Our project was based on the question, "How does our body maintain homeostasis?" This means that we focused on the separate things that our body does to keep overall homeostasis. Our group was assigned blood pressure. We already knew that blood pressure raised and dipped but we needed proof of that and also an explanation of how and why it did what it did. To do that we designed an experiment to test this and did research to further understand it using the scientific method.
Key Concepts:
Homeostasis: The tendency of living things to keep an equilibriam of its functions and systems.
Blood Pressure: The pressure of the all of the blood in the circulatory system.
Systolic Pressure: The top number on a blood pressure measurement which represents the pressure of the blood that enters the arteries while the heart contracts.
Diastolic Pressure: The bottom number on a blood pressure measurement which represents the pressure of the blood that enters the chambers of the heart when it relaxes.
Negative Feedback loop: A reaction to stimulus that leads to a decrease in function.
Positive Feedback loop: A reaction to a stimulus that leads to an increase in function.
9 Simple Steps to the Scientific Method: 1. Make Observations and ask questions 2. Research 3. Form a hypothesis 4. Plan an experiment/experiments 5. Perform said experiment 6. Analyze data 7. Write a conclusion to summarize data 9. Share results
Work:
Below is our research article and poster we created to help share our findings.
Reflection:
My group and I, overall, did very well. We stayed focused and tried to be as creative as possible while still making sure that we could complete the project. We were very productive, however my failure to read the instructions on the blood pressure reader left us to have to do our tests twice. This generally didn't affect us but just added time onto our testing period and put us behind on working on our write up and poster presentation.