Jonathan likes soccer, baseball, wrestling, and playing the violin in orchestra. He also serves as student council president at his school. Jonathan would like to pursue a career as a scientist someday because he likes "to learn how … and why [things] work." Jonathan's science hero is his father. "He builds many contraptions," he says.
Jonathan wanted to know why some people reacted slower to specific cues than others. During his preliminary research, he learned that age might slow a person's reaction speed.
With the help of his father, Jonathan designed and tested an LED (light-emitting diode) device to measure reaction time. In each trial, when the LED lit up, the subject pushed the appropriate button, which stopped the stopwatch. Jonathan collected data from 75 people, ages 7 to 83. Each person performed 30 trials with the timing device. After analyzing his data, Jonathan discovered that reaction time slows with age. The fastest reaction times came from people in their early 20s.
