One Burnt Calorie To Go, Please
by Dru S.
2nd Place - Biology

Question - What will burn calories faster, running a mile, walking 2 miles or dancing to a song on DDR?

Research - Through my research I learned that running consumes more calories per unit of distance. See, most people believe that running is better for you because they are extremely tired afterward. Most scientists have set out to disprove this myth because they have come to learn that walking is easier on your joints and the heart. So which one burns more calories? Scientifically speaking, running does if it is at a sustained amount (such as a mile).

Hypothesis - I predict that running will burn calories faster, because your body works twice as hard to keep up with running.

Experiment - First, because running is so vigorous and because this is a  science experiment that must be controlled, I test my heart rate. Next, I must find a speed that suits me, one I can stay with throughout the test. Because running and walking are performed on a treadmill, the computer part of the treadmill does the math for me when figuring out the calories I burn. The "special edition" of DDR will tell me how many calories I burn for every song, by having me enter my weight and height.

Analysis - When I was doing my experiment I observed that running was burning nearly half the calories walking burned. DDR didn't even come close to being able to compare to the other tests.

Discovery - After doing my experiment I discovered that my hypothesis was wrong. As it turned out walking 2 miles burned twice as many calories as running a mile and nearly twenty times as many calories as DDR.

Bibliography -
www.teenhealth.org
www.wiki-answers.com
www.straightdope.com/columns