Project Overview
This was a short project. We were tasked with researching homeostasis and picking a specific part of the body that homeostasis affects. Homeostasis is the process in which the body regulates its conditions. Our group researched blood pressure and how it changes due to homeostasis. The amount of blood pumped by the heart, the amount of resistance in the veins, and the volume of blood all affect blood pressure. If the heart speeds up and pumps more blood, there is a higher cardiac output and blood pressure increases. The arterioles can expand and narrow to change arteriolar resistance. Expanded arterioles create less resistance, so this lowers blood pressure. The kidneys can change the volume of blood by increasing or decreasing the amount of urine produced. Since urine is mainly waste from the blood, more urine being created decreases the volume of blood, which decreases blood pressure. We created an experiment to test how people's blood pressure reacted when we showed them either a scary, happy, or appealing video.
Our hypothesis is that the body would make changes in blood pressure based on a simulated stressful situation through various short videos. We found that different types of videos did have differing effects on blood pressure, but the effects were not as significant as we thought they would be. Please continue reading below to hear more about the project.
Our hypothesis is that the body would make changes in blood pressure based on a simulated stressful situation through various short videos. We found that different types of videos did have differing effects on blood pressure, but the effects were not as significant as we thought they would be. Please continue reading below to hear more about the project.
Our Poster
Content
Homeostasis - the tendency toward a relatively stable equilibrium between interdependent elements in the body
Blood Pressure - the pressure of the blood in the circulatory system
Diastolic - the pressure in the arteries when the heart rests between beats
Systolic - the time at which ventricular contraction occurs
Blood Pressure - the pressure of the blood in the circulatory system
Diastolic - the pressure in the arteries when the heart rests between beats
Systolic - the time at which ventricular contraction occurs
Reflection
This was an interesting project. Like the protein synthesis project, this was a short project so we didn't research too much. I think that this was one of the pits, or bad things. We probably could've had a longer project and learned more. I didn't fully understand every type of homeostasis because we just had one day to learn about everyone else's projects. I understand the main ideas that the project was trying to teach us, but like always I want to learn more. This is an area that independent learning could help in. One peak, or good thing during this project was that we got to pick groups so team chemistry was very good. Our group didn't have any major problems with communication or getting along with each other which is always a good thing. Another pit is the quality of our experiment. Like I said earlier, we didn't have that much time to work. We could have had a better project with more time to experiment. Due to limited time constraints, we had to only test 3 subjects. Lastly, another peak was being able to connect the ideas that we gained to other areas. Since I didn't really know much about homeostasis, I learned a lot about how the body works. This explains why we sweat and shiver, which was interesting to know. Overall, we put out a good presentation for this project and I definietly learned about how blood pressure changes, but I could've learned more about how the other parts and body systems chaneg using homeostasis.
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