Lab Days | Kinesiology | Applied Health Sciences

2011 Kinesiology Lab Days Sessions

Injury Prevention Using Ergonomic Design – Q: What do firefighters, office workers, and designing the interior of a police car have in common? A: Ergonomics!

You will discover how ergonomics, “the science of fitting the task to the person,” is critical to designing products, processes, and services that minimize the risk of injury. Activities will include a simulated drive in a police car, a grip strength contest: hydro worker style, and a chance to compare the difference between sitting on a top-of-the-line office chair and an exercise ball.

Gait and Balance Analysis – How high can you jump and why?

Discover some of the laws of biomechanics; how they relate to the way you move; and how these forces can be measured, studied, and maximized. You will use a variety of equipment to introduce you to several biomechanical principles, such as joint summation, acceleration of body mass and ground reaction forces during gait and balance activities.

Cardiovascular Health – Explore the integrated workings of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. What happens to your body during increased work demands?

Volunteer(s) from your group will ride a cycle ergometer while other students assess the cardiovascular response to exercise using state-of-the-art breath by breath oxygen uptake analysis equipment, electrocardiogram, and a sphygmomanometer. You will also learn how researchers at Waterloo are using these techniques to investigate cardiovascular health throughout the lifespan.

Psyched-Up: Learning and Performing Movement Tasks – Discover the field of motor learning and automatic processing of information.

In this lab activity, you will investigate the factors influencing the learning and performance of a motor skill. You will also see how motor tasks and thinking tasks can interfere with one another and significantly influence performance.

Work Those Muscles – Watch your muscles contract; learn how they work, and find out what could make them work harder.

Different types of muscle contractions will be discussed and demonstrated using the “Muscle Car” and biofeedback mechanisms such as EMG (electromyography). You will investigate force-length relationship, muscle fibre types, how forces are generated in the different types of contractions, and how all of these relate to weight-training implication and principles.

Dietary Forensics – You Are What You Eat!

A dietary forensic demonstration will show you how a simple finger prick drop of blood can reveal your usual dietary habits, particularly in regards to omega-3 fatty acids. This experience will allow you to get an up-close and personal viewpoint of a working biochemical laboratory and to identify how it differs from typical depictions on TV’s crime investigation shows.