Homeostasis Project 

Intro:

In this project, my group and I looked at different ways the body maintains homeostasis. We were asked to choose one way the body does this and my group chose to dive deeper into heart rate. We made a plan to decrease our heart rates by mediating and investigate how it returns back to the resting heart rate after this action.  Once we ran our test and gathered our data, we made a final poster that explained the entire process and gave all the information needed to understand our experiment. This poster is shown below:

Content:

Homeostasis - this is the state of steady internal, physical, and chemical conditions maintained by living systems within the body 

Heart rate - this is the number of times the heart beats in a certain amount of time 

Parasympathetic nervous system - part of the nervous system that slows the heart, dilates blood vessels, decreases pupil size, and relaxes muscles in the gastrointestinal tract

Sympathetic nervous system - part of the nervous system that increases heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate, and pupil size 

Meditation - to think deeply or focus one's mind for a period of time 

Control group - group that does not receive the new treatment being studied 

Dependent variable - something that depends on other factors 

Independent variable - variable that stands alone and isn't changed by the other variables you are trying to measure

Reflection:

Overal, this project was very successful. Not only did I learn more about homeostasis, but I was also able to relate it to my life through a hands-on experiment. I think that I did a great job at collaborating with my group because we worked extremely well together and did not experience any conflict between us. I also think that my communication skills were very helpful throughout this project. For example, one of my group members was not present for most of this project so I had to communicate with him and assure that he understood his role even though he was at home. This was very helpful because it allowed us to get data from him even when he was not physically in class. Although I excelled in these areas, I think that I could improve in others. For example, I want to work on my creativity. I feel as though my group could have been more creative in this project and potentially found another way to decrease our heart rate and compare it to our original experiment. I also believe that I could work on my critical thinking skills because we were faced with some hardship in our project that we could have potentially overcome quicker if someone would have introduced a solution. In general, this project was a great experience and I am glad that I was able to take part in it.