Exercise and Short-Term Memory

Complexity level:	5
Time required:	1 hour required for set-up, 90 minutes required to collect data, 1 hour to analyze, cleanup and discuss.
Material availability:	You will need to involve a group of participants of the same age. For example, you could have a classroom of students participate.
Safety concerns:

Hypothesis

Students will have better memory performance after they perform various types of exercise.

Overview

Did you know that recent scientific studies show that kids who are physically active - those that play sports or run around during recess ? learn more in class? That's right, kids who are physically fit are more likely to remember information they learn while in school.

Interestingly, your size has very little to do with your academic achievement - it is really your fitness level that matters. That is, if you can run a mile, you might be better equipped to learn English or Math when compared to your classmate who cannot run a mile.

Today, we are going to apply some exercise science to test the hypothesis that active kids retain information more effectively than those who do not exercise. Even if you are not an athlete, you may be able to benefit from the effect that exercise has on your brain!

We will see whether students who exercise or read books are more likely to perform well in a memory test.

Scientific Terms

Exercise science, Memory

Materials

40 small household objects (examples include pens, paperclips, toy cars, scissors, pads of paper, drink bottles)
Paper
Tablecloth
Storybooks (for half of the participants)
Timer
Table
3 dodgeballs

Eureka Crate — engineering & invention kits for ages 12+ — monthly projects that build real-world skills. (Affiliate link)

See what’s included

Procedure

Divide the participants into two teams: Exercise and Board Game.
Assemble 20 household items on a table. Cover them with the tablecloth.
Ask the teams to stand on either side of the table. Everyone should have paper and a pen or pencil.
;
Remove the tablecloth covering the items. The participants get 45 seconds to memorize the items on the table. Do not write anything down yet!
After the 60 seconds are up, the items are covered again.
The participants get 2 minutes to write down as many items as they can remember from the table.
Now, the teams will perform their separate tasks.
Team exercise: Have the participants play dodgeball for 20 minutes. Team board game: read their books for 20 minutes.
Teams should now return to the table.
A new set of items will be placed beneath the tablecloth. Repeat steps 3 - 6.
For each participant, compare the two scores.

Observations

Participant's name:	Exercise or Board Game?
TEST #1 (before exercise / games)	TEST #2 (after exercise / games)
1.	1.
2.	2.
3.	3.
4.	4.
5.	5.
6.	6.
7.	7.
8.	8.
9.	9.
10.	10.
11.	11.
12.	12.
13.	13.
14.	14.
15.	15.
16.	16.
17.	17.
18.	18.
19.	19.
20.	20.
TOTAL remembered:	TOTAL remembered:

References

PBS Kids. "Exercise & Memory by Jada and Maurna." http://pbskids.org/dragonflytv/show/exercisememory.html

All Science Fair Projects

1000 Science Fair Projects with Complete Instructions

Science Fair Project Description