This project was one unique from the rest. Instead of doing a lab like we normally do, following someone else's procedure and instructions, we were tasked with creating our own. The purpose of this project was to test the different processes of homeostasis in the human body. We were each assigned with our own process to research, our group's was blood pressure. In blood pressure, it is kept in homeostasis, or inside its limits, by "rapid" and "slow" processes in order to maintain the average blood pressure of 120/80 mmHg. Some of the main reactions is the contraction and releasing of the blood vessels in order to slow or quicken the flow of blood throughout the body. Blood pressure specifically measures the pressure of your blood on exerted on the blood vessels. Blood pressure rises when external stressors, such as running, increases your heart rate and therefore raises the pressure on the vessels.
We created a document in order to display all of our initial research on blood pressure which are displayed below
In the end, we were asked to make a research paper and a poster displaying all of our research, both of which are shown below
Research Paper
Abstract:
Introduction: Blood pressure is a measure of the pressure on your blood vessels that rise due to external stressors. The body returns back to the normal levels of homeostasis after a spike or decrease in blood pressure through different processes
Methods: Our tests were done through a repeated pattern of running, resting, and taking blood pressure
Results: The blood pressure started off normal at homeostasis, spiked when we ran, and went down as we rested, going back to homeostasis
Conclusion: The hypothesis we had made held true and our data proved that when blood pressure spikes it goes back down to homeostasis
Introduction:
Blood pressure is a measure of the pressure of blood, but specifically through your blood vessels and the heart. It is measured by numbers in a fraction format, the top being the systolic, measuring pressure against your blood vessel, and the bottom being the diastolic, measuring pressure in the arteries between heart beats. When blood pressure rises due to factors such as external muscular strain, stress, or tension, a hormone called atrial natriuretic peptide is released, which decreases blood pressure. Another way our body maintains this homeostasis is by constricting or relaxing the blood vessels, changing how much blood can flow through. These are some of the main ways our body maintains homeostasis, making sure our blood pressure does not get too low or too high. We chose our procedure because the elevated blood flow from running is one of the most accurate ways to test blood pressure. Our hypothesis is that if our blood pressure rises to abnormal levels then our body will bring it back to homeostasis because of the various processes involved. (Kohan 2012)
Methods:
To test and prove our hypothesis we used a blood pressure cuff to determine a resting blood pressure. Next, the subject, healthy high school students, ran 3 laps around the SM science building and took their blood pressure again. This was done on two of our group members with multiple tests for each. Afterwards, the subject had their blood pressure taken every 5 minutes until homeostasis was reached. We know this is accurate because although the pressure differs per person, their resting pressure gives a precise homeostasis level that the subject returns to.
Results:
We did tests on two of our group members, the first having a resting blood pressure of 110/66 and the second a resting blood pressure of 104/65. For the first, after running, their blood pressure shot up to 139/87, after 5 minutes of resting it went down to 109/76, another 5, 112/69, another 5, stayed steady at 112/65. For the second, after running, their blood pressure peaked at 139/84, lowering down to 134/83 after 5 minutes, 116/73 after another 5, and finally 114/67.
Discussion/Conclusion:
This data shows that when our blood pressure spikes, the natural processes inside our body bring it back down to homeostasis. It proves that homeostasis does exist and that we have a standard level of blood pressure that our body naturally goes back to. In this project, most of the research and data went extremely smoothly. Our hypothesis proved true and the data was exactly what we had expected. Something that could be improved is the quality of our writing and poster, which felt quite rushed. We had to redo our tests multiple times as there were many interferences from other groups and the blood pressure cuffs did not work most of the time. Another test that could be done is one that the other group chose to do, sodium levels influencing blood pressure.
Works Cited:
Boundless. “Boundless Anatomy and Physiology.” Lumen Learning, Lumen, courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-ap/chapter/control-of-blood-pressure/.
Kohan, Donald E. “Regulation of Blood Pressure and Salt Homeostasis by Endothelin.” PMC, 1 Jan. 2012, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3236687/.
OpenStax. “Anatomy and Physiology.” Introduction to Sociology – 1st Canadian Edition, BCcampus, 6 Mar. 2013, opentextbc.ca/anatomyandphysiology/chapter/20-4-homeostatic-regulation-of-the-vascular-system/.
“What Is Anatomy and Physiology?” CliffNotes, www.cliffsnotes.com/study-guides/anatomy-and-physiology/the-cardiovascular-system/control-of-blood-pressure.
Introduction: Blood pressure is a measure of the pressure on your blood vessels that rise due to external stressors. The body returns back to the normal levels of homeostasis after a spike or decrease in blood pressure through different processes
Methods: Our tests were done through a repeated pattern of running, resting, and taking blood pressure
Results: The blood pressure started off normal at homeostasis, spiked when we ran, and went down as we rested, going back to homeostasis
Conclusion: The hypothesis we had made held true and our data proved that when blood pressure spikes it goes back down to homeostasis
Introduction:
Blood pressure is a measure of the pressure of blood, but specifically through your blood vessels and the heart. It is measured by numbers in a fraction format, the top being the systolic, measuring pressure against your blood vessel, and the bottom being the diastolic, measuring pressure in the arteries between heart beats. When blood pressure rises due to factors such as external muscular strain, stress, or tension, a hormone called atrial natriuretic peptide is released, which decreases blood pressure. Another way our body maintains this homeostasis is by constricting or relaxing the blood vessels, changing how much blood can flow through. These are some of the main ways our body maintains homeostasis, making sure our blood pressure does not get too low or too high. We chose our procedure because the elevated blood flow from running is one of the most accurate ways to test blood pressure. Our hypothesis is that if our blood pressure rises to abnormal levels then our body will bring it back to homeostasis because of the various processes involved. (Kohan 2012)
Methods:
To test and prove our hypothesis we used a blood pressure cuff to determine a resting blood pressure. Next, the subject, healthy high school students, ran 3 laps around the SM science building and took their blood pressure again. This was done on two of our group members with multiple tests for each. Afterwards, the subject had their blood pressure taken every 5 minutes until homeostasis was reached. We know this is accurate because although the pressure differs per person, their resting pressure gives a precise homeostasis level that the subject returns to.
Results:
We did tests on two of our group members, the first having a resting blood pressure of 110/66 and the second a resting blood pressure of 104/65. For the first, after running, their blood pressure shot up to 139/87, after 5 minutes of resting it went down to 109/76, another 5, 112/69, another 5, stayed steady at 112/65. For the second, after running, their blood pressure peaked at 139/84, lowering down to 134/83 after 5 minutes, 116/73 after another 5, and finally 114/67.
Discussion/Conclusion:
This data shows that when our blood pressure spikes, the natural processes inside our body bring it back down to homeostasis. It proves that homeostasis does exist and that we have a standard level of blood pressure that our body naturally goes back to. In this project, most of the research and data went extremely smoothly. Our hypothesis proved true and the data was exactly what we had expected. Something that could be improved is the quality of our writing and poster, which felt quite rushed. We had to redo our tests multiple times as there were many interferences from other groups and the blood pressure cuffs did not work most of the time. Another test that could be done is one that the other group chose to do, sodium levels influencing blood pressure.
Works Cited:
Boundless. “Boundless Anatomy and Physiology.” Lumen Learning, Lumen, courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-ap/chapter/control-of-blood-pressure/.
Kohan, Donald E. “Regulation of Blood Pressure and Salt Homeostasis by Endothelin.” PMC, 1 Jan. 2012, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3236687/.
OpenStax. “Anatomy and Physiology.” Introduction to Sociology – 1st Canadian Edition, BCcampus, 6 Mar. 2013, opentextbc.ca/anatomyandphysiology/chapter/20-4-homeostatic-regulation-of-the-vascular-system/.
“What Is Anatomy and Physiology?” CliffNotes, www.cliffsnotes.com/study-guides/anatomy-and-physiology/the-cardiovascular-system/control-of-blood-pressure.
Content
- Scientific Method - In our project, we had to use the scientific method throughout to construct our test in the first please. Its definition is a group of techniques that gives a more accurate representation of data:
- Ask a question
- Do background research
- Construct a hypothesis
- Test your hypothesis
- Analyze your data
- Draw a conclusion
- Communicate results
- Scientific Article - After our tests, we had to show the research that we had obtained in some way, the most efficient is a scientific article, which is a publication of one's research in order to further the process of science, organized usually into certain sections such as:
- Abstract
- Introduction
- Methods
- Results
- Discussion/Conclusion
- Works Cited
- Homeostasis - The state of equal balance in internal structures in an organism compensating for external influences, this is shown in our project in blood pressure's tendency to lower back to natural levels after it is raised in response to stressors
- Independent Variable - A variable that does not change as a result of another variable, the example in our project would be time, or the exercise, which did not change
- Dependent Variable - A variable that changes as a result of another variable, the example in our project would be blood pressure, that changed in response to time or the exercises
- Controlled Variable - The variable that is constant or unchanged throughout the project, in ours, this was the first test of standard blood pressure in our subjects
- Blood Pressure Cuff - A medicinal device wrapped around a subject's arm and inflated in order to test their blood pressure
- Feedback Loop - When outputs of a certain system are reused as inputs to that same system, forming a loop, in our project and the other groups in our class, we all had negative feedback loops, as all homeostasis is negative
- Positive - The loop amplifies the system it is in, multiplying it by a great amount, an example would be the contracting of the cervix in childbirth
- Negative - The loop inhibits and tries to slow or stop the system it is in, blood pressure is one of these, where the blood vessels are constricted in order to slow the flow of blood, which leads to a lower blood flow and heart rate, which means that the blood vessels will constrict less, etc.
- Heart - A muscular organ that pumps blood throughout the body, in our project, the heart controls how much blood, and therefore pressure, is sent through the blood vessels
- Arteries - Muscular walled tubes in the circulatory system responsible for carrying blood throughout the body, in our project, blood pressure measure the pressure against these arteries
- Atrial Natriuretic Peptide - A hormone secreted from the heart that is specifically responsible for lowering blood pressure
Reflection
Throughout this project, I stayed on task and worked well by myself. I completed much of the work and had a decent time doing the tests. Some things that went badly was the fact that one of our group members did not do any work and it made our project that much harder to complete. Another was that since the blood pressure cuffs were finicky, the tests were inaccurate most of the time. However, I was bolstered by the fact that our tests were extremely accurate in the end, with the data turning out almost exactly the way we expected it to. One other thing that worked well was that our final poster looks professional and has all the research we were tasked to find. I learned a lot about how homeostasis is kept in the human body through the posters of other groups and had a pretty good time doing this as well. The only thing that I would say to do better is to pay attention to what my group is doing. If I had taken a bit more authority and stood up in a leadership role, our group might have been able to get a lot more done.