The International Bicycle Project involves universities in five European countries and in five states in the U.S. with the bicycle. The project receives money from the European Commission and the U.S. Department of Education. The money is primarily for students to travel across the Atlantic for studying the bicycle.

Many different efforts are involved in this project. We proposed that we would have students from the U.S. and Europe exchange their place of living for three months and study some aspect of the bicycle. The studies do not have to be specifically related to science although most of the students' activities are related to science.

The part of the project that we discuss here is a cooperative effort between IPN at the University of Kiel and Kansas State University. It involves two professors, Dean Zollman and Manfred Euler and a student from Kiel, Sönke Schaal. We would like to be able to take data while a bicycle is traveling down the street, then collect data both about the bicycle itself and the rider.

This type of data collection is done frequently by researchers who study sports. The Olympic bicycling teams take these types of data. However, they have very expensive equipment. So we decided to try it with somewhat less expensive equipment. Pasco makes the apparatus that we have been using. The Scientific Workshop 500 is an interface box in which one can plug several different sensors that will collect data. In a normal operation coming out of the box is an interface cable that connects to the computer. However, this interface can also be battery operated. One can plug it into the computer and set it up so that it knows what particular sensors are being used. Then, it can be taken away from the computer and put on the bicycle. Then one can ride down the street, collecting data as he/she goes.

We are very interested in data about the body as well as the physical data. We think that students will be interested to learn how the pulse and respiration rate are related to the motion changes of the bicycle. So, the idea is that students connect these sensors to themselves as well as the bicycle. Then, they ride on the streets and collect data. We are using several sensors that Pasco has available. They have an electrocardiograph, a respiration rate sensor, and a simpler device that measures the heart rate. The electrocardiograph is not nearly as complex as the ones that hospitals use. Instead of having 12 or 13 electrodes, it has three. The heart rate device clips onto the ear. It is a photocell and a light source, and measures changes in the transmission of the light through the ear lobe.

In addition we want to collect data on the speed of the bicycle itself. For that measurement we used a device that is commonly called a bicycle computer although it is really an electronic speedometer. This device has a magnet on the wheel that passes a reed switch on the frame. The electrodes on the back of the speedometer are normally 1.4 volts. When the magnet passes the switch closes and momentarily the voltage drops down to 0 volts. The "computer" has a chip that converts that information into distance traveled and speed and so forth. Certainly, a real computer could do this calculation as well if we just collected the data.

We tried to collect data from the speedometer with the Science Workshop. The biggest surprise was the short time that the switch was closed. So, we learned a lot about sampling rates. In Figure 1 are three different sampling rates for collecting the information. As shown, data collected at 50 times per second looks very strange. We can feel rather certain that the bicycle did not travel like that. It did not go along at 15 km per hour and suddenly drop down to 2 and go back up. To obtain good data and to remove all of the bad points we really needed to sample at 200 hertz. That raises a problem. While the data are easy to collect, they fill the buffer in a very short time. So that is one of our problems that we are working on.

With the other sensors we were not quite so lucky. They are meant to be used with people who are sitting quietly in chairs or maybe walking around a little. When one rides a bicycle down the street, the bicycle bounces. When one rides a bicycle down a street where the bricks are not quite even, it bounces even more. Figure 2 shows data for respiration rate. Again, we can feel certain that the respiration rate is not bouncing back and forth rapidly between approximately 40 times per minute and 10 times per minute. When we collect respiration data on a person who is not moving, the data look good. So, the motion of the bike and rider is causing the problem. This one we have not solved yet. It is a problem that we will work on over the next few months.

We have the same type of problem with both the pulse and the EKG. Figure 3 shows the pulse changing dramatically. It is very unlikely that this young man's pulse rate went up to 120 and then dropped down to 60 and so forth. In this experiment students are learning is when to look at data and decide that those data are no good.

We have tried two different pulse sensors to see if we could get some improvements. Neither one has worked very well. We are trying a sensor that goes around the chest and is available from Vernier Software. It sends radio signals a receiver that provides a voltage output for Science Workshop or the Vernier Universal Lab Interface.

The positive sides are that our initial experiments show that students can collect data this way by using standard hands-on data acquisition equipment.

Another approach which we have not investigated yet is the Palm Pilot person data system. People are now building interfaces between bicycles and the Palm Pilot. It is programmable. So, one can get a graph on the Palm Pilot of their speed as they travel along the street. Whether that will be useful, I do not know. It is something else we are going to investigate.

The project will be developing materials for at least two years. We will place up-to-date information on our web site. Other aspects of the project will be posted at the project's overall site.

The project involves students who are developing materials that can be used by teachers. It is really in the first step at this time. Throughout our work we will use many hands-on activities involving something that many students do anyway --- ride a bicycle.