2008 Woodie Awards
Climb for Science
NMU professor Phil Watts conducts the first study on how rock climbing affects kids
Johanna Boyle
Issue date: 4/19/07 Section: News
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Phil Watts leaned forward, adjusting the mask over the child's face. He ran one last check over the straps and stood back, examining his handiwork.
"Oh yeah, Darth Vader, very cool," he said, laughing.
But this isn't a costume: it's a metabolic analyzer, a mask which collects the air breathed out. The child wearing it is also strapped with a heart rate monitor. He is one of the participants in Watts' current study on the physiological effects of rock climbing on children.
This study is the first of its kind done in the world, adding to NMU's collection of rock climbing studies done on adults.
Conducted by NMU professor Phil Watts, the grant-funded study focuses on children ages eight to 13.
"We know about kids playing basketball or running, but we have no research on young people and climbing," Watts said.
In February 2006, Watts received the grant which funds the project, and began testing this semester, which will continue through May. He plans to present the findings at the American Conference of Sports Medicine in May 2008 and in one or two written studies, he said.
The grant provides funding for heart rate monitors and a specially designed island climbing wall, which allows the children to climb continuously at a low height level in a circle about 4 feet off the ground. Also purchased for the project was a portable metabolic analyzer, a mask which collects the air each child breaths out and analyzes it for energy expended.
All the analysis equipment is wireless, transmitting information to a laptop, allowing the child to climb without being tethered by wires.
Children are tested individually, with each test taking around an hour to complete. Watts budgets about 20 minutes of climbing for each child, with the rest of the hour used to prep the experiment.
Once the child is outfitted with the breathing mask, the heart rate monitor and the wireless transmitters, which are held in a back harness, testing begins with a five minute rest period, to calibrate the equipment.
"Oh yeah, Darth Vader, very cool," he said, laughing.
But this isn't a costume: it's a metabolic analyzer, a mask which collects the air breathed out. The child wearing it is also strapped with a heart rate monitor. He is one of the participants in Watts' current study on the physiological effects of rock climbing on children.
This study is the first of its kind done in the world, adding to NMU's collection of rock climbing studies done on adults.
Conducted by NMU professor Phil Watts, the grant-funded study focuses on children ages eight to 13.
"We know about kids playing basketball or running, but we have no research on young people and climbing," Watts said.
In February 2006, Watts received the grant which funds the project, and began testing this semester, which will continue through May. He plans to present the findings at the American Conference of Sports Medicine in May 2008 and in one or two written studies, he said.
The grant provides funding for heart rate monitors and a specially designed island climbing wall, which allows the children to climb continuously at a low height level in a circle about 4 feet off the ground. Also purchased for the project was a portable metabolic analyzer, a mask which collects the air each child breaths out and analyzes it for energy expended.
All the analysis equipment is wireless, transmitting information to a laptop, allowing the child to climb without being tethered by wires.
Children are tested individually, with each test taking around an hour to complete. Watts budgets about 20 minutes of climbing for each child, with the rest of the hour used to prep the experiment.
Once the child is outfitted with the breathing mask, the heart rate monitor and the wireless transmitters, which are held in a back harness, testing begins with a five minute rest period, to calibrate the equipment.
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