We recently saw a tweet from the Biology teacher at Berlin High School in Berlin, Wisconsin, featuring our 300 Pro indoor cycle. His name is Dave Reich. He has been teaching Biology at Berlin High School for 28 years – he’s also the Science Chair. We reached out to him to learn more about what he does with our indoor cycle in the classroom.
I am a Biology teacher at Berlin High School located 20 miles west of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and have been for the last 28 years. Berlin High School touts approximately 550 students in grades 9-12. Of those 550 students, a handful sign-up for my Advanced Biology class, in which we spend most of the year on human anatomy and physiology. And because of my interest in mountain biking and rock climbing, I can't help but emphasize human performance.A couple years ago, two students wanted to do an independent study about lactic acid and lactate threshold. I brought my PT300 from home to school and we designed a graded exercise test by warming-up at 100 watts and then going up by 20 watts every two minutes. After two minutes we checked blood lactate. We repeated this up to the lactate spike and also sampled lactate on recovery. We extended this by testing the effect of dehydration and also after drinking Cytomax.
Our studies have been so popular, the school bought a new 300 Pro last spring and we have been using it this year. Ongoing experiments include texting while attempting to keep a steady cadence and placebo effect on power output over a short workout. We also have a leader board for maximum watts recorded and watts/kg. It definitely gets the kids interested.
High school kids are nothing if not competitive.
Dave supervises Owen's experiment on the 300 Pro.