Sensors and Scatterplots
A student uses a wrist blood pressure sensor to measure her blood pressure and pulse rate.Copyright 2013 RET-ENET Program, The University of Texas-Pan American.
Students are introduced to several types of common medical sensor devices, such as ear and forehead thermometers, glucometers and wrist blood pressure monitors; they use the latter to measure their blood pressure and pulse rates. Students also measure their heights and weights in order to calculate their BMIs (body mass index). Then they use the collected data to create and analyze scatterplots of the different variables to determine if any relationships exist between the measured variables. Discussions about the trends observed and possible health concerns conclude the activity.
Sensor devices are tools designed by biomedical engineers for use in the medical field, as well as for other engineering applications. Medical research and development is growing as engineers design newer and better performing sensors. As part of the design cycle, engineers measure, collect and analyze data. When investigating relationships between two variables, scatterplots are utilized to enable engineers to examine any trends that exist.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Collect and organize data.
- Create scatterplots.
- Analyze a scatterplot by determining the relationship between axis variables and data trend.
- Draw line of best fit and make predictions.