1. Homeostasis Design-Your-Own Experiment 2021
Goal: Plan and conduct an experiment to provide evidence that feedback mechanisms maintain homeostasis.
One of the goals of this unit is for you to create & perform your own experiment showing how homeostasis
works. By now you know what homeostasis is and you are familiar with some of the negative feedback
mechanisms that help your body maintain homeostasis.
Now, you need to pick a homeostasis mechanism to study. You will push your body (safely!) out of a normal
level for some parameter and observe the response that the body has to bring that parameter back to normal.
The lists below will help you with ideas. You will be limited by what you can measure but there are many
options. Think about which you’d like to do! If you want to try something on this list, ask me and if I think it’s
doable I’ll approve it!
This experiment and the lab report that you will write afterwards will be a major part of your grade (equal
to a test).
You may work alone or with a partner to plan and conduct the experiment. Everyone will write their own
lab report, regardless of if they had a partner or not.
Things you can do to push the body out of normal
Observable Responses the body might take
The Manipulated Variable
The Responding Variable
● Air Temperature
● Goosebumps
● Water temperature
● Skin color
● Exercise
● Heart rate
● Holding breath
● Blood pressure
● Spicy food
● Saliva volume
● Acidic food
● Saliva pH
● Mental work
● Breathing rate
● Or something else. . .
● Sweat production
Measuring tools: Here are some of the equipment that we have available that you can use to measure. If you
have other devices that you want to bring from home feel free to do so!
● pH test strips
● Sphygmomanometer for measuring blood pressure
● Thermometer
● Measuring devices (scales, graduated cylinders)
● App to record skin color (Pixel Picker and others)
ONE BIG RULE: Be sure to be safe and don’t do anything that would endanger anyone’s health!
Investigative Question: What question am I trying to answer?
How does spicy food affectrespond to your breathing rate ?
Dependent/ Responding Variable (RV)
Independent/ Manipulated Variable (MV)
homeostasis in the human body?
The homeostasis in the body would be something called Capsaicin. Capsaicin (an active component of chilli peppers that causes
tissue burning when in contact with a tissue) causes something in your body that releases as a fine spray when you bite into foods that
contain it, affecting heat receptors in the skin, making your nervous system believe that you're overheating. Your brain responds to this
by cranking up all of your body's cooling mechanisms.
Prediction (hypothesis): What do I think will happen?
If the ________________the spicy food ________________________is _________changed
___________________________,
(MV)
(Tell how the MV is changed)
then the ___________breathing in the humans body ________________________will be _________inceasing
higher and higher as the spiciness increases _________________________,
(RV)
(Tell how the RV will change)
because _________________when eating spicy foods your brain reacts to it as if your body is overheating
__________________________________________________________.
(Your scientific reason why)
Materials: (List my materials and say how many of each I will need.)
Procedure: (Step-by-step directions to do this investigation.)
1. 3 spicy foods
2. milk/water
3. timer
Must Haves:
●
●
●
●
●
Control Condition identified and explained
Describe Manipulated Variable in detail
Measure and Record Responding Variable
Repeat Trials for Reliability (at least 3 subjects, or 3 repeats with the same subject)
Clear Step by Step Directions
1. Control condition- the amount of water/milk to see how much effect it has on the
different types of spicy foods.
2. Manipulated variable- the different types of spicy foods to see the difference between
them and how the difference can affect the breathing rate of the human body.
3. Measurable variable- timing how long the human body takes to catch their regular
breathing rate after eating the spicy food.
4. repeat - we will repeat this 3 (1 gram) times starting from least to most spicy.
5. 1. We will record the normal breathing rate by counting the number of times our subject
breathes in 30 seconds.
2.We will eat the least spicy food
2. Once one of us starts breathing irregularly the other will start a timer
3. Once the timer starts they can start drinking the water/milk
4. When they get their regular breathing rate we will stop the timer
5. We will record the time down
6. Repeat the process 2 more times with the medium level spicy food and the spiciest
food.
Data Table:
Title: _______________________________vs _______________________________ homeostasis
(MV)
(RV)
Step 1:
M.V. = _______
Responding Variable =
Trial 1:
Control (Resting State)
Treatment
GRAPH of Data:
Trial 2:
Trial 3:
Average (add all trials together
then divide by 3)
Same breathing
1min
5mins
1.66
No water
No water
3 water bottles
3 water bottles
Conclusion: (Summarize the data in your data table here.)
The answer to the investigative question is
This data supports or does NOT support my hypothesis because:_
The data showed that _
Why does the body respond in this way? In other words how is homeostasis being
maintained (For a Level 4 on your conclusion add additional research here and cite at
least one source):
Some problems encountered were:
Some possible improvements are:
Rubric
Above Standard
At Standard
Approaching
Standard
Not at
Standard
Questions,
Hypothesis &
Experimental
Design
At standard and clear
thoughtful reasoning,
well worded &
thorough
Correct question,
reasonable
hypothesis, includes
logical procedure and
complete materials
list
Incomplete
hypothesis and/or
procedure,
hypothesis or
procedure is
vague
Missing
multiple parts
or doesn’t
make sense
Data & Graph
Includes all needed
data & data table is
fully labeled with
variables and units.
Graph has no errors,
set up to easily show
the answer to the
investigative question
Includes three trials
or subjects. Data
tables are mostly all
labeled and include
units. Graph follows
guidelines with only
minor errors, graph
type and set up
makes sense
Missing some
data or missing
labeling to the
point of
confusion; Graph
doesn’t follow one
guideline
Missing most
of the data,
very confusing
tables, Graph
doesn’t follow
multiple
guidelines
Conclusion
Answers all
conclusion prompts
accurately,
completely and
thoughtfully; outside
research done to
explain homeostasis
Answers all
conclusion prompts
accurately, with only
minor errors,
omissions or
confusion
Answers most of
the prompts,
answers show
some major
misconceptions
Answers less
than half the
prompts,
shows little
understanding
of homeostasis
& experimental
design
SCORE: _______/ 4Homeostasis
Design-Your-Own Experiment 2021
Goal: Plan and conduct an experiment to provide evidence that feedback mechanisms maintain
homeostasis.
One of the goals of this unit is for you to create & perform your own experiment showing how
homeostasis works. By now you know what homeostasis is and you are familiar with some of the
negative feedback mechanisms that help your body maintain homeostasis.
Now, you need to pick a homeostasis mechanism to study. You will push your body (safely!) out of a
normal level for some parameter and observe the response that the body has to bring that parameter
back to normal. The lists below will help you with ideas. You will be limited by what you can measure
but there are many options. Think about which you’d like to do! If you want to try something on this
list, ask me and if I think it’s doable I’ll approve it!
This experiment and the lab report that you will write afterwards will be a major part of your grade
(equal to a test).
You may work alone or with a partner to plan and conduct the experiment. Everyone will write their
own lab report, regardless of if they had a partner or not.
Things you can do to push the body out of normal
Observable Responses the body might take
The Manipulated Variable
The Responding Variable
● Air Temperature
● Goosebumps
● Water temperature
● Skin color
● Exercise
● Heart rate
● Holding breath
● Blood pressure
● Spicy food
● Saliva volume
● Acidic food
● Saliva pH
● Mental work
● Breathing rate
● Or something else. . .
● Sweat production
Measuring tools: Here are some of the equipment that we have available that you can use to measure. If you
have other devices that you want to bring from home feel free to do so!
● pH test strips
● Sphygmomanometer for measuring blood pressure
● Thermometer
● Measuring devices (scales, graduated cylinders)
● App to record skin color (Pixel Picker and others)
ONE BIG RULE: Be sure to be safe and don’t do anything that would endanger anyone’s health!
Investigative Question: What question am I trying to answer?
How does spicy food affectrespond to your breathing rate ?
Dependent/ Responding Variable (RV)
Independent/ Manipulated Variable (MV)
homeostasis in the human body?
The homeostasis in the body would be something called Capsaicin. Capsaicin (an active component of chilli peppers that causes
tissue burning when in contact with a tissue) causes something in your body that releases as a fine spray when you bite into foods that
contain it, affecting heat receptors in the skin, making your nervous system believe that you're overheating. Your brain responds to this
by cranking up all of your body's cooling mechanisms.
Prediction (hypothesis): What do I think will happen?
If the ________________the spicy food ________________________is _________changed
___________________________,
(MV)
(Tell how the MV is changed)
then the ___________breathing in the humans body ________________________will be _________inceasing
higher and higher as the spiciness increases _________________________,
(RV)
(Tell how the RV will change)
because _________________when eating spicy foods your brain reacts to it as if your body is overheating
__________________________________________________________.
(Your scientific reason why)
Materials: (List my materials and say how many of each I will need.)
Procedure: (Step-by-step directions to do this investigation.)
1. 3 spicy foods
2. milk/water
3. timer
Must Haves:
●
●
●
●
●
Control Condition identified and explained
Describe Manipulated Variable in detail
Measure and Record Responding Variable
Repeat Trials for Reliability (at least 3 subjects, or 3 repeats with the same subject)
Clear Step by Step Directions
1. Control condition- the amount of water/milk to see how much effect it has on the
different types of spicy foods.
2. Manipulated variable- the different types of spicy foods to see the difference between
them and how the difference can affect the breathing rate of the human body.
3. Measurable variable- timing how long the human body takes to catch their regular
breathing rate after eating the spicy food.
4. repeat - we will repeat this 3 (1 gram) times starting from least to most spicy.
5. 1. We will record the normal breathing rate by counting the number of times our subject
breathes in 30 seconds.
2.We will eat the least spicy food
2. Once one of us starts breathing irregularly the other will start a timer
3. Once the timer starts they can start drinking the water/milk
4. When they get their regular breathing rate we will stop the timer
5. We will record the time down
6. Repeat the process 2 more times with the medium level spicy food and the spiciest
food.
Data Table:
Title: _______________________________vs _______________________________ homeostasis
(MV)
(RV)
Step 1:
M.V. = _______
Responding Variable =
Trial 1:
Control (Resting State)
Treatment
GRAPH of Data:
Trial 2:
Trial 3:
Average (add all trials together
then divide by 3)
Same breathing
1min
5mins
1.66
No water
No water
3 water bottles
3 water bottles
Conclusion: (Summarize the data in your data table here.)
The answer to the investigative question is
This data supports or does NOT support my hypothesis because:_
The data showed that _
Why does the body respond in this way? In other words how is homeostasis being
maintained (For a Level 4 on your conclusion add additional research here and cite at
least one source):
Some problems encountered were:
Some possible improvements are:
Rubric
Above Standard
At Standard
Approaching
Standard
Not at
Standard
Questions,
Hypothesis &
Experimental
Design
At standard and clear
thoughtful reasoning,
well worded &
thorough
Correct question,
reasonable
hypothesis, includes
logical procedure and
complete materials
list
Incomplete
hypothesis and/or
procedure,
hypothesis or
procedure is
vague
Missing
multiple parts
or doesn’t
make sense
Data & Graph
Includes all needed
data & data table is
fully labeled with
variables and units.
Graph has no errors,
set up to easily show
the answer to the
investigative question
Includes three trials
or subjects. Data
tables are mostly all
labeled and include
units. Graph follows
guidelines with only
minor errors, graph
type and set up
makes sense
Missing some
data or missing
labeling to the
point of
confusion; Graph
doesn’t follow one
guideline
Missing most
of the data,
very confusing
tables, Graph
doesn’t follow
multiple
guidelines
Conclusion
Answers all
conclusion prompts
accurately,
completely and
thoughtfully; outside
research done to
explain homeostasis
Answers all
conclusion prompts
accurately, with only
minor errors,
omissions or
confusion
Answers most of
the prompts,
answers show
some major
misconceptions
Answers less
than half the
prompts,
shows little
understanding
of homeostasis
& experimental
design
SCORE: _______/ 4