Option #1: Experiment on yourself…Record the effects and overall adaptation of your heart and heart rate/blood pressure/vo2 max, etc to some stimuli of your choice, sort of. No chemicals, foods, vitamins, medications, etc. can be used in this experiment and all experiments must be approved by both the instructor and your parent/guardian…some ideas…effect of tempo of music on heartrate and endurance-type activities, effect of multitasking on heartrate, effect of headphone type/music genre on heart rate, heart rate variability of weekday vs. weekend, effect of videogames on heart rate, effect of different genre’s of film on heart rate. This experiment must follow stated protocols and involve only willing participants…
30 pre-post data pieces, if all four journals are in…50 pre-post data pieces if fewer than four.
Introduction (what is your project about, what organs are involved and what do you know about them, what are the variables involved and what is your hypothesis)
Method (what did you do, step by step, so someone could read this part and repeat it)
Results (a chart, and a graph with titles) (50 pieces of data w/o journal requirement)
Conclusion (what happened, use specific data in sentences my heart rate went from 65 to 60 during the course of the study… and what would you do to improve your study. Your conclusion also must also reference a similar research study as found on Google Scholar
Option #2: Family Medical History…question at least three generations within your immediate family, blood relatives, and research the heritability and risk factors contained within your family regarding aging, blood types, and disease. Take at least one disease that is in your family line (obesity, addiction, heart disease, cancer predisposition, osteoporosis, etc.) and research it first using your text book, describe the system that your disease affects, and then use at least three to four sources suggested by your text or Mr. Bartsch to write a paper about your family and the condition. Use good sense regarding this project…if it’s too sensitive of a family subject, move on to another option. 3 to 4 pages if all journals are in; 6 to 7 pages if not.
Introduction: explain what conditions run in your family and then explain the condition you researched, what organs it affects, how it impacts homeostasis, and what you can do to prevent or prepare for the condition.
Interviews: 3 different generations must be interviewed: ex. A sibling of yours, a parent, and a grandparent…Design a question/answer sheet and have these people fill it out…make sure that each person knows about the condition and understands enough to answer your questions…at least five questions must be asked. Example: in class with diabetes…
Type up the questions and responses to include in your paper.
Research the condition using your books and 3 other sources (http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSIHW000/408/408.html; http://www.webmd.com/; http://www.nih.gov/) You must include a bibliography.
If your journals are in, great, if not…conduct at least two more interviews with people who have or are at risk for the condition.
Option #3: Growing up…
http://morph.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Using the page numbers in the book that distinctly talk about aging of particular systems that we’ve studied, you are to research and write about aging and your concerns about it…you can use the morphing software on my website or the address above to morph your face as well. If you have four journals in, include research on 4 systems, if not, go with 7 systems…Answer these questions during the course of your paper…
1. For each decade you’ve lived, explain how your concerns changed up to present day.
2. Project into the next decade and explain how your concerns will probably change and write about goals that you have for the next decade.
3. Explain which system you researched you should be concerned about most in the decade and why?
4. Then dedicate at least a paragraph to the next system you feel is important, and so on and so on.
5. In each paragraph address at least one specific condition as mentioned in the book and how choices you make in upcoming decades could influence that condition.
6. Conclude your paper with comments regarding how you can combat aging and what you generally think about growing old. Exceptional papers will also include at least one other source, perhaps an older person (at least 50 yrs. old) and a brief interview for comparison sake (i.e. what were their goals and hopes and how did younger decisions affect their older life.)
Option #4: Feedback art…take a system, any system and use your text and at least one other source, book or internet, and research a negative feedback loop that occurs within that system and map it out in two or three dimensions…include inhibitory and excitatory signals, problems when the loop isn’t completed, and your general good sense about the structure of the organs and pathways involved. Use of color, interesting materials, and creativity to portray the healthy aspects of the intact feedback loop and the unhealthy aspects of this loop if broken or affected by disease.
Each of these options will be explored in detail in class and additional materials related to the criteria of each project will be given to you once you’ve decided upon your option…decisions are due in written form by Monday, April 19th. Each of these options is intended to be an individual assignment only, no partner projects, no matter what; though you may use data or assist each other with research. Final due dates for Seniors are March 24th for seniors and June 3rd for Juniors.
Option #1 continued...…you’ll need at least one related study to cite and you can start at the sites below to find something related to your work. Since you have to choose a hypothesis and follow some sort of line of research and data collection (you need at least 30 pieces of data, not including averages) to either prove or disprove that hypothesis, you really need to look at variables that actually correlate. You don’t have to use heartrate, I suggest it a lot because it’s easy to measure - you could use metabolic rate, breathing depth, VO 2 maxes, any sort of data that indicates the body’s physiology and its adjustment. You need to ask yourself good questions and then follow them, here are some questions below:
Does mood relate to heartrate?
Does body temperature affect heartrate?
Does a person’s physiology change with age?
Do certain tasks or environmental variables (like temperature, color, light levels, music, loudness, quiet, times of the day, altitude, etc) affect physiology?
Do certain foods influence physiology (no over-eating, fasting, trying out vitamins, and no use of illegal chemicals or liquids with age-restrictions)
Below are some websites that might have studies related to your research…find one that is close and use it…list the variables involved, the working hypothesis, etc. Here is an example below:
If you go to google scholar or to any of the sites off our library’s webpage, you may find some more helpful information. With google scholar type in your independent variable and dependent variable, for instance if you type in ‘loudness and heartrate’ you find all sorts of experimental data and explanations related to this.
If you get your idea and an article that backs it up, please type up your premise/hypothesis and short plan and the summarize the experiment that you found that would back up your experimental idea…remember, better physiological experiments are usually the simplest, yet you can’t be completely obvious (for instance, we know your heart rate will increase if someone startles you or if you exercise)