Homeostasis Temperature Regulation (Brie-anna Molina)
Credit to Dan McDonnell for experiment design
Research Question and Hypothesis
UNIT QUESTIONS:
ACTIVITY #1: Can extreme temperatures lead to death?
ACTIVITY #2: What is temperature and how does it affect organisms?
ACTIVITY #3: How can we measure the speed of a reaction that occurs in cells?
ACTIVITY #4: What is present in the potato juice that speeds up the chemical reaction?
ACTIVITY #5: What happens to reaction rate when temperature is lowered?
ACTIVITY #6 What happens to reaction rate when temperatures are raised?
ACTIVITY #7A: How do humans maintain their body temperature in low environmental temperatures?
ACTIVITY #7B: How do humans maintain their body temperature in low environmental temperatures? RESEARCH QUESTION: What is the relationship between dead air space and insulative qualities? HYPOTHESIS: The thicker the insulative layer, the longer the temperature inside the bottle will remain unchanged.
ACTIVITY #7C: How do humans maintain their body temperature in low environmental temperatures?
ACTIVITY #8: How do humans maintain their body temperature in high environmental temperatures?
ACTIVITY #9: How does temperature affect us?
Standards
Include the NGSS standards that this addresses.
Experimental Design
ACTIVITY #7B
Content Objective: Arrector pili muscles contract to pull on hairs to enable them to trap warm air and prevent heat from escaping.
Language Objective: Students discuss graphical data and apply the relationships to new situations.
What the Teacher Does: Pose the question, what substances act as good insulators? Have students investigate by altering the amount of air space in insulation and measuring the loss of heat. Students apply their understanding to the homeostatic response of goosebumps.
What the Students Do: Students investigate how insulation affects heat loss from a system. Students analyze a cross-section of skin to determine the effect that contraction of the arrector pili muscle will have on the hair of the skin. Students argue with evidence that goosebumps are a response to heat loss from the body.
Student Outcome: Students graph data from their insulation investigation. Students express a relationship between insulative power and goosebumps.
Objective: Determine if dead air space is a factor in heat loss as it relates to goosebumps.
Compare insulation that has a large amount of dead air space versus the same material “flattened”.
Independent variable
Time. Measure using a stopwatch.
Dependent variables
Temperature change (heat loss) measured using a thermometer or digital probe.
Series
Study the change in temperature (dependent variable) as a function of time (independent variable) under various amounts of dead air space within the insulation (series).
Constants and Controls
CONSTANTS: volume of water, size of container, type of thermometer or probe, type of insulation (amount is different), external temperature
CONTROLS: open bottle with no insulation
Materials
Procedures
Fill three plastic water bottles with hot water.
Place a R13 sock over each of two of the bottles.
Using rubber bands, compress the R13 insulation flat against the bottle.
Squash the insulation so that there is limited air space between the fibers.
Record the temperature change over a period of 20-30 min at two min intervals.
Plot the temperature change of the water over 20-30 min.
Sample data and graphs
Analysis & Conclusions
Analyze the data and draw conclusions relevant to your research question and hypothesis.
Photos & Movies
References
Include links to all relevant references.