Homeostasis Project
Project Description: In this project, myself, Ty Cubley, and Anderson Teoh, devised and carried out an experiment to test homeostasis in the human body. The homeostasis we chose to research was blood pressure. Our hypothesis was that our blood pressure would spike after exercising and that after a short time it would slowly decrease to its normal level. We tested this by using blood pressure cuffs to find our resting blood pressure, mine was 110/66. Next we ran 3 laps around the science building on campus and again took our blood pressure, after running mine was 139/87. Lastly, after 5 minute increments we took our blood pressure until it reached homeostasis, for both Anderson and I it took about 15 minutes after running to reach normal levels.
Concepts:
Reflection: Our team did well in the field of experimentation and planning but fell short in implementation and collaboration. Firstly, our experiment was well thought out. This was seen when our team was able to test a person in a short amount of time which brought about clean results. Secondly, our planning was excellent and resulted in an experiment and poster that both turned out well and were executed exactly as initially decided. However, our team did experience difficulty in our implementation when certain factors were not accounted for, resulting in having to re-run a test due to a faulty blood pressure cuff. Also our collaboration needed adjustment because of the imbalance of work contribution which resulted in most of the project completed by only part of the group and one of our teammates not being able to participate as a subject in the experiment. Overall I think that our team did a stupendous job and with some tweaking could be an extraordinary and more effective group.
- Homeostasis: is the process in which the body keeps its system at a stable level, homeostasis is present in our project because after over exertion the blood pressure in a person decreases.
- Blood pressure: is the amount of force exerted to move blood throughout the body, this relates to our project because it is an example of homeostasis in a human.
- Atrial natriuretic peptide: is the hormone released when blood pressure in a person is dangerously high, this relates to the project because it is an example of a mechanism used to maintain homeostasis.
- Circulatory system: is the organ system that moves blood throughout the body, this is in relation to our project because it uses multiple methods of homeostasis to work effectively.
- Independent variable: is the part of an experiment that is the deciding factor of the result, in our project the action of running was the independent variable.
- Dependent variable: is the result of an experiment, the dependent variable in our experiment was the blood pressure of the subject.
- Controlled: the part of an experiment which can be altered to produce different results, the control in our project was the rest period.
- Scientific Method: is the steps that scientists take in conducting an experiment, we used the scientific method in our project to accurately assess and display the data we found.
- Blood Pressure Cuff: is a machine used to find the measure of blood pressure in a person, we used a blood pressure cuff in our experiment as a tool to measure blood pressure.
- Feedback loop: is a system that amplifies or decreases because of inputs, a feedback loop in our experiment was the constriction of blood cells to lower blood pressure.
Reflection: Our team did well in the field of experimentation and planning but fell short in implementation and collaboration. Firstly, our experiment was well thought out. This was seen when our team was able to test a person in a short amount of time which brought about clean results. Secondly, our planning was excellent and resulted in an experiment and poster that both turned out well and were executed exactly as initially decided. However, our team did experience difficulty in our implementation when certain factors were not accounted for, resulting in having to re-run a test due to a faulty blood pressure cuff. Also our collaboration needed adjustment because of the imbalance of work contribution which resulted in most of the project completed by only part of the group and one of our teammates not being able to participate as a subject in the experiment. Overall I think that our team did a stupendous job and with some tweaking could be an extraordinary and more effective group.