Description
During this unit we have been studying homeostasis and why we rely on it so much. The purpose of this project was to get a better understanding of what homeostasis is, and what it does for the body. We did this by researching and designing an experiment to study one of the ways our body uses homeostasis. Our group decided to study heart rate, so we had to do extensive research on how the body regulates heart rate. After our research was complete we designed an experiment that would force our heart rate to change. After designing and running our experiment we created our own research article to organize our data. We also put all of our information onto a poster in order to easily display it at our poster session. This project was intended to expand our understanding of homeostasis by allowing us to see it in real life.
Our Project
Below is our research article which displays all of our research and data.
Below is our poster, which displays all of our information in an easy to present format.
Concepts
Homeostasis- Homeostasis is the state the body needs to be in, in order to maintain stable condition. It's the ideal environment for your body to function and thrive. If your body can't maintain homeostasis you can't survive. This project was all about homeostasis and how our body is able to maintain it by regulating our heart rate.
Feedback Loop- A feedback loop is a self regulating system that your body uses to help maintain homeostasis. An input causes your body to have a reaction, which produces an output. In a negative feedback loop the output causes the input to decrease. In a positive feedback loop the output causes the input to increase. In our project we studied the cardiac feedback loop. This is a negative feedback loop that your body uses to regulate heart rate.
Heart- The heart is an organ that pumps blood and your body. It is important because it delivers the oxygen in the blood to your cells. Our project was focused on how the rate that the heart pumps blood at is regulated.
Heart Rate/BPM- This is the speed at which your heart beats. BPM stands for beats for minute, and is an easy way to calculate your heart rate. How heart is regulated was the main focus of our project. In our experiment we used our BPM to collect data.
Circulatory System- This system is in charge of circulating blood through out your body and delivering oxygen to your cells. It includes the heart, blood, and blood vessels. Our project studied a part of the circulatory system, the heart.
Medulla- The medulla is the part of your brain that controls the autonomic nervous system. This was a big part of our project because the medulla controls your heart rate, which was the main focus of our project.
Aerobic Cellular Respiration- Using this process your body uses oxygen to turn glucose into ATP for your body to use as energy. Our project involved aerobic cellular respiration because when you exercise your body uses it to give you enough energy to keep going. This means you need more oxygen to fuel the process, which in turn causes your heart rate to increase. This is what we were studying.
Adrenal Glands- The adrenal glands are an organ that is a part of the endocrine system. They excrete hormones such as epinephrine and nor-epinephrine. These glands are responsible for causing your heart rate to increase when they receive a signal from your brain, which is how they were involved in our project.
Epinephrine- This hormone is secreted from the adrenal glands. It is also sometimes called adrenaline and is involved in the fight or flight response. This is related to our project because epinephrine is what actually makes your heart beat faster.
Nor-epinephrine- This is also a hormone that is release from your adrenal glands. It does the opposite of epinephrine and slows your heart down when it is going too fast. This is important for maintaining homeostasis.
Scientific Method- The scientific method is very important when you are creating an experiment. We used to create the experiment for our project. It has 8 different steps:
1. Make observations
2. Research
3. Form a Hypothesis
4. Plan experiments
5. Do experiment
6. Analyze Data
7. Conclusion
8. Share results
Independent Variable- This is the part of the experiment that never changes. Every single trial it has to stay the same in order to get accurate results. In our experiment the independent variable was running.
Dependent Variable- This is the part of the experiment that changes depending on the independent variable. It is also what you are testing. In our experiment the dependent variable was hear rate.
Control- The control is the baseline that you can compare your data to. The control in our experiment was the resting heart rate of another person who wasn't running.
Feedback Loop- A feedback loop is a self regulating system that your body uses to help maintain homeostasis. An input causes your body to have a reaction, which produces an output. In a negative feedback loop the output causes the input to decrease. In a positive feedback loop the output causes the input to increase. In our project we studied the cardiac feedback loop. This is a negative feedback loop that your body uses to regulate heart rate.
Heart- The heart is an organ that pumps blood and your body. It is important because it delivers the oxygen in the blood to your cells. Our project was focused on how the rate that the heart pumps blood at is regulated.
Heart Rate/BPM- This is the speed at which your heart beats. BPM stands for beats for minute, and is an easy way to calculate your heart rate. How heart is regulated was the main focus of our project. In our experiment we used our BPM to collect data.
Circulatory System- This system is in charge of circulating blood through out your body and delivering oxygen to your cells. It includes the heart, blood, and blood vessels. Our project studied a part of the circulatory system, the heart.
Medulla- The medulla is the part of your brain that controls the autonomic nervous system. This was a big part of our project because the medulla controls your heart rate, which was the main focus of our project.
Aerobic Cellular Respiration- Using this process your body uses oxygen to turn glucose into ATP for your body to use as energy. Our project involved aerobic cellular respiration because when you exercise your body uses it to give you enough energy to keep going. This means you need more oxygen to fuel the process, which in turn causes your heart rate to increase. This is what we were studying.
Adrenal Glands- The adrenal glands are an organ that is a part of the endocrine system. They excrete hormones such as epinephrine and nor-epinephrine. These glands are responsible for causing your heart rate to increase when they receive a signal from your brain, which is how they were involved in our project.
Epinephrine- This hormone is secreted from the adrenal glands. It is also sometimes called adrenaline and is involved in the fight or flight response. This is related to our project because epinephrine is what actually makes your heart beat faster.
Nor-epinephrine- This is also a hormone that is release from your adrenal glands. It does the opposite of epinephrine and slows your heart down when it is going too fast. This is important for maintaining homeostasis.
Scientific Method- The scientific method is very important when you are creating an experiment. We used to create the experiment for our project. It has 8 different steps:
1. Make observations
2. Research
3. Form a Hypothesis
4. Plan experiments
5. Do experiment
6. Analyze Data
7. Conclusion
8. Share results
Independent Variable- This is the part of the experiment that never changes. Every single trial it has to stay the same in order to get accurate results. In our experiment the independent variable was running.
Dependent Variable- This is the part of the experiment that changes depending on the independent variable. It is also what you are testing. In our experiment the dependent variable was hear rate.
Control- The control is the baseline that you can compare your data to. The control in our experiment was the resting heart rate of another person who wasn't running.
Reflection
This project went very well overall. One specific thing that went well was that our project was finished quickly and efficiently. We didn't waste any time and we got started right away. Another positive thing was that our group compromised very easily. We didn't argue about anything, instead we found a way to include all ideas and make it work. One thing that didn't go well was that not all group members were included. The group divided pretty quickly and only some of us actually did the work. Next time it would be better to make sure all group members did a part of the project and felt included in the group. Another thing that we could've done better is use all the time we were given. We finished our project early, so we had a day with nothing to do. We should've used that time to improve our report instead of doing work from other classes.