Oklahoma Christian University’s jump height study is coming to a conclusion after three years of exercise science seniors collecting data during their capstone projects.
Since 2023, each class of exercise science students at Oklahoma Christian has worked on the same senior capstone: collecting data about variables affecting jump height for a study led by Paul House, an exercise science professor.
Each spring, seniors divide into five teams and conduct human trials to record each variable observed in the study: body fat percentage, leg press strength, calf strength, leg mass and quadriceps angle.
The purpose of the experiment is to determine what factors most strongly affect jump height in humans.
House has plans to publish the findings in a presentation after he finishes compiling data and student reports.
“Well, I’m going to try to put it in a poster presentation to one of the larger organizations,” House said, “either the American College of Sports Medicine or the National Strength and Conditioning Association.”
This live research project had to be approved by Oklahoma Christian’s Institutional Review Board in order to use human subjects, making it a “real research study,” House said.
Being able to read and understand research papers at face value is one thing, according to House, but the kind of capstone Oklahoma Christian students experience gives them a deeper understanding of what happens behind the scenes.
“It’s way messier than reading a few abstracts where you assume for these 10 subjects everything went perfect,” House said, “but you can’t see that until you do the research itself.”
House previously taught at the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University. He said Oklahoma Christian’s curriculum stands out because prerequisites for physical therapy and occupational therapy school are built into the bachelor’s program, providing a more robust and flexible background for graduates.
Joey Georgen, a senior exercise science student entering physical therapy school this summer, participated on the team measuring quadriceps angle.
“My variable is Q-angle,” Georgen said. “It is the angle of the outside of your hip bone to the center of your knee and down to your feet. So our hypothesis is that if you have a wider angle, you won’t be generating as much vertical force with your quad muscles, and so your vertical jump height should be lower with a larger Q-angle.”
Georgen believes the hands-on experience of conducting live research is important, even for graduates not pursuing research after school.
“If you’re going to be helping people get better, then you need to know the latest research,” Georgen said. “And knowing how research gets done helps you to interpret what that research actually means.”
He recommended all exercise students take advantage of the cadaver lab course Oklahoma Christian offers because it sets him apart from his peers going into physical therapy school.
“At every school I have interviewed at I’ve talked to all the other applicants and all the other current students,” Georgen said, “and nobody has had an undergraduate cadaver experience in the same way that I’ve had one.”
“A cadaver lab will be one of the first classes students take at PT school”, Georgen added.
Georgen said his exercise science studies have led to a sense of wonder at the complex bodies God made for humans.
“There are so many little tiny things,” Georgen said. “Like my roommate Camden, he is a biochemist, and we’re both in the science field, but almost everything he’s learned pertains to nothing of what I’ve learned. You can spend your whole life trying to understand the way that God designed us and you’ll only get a small piece of it — or a big overview at the best.”
Though the student-led part of the jump height study will conclude this semester, House intends to continue work on it this summer with no definitive end date.
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