Homeostasis: The tendency of the body to seek and maintain a condition of balance or equilibrium within its internal environment, even when faced with external changes.
Heart rate: The number of heartbeats per unit of time, usually per minute. The heart rate is based on the number of contractions of the ventricles (the lower chambers of the heart). This is what we used for the effect homeostasis has on it.
Heart rate: The number of heartbeats per unit of time, usually per minute. The heart rate is based on the number of contractions of the ventricles (the lower chambers of the heart). This is what we used for the effect homeostasis has on it.
The Project
The purpose of this project was to learn how homeostasis affects the body. We chose to conduct an experiment that altered our bodies' heart rates in order to demonstrate and understand homeostasis. We chose to go from normal, casual activity to jumping rope to increase our heart rates; we measured our heart rates incrementally minutes prior to jumping rope, during jumping rope, and minutes after jumping rope. Our objective was to see how our heart rate changed in response to an outside factor--increased heart rate from jumping rope--and how it then returned to its original condition.
Our Poster
Lab Report
Reflection
Overall, I feel like this project went really well. I really liked my group, everybody was friendly and eager to contribute, and we came to agreements easily. For this project, we were given minimal instruction, which allowed us to be creative. Over the course of this project, I learned a lot about homeostasis and how it relates to heart rate during exercise. I also learned how to create an informative and interesting presentation, and I will use this skill for projects to come. One thing I could personally improve on is staying on task because I like to talk to my friends a lot. Something our group could have done better with was improve our communication skills. Sometimes our ideas weren't completely clear to one another, which caused confusion when it was time to actually conduct the experiment. For example, we started timing at different times because we weren't clear about our intervals. In the future, we could work on being more precise and complete with our communication so everyone is always on the same page.