investigations

– Chicken Wing Lab –
17 March, 2015

There are all kinds of bones; long bones, compact bones, spongey bones, and so forth. Each type of bone has a different use for the body. A chicken wing will be dissected in this lab, and its parts will be observed. Muscles, tissues and ligaments will all be observed to see how a chicken wing works. This observation of the chicken wing’s components will give insight on how it works when a chicken wing is in use by said chicken.

Procedures:
– examine wing, see where it was removed from the body
– use scissors to cut down middle of chicken; cut until shoulder joint
– make a t-shaped cut, peel the skin away
– find the muscles in the wing that straighten out the elbow
– pull on muscles, observe
– find the tendons, observe
– write down observations in data table, clean up, dispose chicken

Data and Observations:

Conclusion:

I think that the chicken wing was originally from the right side of the body; if it were from the left side, the wing would extent to the front, rather than to the back/side. The joints that were observed and studied in this chicken wing are similar to the joints and bones that are in a human arm. The elbow in particular is a hinge joint identical to the one that is within the chicken wing; both help the limb extend outward. I was surprised at how similar the inside of a chicken wing was to a human arm. There was fat and cartilage around the bones, and lots of muscle attached to the bones as well. This made me think that the reason a chicken can’t fly is because of all this muscle in their wings; the wings of birds who can fly are often more thin than a chicken wing. The biggest and one of the most important differences between a chicken wing and a human arm is that human’s have hands/fingers, as chickens do not.

– Sensory Touch Lab –
17 February, 2015

Various parts of the body are always sensing outside forces. Whether it be the fabric one is currently wearing, or the wind felt on one’s face. Some areas of the body have various levels of sensitivity. For example, the hand, arm, and fingertip all vary in sensitivity. This sensitivity was tested in the sensory touch lab by pressing the ends of paper clips to the surface of all three listed parts. The goal was to see which parts of the body could tell if one paperclip was being pressed, or two. The lower the density of the area’s receptors, the harder it is to tell them apart. The higher the density, the more easy it is to tell if it’s one or two paper clips being pressed onto the skin.

Procedures:
– gently touch the arm with a paper clip lightly enough to not pierce the skin
– squeeze the paper clip until it is 2 cm apart
– with one’s partner’s eyes closed, touch the paper clip to the partner’s skin 10 times, 5 times with 2 ends, 5 with 1
– decrease paper clip distance to 1.5 cm, repeat previous step
– repeat previous step with 1 cm, .5 cm, 3 cm

Due to the data presented, the fingertip is able to distinguish paperclips the most.

Conclusion:

I originally thought that the fingertip would have the highest sensitivity, since it is the area of the body that actively is feeling and sensing the most things. The results support this hypothesis, as the fingertips, in my experience, 100% accurately predicted how many paper clips were being pressed onto the skin. Humans probably have various densities across the body because it isn’t always necessary for the body to feel very sensitive pressures in every part of the body. If all skin had high densities, it would be annoying for the body to have to deal with feeling multiple things at the same time. Since things vary from human to human, I would assume that my partner’s and I’s densities would be different, and the results also proved this to be true. She was more accurate in some parts, I was less in others. DNA and past experiences could result in this variation. Skin is always able to be harmed in one way from another, from burns to genetic makeups. Doing things like playing guitar and playing video games could cause a build up in one’s fingertips, thus making them less sensitive, since they are always being used. Many factors contribute to the sensitivity of skin in various places of the body.

– Digestion Case Study –
15 January, 2015

All the foods that are digested by humans on a daily basis affect the body in a variety of ways. Proteins, fats, and other types of edible energy that are put into the body can either help the body function, or enable it to grow. Carbohydrates, in particular, are able to do a lot of different things for the body. Almost everything edible in the world has some sort of carbohydrate – grains, liquids, even vegetables and fruits. Only fats, fin fish or certain meats do not have carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are made up of carbon chains, and also contain carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.

Some carbohydrates are better for the body than others. Some food products, like dairy or beans, don’t digest well because the body can sometimes not have enough of the enzymes to properly digest them. That’s why lactose intolerance exists – because the body does not have the enzymes to digest lactose well, thus causing the body to become irritated and gassy. Fiber is a non-digestible carbohydrate, but it does more good than bad for the body. It allows waste to be flushed out, while helping out the intestines of the body.

It’s important to consume a variety of carbohydrates, as different kinds of carbs do different kinds of good to the body to help it maintain it’s healthiness.

– EKG Lab –
31 October, 2014

In this lab, students were to observe and learn about different kinds of wave forms seen in an EKG, and associate them with activity in the heart. The heart rate of humans can vary from person to person, depending on the rate of exercise a human performs on a daily basis. Some heart rates are smaller in wave size than others, depending on how close the veins are to the surface of the skin.

Carrying out the lab was relatively easy. Little preparation was needed aside from installing a graphing program onto the computer, and plugging in chords into the outlets. Electrodes were hooked up to three different places on the subject’s arms, and a heart monitor recorded the heart rate of the subject. This information was then installed into the computer and recorded as such:

The data that was collected was the amount it time it took different parts of a heart beat to get from point A to point B. For example, the interval for P-R was .06 seconds, while the time for a full heart beat (R-R interval) was 1.07 seconds, roughly a minute.

Based on the data taken from the heart rate of the subject, a healthy heart rate was found amongst the numbers that were analyzed. The average heart rate for an adult is around 60 to 100 BPM. It took 1.07 seconds for the heart of the subject to beat once, thus averaging about 64 BPM. This indicates that the subject has a healthy heart, and does not have any serious implications with how the heart beats. The veins of the surface must have been near the surface, as the peak in each heart beat was high enough to analyze.

– Homeostasis Lab –
8 October, 2014

In this lab, the topic of how homeostasis is addressed, as well as experimented on in the context of a human body and physical exercise. Depending on what is done to the body, various components of homeostasis can be altered. The purpose is to see how an organisms can keep conditions within the body stable when possibly disoriented in a certain way, hence the exercise.

The lab was carried out within a science classroom, with one person in a group as the subject, and the rest as observers. The steps that were taken to do the lab were as follows:
1. Observe, measure, and record (on the data table) a group member while doing jumping jacks, sitting down and resting.
2. The student with the stopwatch will give a signal for the chosen group member to begin jumping. Immediately when 2 minutes have passed record observations and measurements.
3. Repeat step 2 four times.
4. After 8 minutes is up, the group member doing jumping jacks will rest for 1 minute and final observations/measurements will be recorded.
5. Clean thermometer with alcohol and return lab materials

The data that was collected were statics of the subject’s body; skin color, perspiration, heart rate, and so on. Each correlated with one another, as in the lab it was found that the more exercise that was done, the higher certain things like heart rate, body temperature, breathing rate, and blood pressure were. Other components, such as skin color and perspiration level, stayed the same throughout the lab, in part due to the assume healthy body of the subject. Conclusions that were met consisted of the more energy being spent, the more certain parts of the body, like heart rate, body temperature, breathing rate, and blood pressure grew, whilst at the same time, oxygen saturation of the blood went down.