, I think the appearance score may come through in the category of Overall Effect of the Performance...

 

[MommaBear]

I immediately thought about doing research using the latest news and the trends in these areas...(hairgate, practice wear and uniforms)Start with an question, hypothesis about cheerleaders' appearance and what effect this have on the team winning percentage at major events and judging...Maybe, your daughter can use NCA and Worlds scores for so many years, I chose these events because their scoring are so detailed... So, I think this will fall in the realm of Cheer psychology...

lol @ hairgate

Maybe testing the effect of certain foods on the speed of one's tumbling?
Or she could find a team that isn't worried about death by fullouts and see what their hit rate is when they perform to their music, no music/counts, and another teams music?

Not sure if the gym would allow the fullout thing, but I would love to see a team try to do their routine to another dance!

 

[Beans100]

This would require multiple athletes, but it might be kind of interesting.

Experiment- Test the effects of 1 extra cardio workout on an athletes stamina.

Hypothesis- An extra cardio workout with have a positive effect on an athlete's stamina.

Things needed-
3 similar athletes with same practice schedules.
A stopwatch

Procedure
1. Have the girls run 1 mile and take their times
2. Separate girls. 1 athlete runs an extra mile every week. 1 athlete walks an extra mile every week. 1 girl has no change.
3. After X amt of weeks, re time the girl's mile times and see if they improved.

Good luck.

 

[Eyes On The Prize]

She could do "how I feel during/after my workout after eating a certain thing". That could be simple enough for a 5th grader but still impressive and unique.

So like do it for a month or two once a week. One week eat nothing before practice, the next week eat like a fast food meal, the next week eat a healthy meal, the next week eat sugary snacks, and so on. Then have her record how she feels during practice (maybe during water breaks) and then after practice. You could use like energy level, nausea level, etc on a scale of 0-10. For the fair, she could present the nutrition breakdown for each meal and how it correlates to how she felt during her workout. Maybe follow up with some supporting nutrition facts she has researched?

It's not a volcano or solar system

 

[notimeforthat]

What about something related to injury/concussions of cheerleaders and ways to prevent? ( stretching, stength building )

 

[MyGirlCheers]

What about testing whether different shoes affect jumps?

Make a background with really clear height markers (something like what they use on Mythbusters - those brightly colored contrasting stripes, maybe?) and video your CP doing a toe touch with different footwear. You could then go through the video in super slow-mo or frame by frame to find the apex of the jump to measure.

The control would be barefoot and the variables could be regular sneakers, "heavy" cheer shoes and then something light like nfinity, etc.. You'd probably need to do each piece of footwear on separate days so fatigue doesn't affect the results and do maybe 10 or so jumps in each shoe to get an average height.

 

[cheer25mom]

In our state, science fair projects cannot use human subjects. You might want to check on that before planning a project. Also, Most of the things being presented here wouldn't qualify as a science project at CP's school or the one where I teach. A good project needs one testable variable and the ability to hold all other factors constant. Scoring is too subjective to make good science and unless athletes are put on the same diet and sleep routine, ect you cannot control for those things either.

 

[GlitterPlz]

I just saw someone post about their science fair project on Instagram. Wish I could remember who but it looked like it was something like a Gatorade versus water comparison during a workout

 

[caitlyn_the_camille]

I saw someone do something about the effect spring floors have on tumbling. They included a nice little part about the physics behind spring floor, then had different athletes do things like jumps of tumbling and measures the height with wall markers, both on and off spring floor. It was pretty cool!