Some of the independent variables in this project were 1) Condition of volunteers, whether they are asthmatic or not, 2) the factors tested, such as exercise, chemical fumes, cold food and smoke, 3) the quality of asthma, 4) Aerosol inhalers or Dry-powder inhalers used during the short-bronchodilator testing.
The dependant variable in this experiment was the peak flow rate of breathing. It was different after every volunteer because every volunteer was different heights and had different lung capacities.
Some controlled variables were 1) the speed of jog the volunteers were running, 2) the amount of ice cream that each volunteer ate, 3) the amount of chemical fumes in the room, 4) the amount of smoke or the amount of incense stick used, 5) the length that the volunteers had to run, 6) the room temperature; 7) and the volume of the testing area.
Due to lack of technology, my partner and I were unable to test the precise speed of jog that each volunteer was jogging. We asked them to run “moderately fast” and hoped that they would run relatively the same speed. Also, before testing peak flow rates after eating a bowl of ice cream, we decided that each bowl would way exactly 100 grams. We did this by using a digital weigh scale. To find the exact weight of ice cream, we weighed the Styrofoam bowl first and subtracted that weight from zero, so that as we filled the bowl with ice cream, the scale would accurately weigh the ice cream only.
