Homeostasis

Homeostasis project:

For this project, we were placed in groups and got to choose an example of homeostasis that occurs in our body. My group and I chose water levels, so we had to design and conduct our own experiment that could prove how our body uses homeostasis to control and balance the water levels in humans. To show how homeostasis keeps our water levels balanced, we decided to each drink different amounts of water and see how homeostasis dealt with the amount of water we drank. So we each recorded how many times we urinated that day and found that the more water you drank, the more times you went to the restroom. This proves that homeostasis occurred in our bodies and balanced out the water levels for all of us.

Copy of Copy of 2020 homeostasis Graphic Organizer

Our graphic organizer

homeostasis lab

Our lab report


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Our final project:

this is our finished presentation representing the homeostasis lab we did!

Copy of Scientific Poster Templete

Context:

  • Scientific Method- the scientific method has 8 steps: question/problem, observation/research, hypothesis, experiment, collect data, data analysis, conclusion, and finally report findings. in order to complete our lab and project, we used all steps of the scientific method. our graphic organizer, lab report, and final presentation includes all of them.

  • IV- an independent variable is the thing in an experiment that is changed/manipulated. the IV in our lab was how much water each of us drank, since it differed between all of us.

  • DV- a dependent variable is the thing that is measured and based off of the independent variable. the DV in our lab was the amount of times each of us urinated while drinking our water that day.

  • Control- the control is the baseline that you compare everything to. the control in our lab was the normal amount of water drank per day by one of us and the normal amount of times we go the restroom per day.

  • Homeostasis- homeostasis is a process where a biological system maintains stability and achieves a relatively stable equilibrium. water levels was the type of homeostasis that we chose to do our lab on. the body maintains homeostasis when it comes to our water levels by using our kidneys to regulate the water in our bodies; they conserve water if you are dehydrated and they can make urine more dilute to expel excess water if necessary.

  • Trial- a trial is an experiment or procedure that can be infinitely repeated and have different sets of possible outcomes. in our homeostasis lab, we only had one trial since we only did it for one day, but our trial was drinking different amounts of water and counting the amount of times we urinated that day.

  • Hypothesis- a hypothesis is an educated guess of what you think will happen in an experiment or lab, etc. our hypothesis for our lab was: if someone is drinking more water than someone else, then homeostasis will cause that person to have to use the bathroom more often.

  • Experimental trial- an experimental trial is the run/trial that you change things in. our experimental trial in our lab was one of us drinking way more water than the normal amount drank.

Reflection:

My group for this homeostasis project was Kiana, Mahalia, and Emma G. The type of homeostasis in our body that we chose was water levels, so how the body uses homeostasis to balance out the water we contain. During this project, two things I did well were collaborating and being a conscientious learner. Our collaboration was good because we all knew what we were working on and each did different parts of the project. We collaborated nicely so we were able to get a lot done since we worked well as a group. And that brings me to my second positive. By collaborating with one another, we did well in the conscientious learning category. Our time managment skills were very good and we were done super fast since we worked as a team. We didn't have to worry about finishing in time because we were already done, so we got to use the rest of our free time to make everything perfect.

However, there were also two categories that I could improve on and my group as well. One would have to be communication. Although we did well in collaboration, our communication skills weren't the best they could be. Having to do group projects on zoom definitely contributes to that, but there were just points where we were all silent in our breakout room and no one talked. We still in finished our project quick, but I think all projects on zoom will just end up being somewhat awkward at times. Another thing that I could have worked on was critical thinking. There wasn't much need for critical thinking in this project, but I still could've tried and use my brain to think about questions instead of just googling the answer on my chromebook right away. Critical thinking is something I have never really been good at, but during the next project I will try my best to improve my critical thinking skills.