LAB REPORT REQUIREMENTS:
A full lab report will be required (between 1200 and 1500 words, including the in-text citations but not including Title page, tables, graphs, references or appendix). The report should be consistent with the report guidelines described “Guidelines for writing lab reports”. Your lab report will be worth 12% of your final mark. It will be graded out of 100, as follows:
1. Title page (2/100) – Title must be descriptive and reflective of the experiment (eg. NOT Exercise Physiology project). You must also include your name, course number, date, and word count of the body (i.e. not title page, references, etc.) of your report)
2. Introduction (20/100)
• Identify the topic (in your case the topic is HOMEOSTASIS; one sentence).
• Provide background information relevant to the subject (include at least three literature references including your textbook and two primary or secondary journal articles). The background could include information about the interactions of organisms with their environment, the important role of homeostasis in mammals, changes triggered by stress that maintain homeostasis. The background should focus on exercise as the “stress”, and factors that may influence the response to this stress (e.g. previous fitness level). The rationale for your purpose and hypothesis should be clear. However, avoid mentioning the mechanisms that are used to maintain homeostasis after exercise as these will form part of your discussion.
• Establish why the study is important (one sentence).
• Give a brief summary of the scope and purpose of your study (explain the parameters measured, and a statement of the overall purpose for the lab; 2-3 sentences).
• End with a hypothesis statement and one or two predictions (2-3 sentences)
3. Methods (10/100) – should include the different methods of measurements. Remember that methods must be repeatable, i.e. anybody who wishes to replicate your experiment should be able to do so if they wish. The description should be succinct andshould be written in sentences and in past tense. You should describe what you did, rather than write out a set of instructions. The use of “I” will be permitted in this case. Do not use “we” as this was not a collaborative exercise.
4. Results (20/100) – Present the data in graph form and label each graph as Figure 1 (pulse) and Figure 2 (respiration). Provide a written text in the Results that will explain the salient features seen in each Figure that you wish to emphasize to the reader (and make sure that you refer to the figures in your text). Along with identifying major trends, include information that will quantify the changes you observed, and/or highlight particular points of interest in the data. Also include any relevant observations that you made during the experiments. You must include an Appendix for raw data.
5. Discussion (30/100) -Here are some things to consider including in your discussion. You must cite references for any information you use. You must use a minimum of three references, two of which must be journal articles.
• What do the data suggest to you about the effects of your chosen parameter on recovery after exercise?
• How did exercise influence body temperatures? Explain why?
• What is the function of sweating? Of blanching or flushing of the skin? How do these responses of the body to exercise relate to the maintenance of internal stability?
• What triggers the dramatic change in pulse to the stress of exercise?
• Why does the respiratory rate remain elevated after exercise stops?
• How are these responses shut down once the stress of exercise is removed?
• How do these responses of the body to exercise relate to the maintenance of internal stability?
• Why are you observing inter-individual variation in the ability to recover after exercising?
• You can also include in your discussion a list of other parameters (e.g. blood pressure) that have not been included in your experiment but would have been of interest.
• Describe any limitations to this study (things that make your conclusions less strong than they could be)
• Conclude with a brief statement that refers back to your hypothesis and whether or not it was supported. Please recall that you cannot “prove” that your hypothesis is “correct”. What you can do is say whether or not the data you analyzed support your hypothesis.
6. References (10/100): Your textbook is a good resource for information about exercise physiology and related topics (heart rhythm, breathing rhythms, blood pressure, muscle metabolism, temperature regulation, etc.). You should also access other appropriate textbooks and journal articles (you should aim for at least 5 references including your textbook and 4 journal articles published since the year 2000. At least one of the journal references should be a primary source (i.e. a report of original research, not a textbook, website, review, etc.). Refer to the ‘Guidelines for Writing a Lab Report’ for guidance on how you should format your references.
7. Appendix (3/100) You should include a table of the raw data that you used in your analysis, including the Subject Numbers you used. You don’t have to find your own subject number. Be sure to give your table a number and title.
8. Overall presentation (5/100) This mark will be for spelling, grammar, format and organization.
NOTES:
• During this project, you will observe the changes that occur to your body after physical exercise(= stress) and link these changes to the maintenance of homeostasis. The specific parametersyou’ll be measuring are heart rate and breathing rate. You’ll be measuring these parametersafter exercise and during a recovery period and will be comparing the data you collect foryourself with data that has been collected by other students. You should have only one variable and hold other characteristics constant.
• The physiological changes resulting from intense exercise that you will measure will be:
1. heart rate (= pulse rate; measurement A of your project)
2. breathing rate (measurement B of your project)
• General observations of your appearance (including changes in the color of your skin, level of sweating) in response to exercise are TO BE RECORDED. Personal and physical data that might influence the results (e.g. age, weight, smoker, non-smoker, fitness level, exercise habits, etc.) need to be considered for the analyses of your results.
• The experiments will look at three phases of homeostasis (rest, response, and recovery). All measurements should be made while you are seated/quiet/relaxed.
1. REST: a control measurement of a parameter made 5 min after you become seated/quiet/relaxed.
2. RESPONSE: a measurement taken immediately after exercise stops (peak performance), while you are seated/quiet/relaxed.
3. RECOVERY: a series of measurements taken while you are seated/quiet/relaxed at planned intervals for 20 minutes after the exercise has ceased.
• The subjects for the comparison should be similar tothe primary subject chosen except for one characteristic–your experimental variable. Carrying out the experiment in this way doesn’t give you a true “control” but will be sufficient for our purposes. You could include how better to control the experiment in your discussion.
You should indicate the Subject Number for the subjects you selected to compare.
It is fine to revise your hypothesis and predictions at this point, if they were not strong enough or if you find you don’t have the data to make the comparison you initially chose.
You may take all your comparisons from these subjects (Class data Part I & Part II). Again, please indicate the Subject Numbers.