Middle School Inquiry Lab on Internal Responses in Homeostasis
In this lab students will observe how the human body regulates its internal temperature. They will record the results on a chart and consider the consequences without homeostasis.
Each inquiry lab will contain an essential question that will drive the lesson and make students think. For this lesson, the essential question is:
- Why do organisms respond internally to stimuli? How might this response be helpful?
BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND MATERIALS LIST:
Students will begin the lab by reading the essential question and background information. This can be done individually, as lab groups, or as a whole class. If you consider lab groups, you also might include some type of whole class formative checks before digging into the lab.
Materials List:
- several heating pads or hot water bottles
- 3 cold packs or small bags of ice
- timer
- oral thermometer
PROCEDURE:
In this lab, you'll choose a student as a test subject, and the class will record the student’s internal temperature before applying a variable. This will allow that class to determine a base number.
Throughout the course of the class period, the test subject will endure three variables: cold, heat, and exercise, to see how these factors affect their internal temperature. As the variables are applied, the class will observe how the student’s body will try to maintain homeostasis.
Because of the wait time involved, you might want to assign a companion assignment students can work on.
CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING:
At this point in the lab, students will be checked for understanding by answering questions about their findings. Here is one that comes with the lab:
- Explain how other organisms respond to internal stimuli to reach homeostasis. (Ex. wilting plants, fever in animals, vomiting).
CONCLUSION
Students will go back to the essential question and write a CER (Claim, Evidence, Reasoning) to conclude the lab. Once completed, students will reflect back on their learning by answering the following questions:
- What types of internal stimuli might trigger the need for homeostasis in an animal?
- Give an example of homeostasis in a plant.
- Is fever beneficial or detrimental to an organism? Explain your answer.
MODIFIED AND INDEPENDENT INQUIRY VERSIONS
All of the Kesler Science inquiry labs come with three different modification levels. Each lab is differentiated using the icons below.
STANDARDS ALIGNMENT
TEKS: 7.13B – Describe and relate responses in organisms that may result from internal stimuli such as wilting in plants and fever or vomiting in animals that allow them to maintain balance.
