Introduction:  Our group was asked to create a question surrounding movement in human beings, then to pursue this question in a laboratory investigation.  We feel that we have created a laboratory exercise that is interesting, challenging and usable by teachers at almost any level.  What follows is a brief summary of our investigation.   This lab would fit nicely into any musculoskeletal system, exercise physiology, metrics or graphing unit.
 
A.     Problem
B.     Hypotheses
C.     Independent variable(s)
D.     Dependent variable
E.     Controlled Variables
F.     Material list
G.    Experimental design
H.    Results
I.     Conclusions
J.     Interesting extension questions
K.    Background research and Internet links on topic
L.    Authors

A. Problem
 1. How is speed related to stride length in Homo sapiens?
 2. Is problem #1 related to human leg length and/or body mass?

B. Hypotheses
 1.  As speed increases, then stride length will increase proportionally.
 2.  Leg length and the ratio of speed to stride length are independent.
 3.  Body mass and the ratio of speed to stride length are independent.

C.  Independent variable(s)
 1.  Gait (walk, jog, sprint)
 2.  Leg length
 3.  Body mass

D.  Dependent variable
 1.  Stride length

E.  Variables that need to be controlled
Age, gender, running surface, temperature, location (outside), overall running experience
 
F.  Material list:
 1. string
 2. volleyball court
 3. stopwatch
 4. meter stick
 5. willing participants
 6. broom/rake

G. Design an experiment to measure variables.
1. Found age, gender, leg length, and body mass of each subject.
2. Subjects walked, jogged and sprinted across a 10-meter section of a sand volleyball court.  Stride length was measured in meters and time was measured in seconds.
3. Measured  4-8 strides for each participant at each gait and then found the average stride for each participant at each gait.