Homeostasis
For this unit, we learned about homeostasis and specifically our group focused on blood glucose levels. We researched this topic and then organized it in a scientific paper and then a poster to show off our findings. This process of homeostasis works when the body senses there is too much sugar in the blood, the cells in the pancreas will then release insulin into the body which will cause the body to absorb the sugar in the blood returning the levels to normal.
Some concepts needed to understand this specific concept of homeostasis are:
Blood Sugar: The concentration of glucose in the blood
Homeostasis: The tendency toward a relatively stable equilibrium between interdependent elements, especially as maintained by physiological processes.
Insulin: A hormone made by the pancreas that allows cells in the muscle, fat, and liver to absorb glucose from the blood.
Negative Feedback Loop: Increased output from the system inhibits future production by the system. The body reduces the amount of certain proteins or hormones it creates when their levels get too high.
In our experiment, we calculated how the blood sugar level would fluctuate if a healthy person drank soda, specifically in our case, Coco cola. We couldn't actually perform the experiment because of logistical issues of getting lancets to obtain blood and test strips and a blood meter to find our actual blood sugar level, so we used different data from studies to make an accurate depiction of blood sugar levels up to 60 minutes after drinking a soda. We found that after just 20 minutes, the blood sugar level of a person would spike from 80 mg/dL to around 141 mg/dL. This number would then slowly decrease in the rest of the hour. This decrease is an example of homeostasis. As the body detects the increase in blood sugar the pancreas releases insulin, which allows the cells in the body to take in glucose from the blood, therefore lowering blood sugar levels.
Reflecting on this project two things we did poorly was that we weren't able to obtain the resources to actually proceed in our experiment, this led us to having to estimate were our data would lie which isn't as useful in science. We also struggled at first to understand the concepts of negative feedback loops which we at first found complicated. Two things I did well was organizing different data sets from different researchers and compiling them to create an accurate timeline for how a persons blood sugar levels would level out over time. Another thing we did well was neatly compiling all of our data and research into a well made scientific paper. Our poster and paper are well described and laid out which makes it easier to understand and interpret. An example of this is our procedure which clearly and simply lays out the steps to doing this experiment yourself so that anyone else could test our findings.
