Body Temperature Homeostasis
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Body Temperature – Homeostasis
Aim: To observe the affects of heat or cold on the human body.
Materials: Dataloggers or manual equipment to record heart- rate, and body temperature
Method: Record what we did for each condition
Observations:
Time Hot condition Cold Condition (min) 0
2
4
6
8
10
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14
16
18
20
Data Logging Information: Make a chart for each condition from the data supplied by your teacher. You can use Microsoft excel to do this. Discussion: 1. Explain the trends you see in the hot graph Temp: There was a slight increase at the start- possibly because the sensor was cold when placed onto the subject- and still warming up. OR the subjects body may have adjusted quickly- sending warm blood to the skin surface to release heat. Then the skin temperature levelled of at a relatively constant rate. Probably because the body can not send anymore hot blood to the surface than it is already doing.
Heart rate: There is an initial drop- this could be because the subject was nervous, also it could have been slowing down because he was stationary. Then there is an increase in rate- this could be to increase the rate of blood of blood flowing to the surface to release more heat. Another possibility is that there is a drop in blood pressure due to the extra blood flowing to the skin- so the heart pups faster to increase blood pressure. It is also possible that his heart rate naturally fluctuates and changes.
2. What is the body doing to stabilise the temperature?
Sweating – evaporates and cooles the skin Vasodilatation- sends more blood to skin- to release heat by radiation. Increase heart rate- from above
3. Explain the trends you see in the cold graph
Skin temp less than mouth because…. Skin is cooled by air, and is far away from the core. Gradual rise in both temperature- may be significant- possibly the body is increasing the rate of metabolism to heat the body up.
Heart rate: sharp increase then gradual increase… if metabolism has increased in the cells of the body- they require more energy and oxygen- so the heartrate increases to supply these needs.
4. What is the body doing to stabilise the temperature
Increase Metabolism… Vaso-conscritition – decrease blood to skin to slow cooling. Shivering- increase heat via friction of the muscles Goosebumps- decrease circulating air which will cool the skin.
Conclusion: How did we meet the aim? What could be done to improve this experiment?