Lesson Plan Template
(Day 3: Homeostasis and Feedback)
Date:
Subject:
Biology- physiology
Objectives: Students will create a cartoon that demonstrates their
understanding of homeostasis and negative feedback.
Prepared By:
T Long
California State Standard Targeted
9c. Students know how feedback loops in
the nervous and endocrine systems
regulate conditions in the body.
Your lesson should include the following:

Information Input or Procedure including lecture, modeling, and checking for understanding.

Guided Practice - Instructor/student/group led and modeled.

Independent Practice by individual students, pairs, small groups should require active learning.

Checks for Understanding (Steps to check for student understanding and engage all students in classroom participation)

Assessment Activities - How will you determine students have met the day’s objective?

Appropriate timing – no more than 20 to 25 minutes per activity
Teacher Guide
Overview & Purpose
What is your lesson
about and/or why are you
teaching it?
Students will read about homeostasis and feedback using a
cartoon as a visual aid. Students will create they own cartoon to
show homeostasis and negative feedback.
Anticipatory Set/Warmup How will you “hook”
the learner into the
lesson?
What is your body’s reaction to being very hot? Cold?
(www.teachersdomain.org has a Fever video segment)
Activity #1:
As a class, read the Homeostasis and Negative feedback
worksheet using temperature as an example. Individually,
students will answer the questions 1-6.
(www.teachersdomain.org Fever! Video clip)
Activity #2:
Discuss: Feedback systems of exercise
Vocab
Activity #3:
In pairs, students will create a cartoon that shows an example of
negative feedback.
Other Resources
Read Modeling Blood Glucose Regulation
Additional Notes
Homework
Materials Prepared
 Homeostasis and
Negative feedback
worksheet.
 Modeling Blood
Glucose
Regulation
worksheet
(E.g. Web, books, etc.)
Homeostasis and Negative Feedback
Homeostasis is one of the fundamental characteristics of living things. It refers to the
maintenance of the internal environment within tolerable limits. All sorts of factors affect the
suitability of our body fluids to sustain life; these include properties like temperature, salinity,
acidity, and the concentrations of nutrients and wastes. Because these properties affect the
chemical reactions that keep us alive, we have built-in physiological mechanisms to maintain
them at desirable levels.
When a change occurs in the body, there are two general ways that the body can respond. In
negative feedback, the body responds in such a way as to reverse the direction of change.
Because this tends to keep things constant, it allows us to maintain homeostasis. On the other
hand, positive feedback is also possible. This means that if a change occurs in some variable,
the response is to change that variable even more in the same direction. This has a de-stabilizing
effect, so it does not result in homeostasis. Positive feedback is used in certain situations where
rapid change is desirable.
To illustrate the components involved in negative
feedback, we can use the example of a driver trying
to stay near the speed limit. The desired value of a
variable is called the set point. Here, the set point is
a speed of 55 mph; in controlling body temperature,
the set point would be 98.6 degrees. The control
center is what monitors the variable and compares it
with the set point. Here, the control center is the
driver; for body temperature, it would be the
hypothalamus of the brain. If the variable differs
from the set point, the control center uses effectors
to reverse the change. Here, the effector is the foot
on the accelerator pedal; in controlling body
temperature, it would include the glands that sweat
and the muscles that shiver.
Homeostasis and Negative Feedback Questions
1. Define homeostasis from the readings.
2. List some factors that homeostasis regulates in your body.
3. Define negative feedback. Explain how this relates to the concept of homeostasis?
4. Define positive feedback. Explain how this relates to the concept of homeostasis?
5. Explain how homeostasis is like driving a car.
6. Describe what the cartoon would be like if it was drawn of positive feedback.
7. Create your own cartoon of a negative feedback system of the Respiratory system
or the Circulatory system. Include and explain all the components of a negative
feedback system (a set point, a control center and an effector).