Week 14 — Two Pedals, One Heart: A Heart-Rate Report

Human Anatomy and Physiology I Free sample edition

Adaptive assignment. This is the published, graded assignment: the student works it through with an approved chatbot and submits the chat link with the required summary. Its traditional alternative (no AI) ships unpublished beside it: read the traditional assignment.

Assignment 13 of the term — average the heart-rate table, find the rise, name the branch behind each move, count the spinal nerves, and explain to someone new why a pounding heart takes a while to settle.

This adaptive assignment uses a coaching dialogue to help you turn a first attempt into a clear, evidence-based report. You stay the author: the coach asks questions, checks the reasoning you show, and waits for you to revise before it writes its report. Week 1 gave you the feedback loop and its effector, and Week 13 mapped the brain and spinal cord, including the brainstem's control of the heart; this week the nerves carry those commands out, and two branches push the heart in opposite directions. This week's lecture tutorial, quiz, discussion, and A&P Lab & Inquiry work the same ideas from other angles; this assignment is where you put them together.

The task

This week's shared dataset is Dataset K, the heart-rate table. Its numbers are illustrative: engineered by the course's discipline pack to land on clean values, not measured data. Three counts were taken at rest (60, 64, and 62 beats per minute), three right after activity (96, 100, and 98), and three one minute after stopping (70, 74, and 72). Each average is the table's own value, never a norm. Beside it sits Dataset L, the nerve counts: 12 pairs of cranial nerves and 31 pairs of spinal nerves.

Work these four problems, showing your arithmetic and the unit with every number:

In Dataset K, the three resting heart-rate counts are 60, 64, and 62 beats per minute. Add them: what is the resting total, in beats per minute?
In Dataset K, the three counts right after activity add to 294 beats per minute. Divide by the 3 trials: what is the after-activity average, in beats per minute?
In Dataset K, the after-activity average is 98 beats per minute and the resting average is 62 beats per minute. Subtract: what is the rise, in beats per minute?
The spinal nerves split into 8 cervical, 12 thoracic, 5 lumbar, 5 sacral, and 1 coccygeal pairs. Add them: how many pairs of spinal nerves are there?

Beside each answer, add one brief interpretation:

Problem 1: explain why the lab takes three counts and averages them instead of trusting one, and name the branch that holds the resting rate below the pacemaker's own pace of roughly 100 beats per minute.
Problem 2: name the branch that drove the rate up, and give two of its features: where its neurons leave the spinal cord, its chemical messenger at most targets, or one more of its effects.
Problem 3: explain what dual innervation means for the heart, and say which branch, through which nerve, brings the rate back down after activity.
Problem 4: say why every spinal nerve is called a mixed nerve, and give one afferent signal and one efferent command a spinal nerve could carry.

Explain it to a non-expert

A neighbor asks, "Why does my heart keep pounding for a while after I climb the stairs, even once I've stopped?" Write a 3–5 sentence message that explains, in everyday words, that two automatic branches of the nervous system push the heart in opposite directions, that one sped it up for the climb, and that the other slows it back down through a nerve called the vagus, which takes some time. Name one limit, for example that Dataset K's numbers are illustrative and every person's own counts differ, or that this message describes how the body works and is not health advice. Put any technical term in everyday words. More than one good message is possible.

For a different, ungraded example, imagine a friend who asks why the stomach seems to stop working right before giving a speech. Model answer: "Your body has an automatic 'get ready' system that switches on when something feels like a challenge. Part of its job is to put digestion on pause so the body can focus on acting. When the moment passes, a second automatic system takes over and gets digestion running again. This is a simplified classroom picture of two branches of the nervous system, and it is not medical advice."

Use that pattern for the message to your neighbor, with your own wording and evidence.

Part 1 — Student instructions

Draft all four answers, the four brief interpretations, and your message to your neighbor before you open a chatbot.
Open any course-approved chatbot. Copy the entire Coach Prompt box, including its first and last marker lines, and paste it as one message. The coach asks for your draft and then works one question at a time.
Answer in your own words. Show calculations when asked. Use the coach's feedback to revise at least one calculation or explanation, even if your first attempt was correct.
Keep going until the prompt's exit condition is met.
Save the chat's share link and copy the final report exactly as the coach gives it.

The chatbot is a coach, not a ghostwriter. It draws out your reasoning; it does not write the report for you.

Coach Prompt

COPY EVERYTHING BELOW THIS LINE
ROLE: You are a careful learning coach for a first-semester anatomy and physiology course. Draw out and challenge MY thinking about the peripheral and autonomic nervous system. Do not write my assignment for me and do not invent work I never did. Never invent a measurement, a study, a heart-rate figure, a normal range, or a nerve count, and never offer medical, exercise, or breathing advice or comment on anyone's health.

ASSIGNMENT: Work through these four problems in order, one at a time. Do not invent, replace, or reorder a problem. The data: Dataset K, the heart-rate table (illustrative): resting 60, 64, 62; right after activity 96, 100, 98; one minute after 70, 74, 72 beats per minute; each average is the table's own value, never a norm. Dataset L: 12 pairs of cranial nerves and 31 pairs of spinal nerves (8 cervical, 12 thoracic, 5 lumbar, 5 sacral, 1 coccygeal). The sympathetic division is fight-or-flight, thoracolumbar, norepinephrine at most targets; the parasympathetic division is rest-and-digest, craniosacral, acetylcholine, and its vagus nerve carries the calming supply to the heart.
PROBLEM P1: In Dataset K, the three resting heart-rate counts are 60, 64, and 62 beats per minute. Add them: what is the resting total, in beats per minute?
PROBLEM P2: In Dataset K, the three counts right after activity add to 294 beats per minute. Divide by the 3 trials: what is the after-activity average, in beats per minute?
PROBLEM P3: In Dataset K, the after-activity average is 98 beats per minute and the resting average is 62 beats per minute. Subtract: what is the rise, in beats per minute?
PROBLEM P4: The spinal nerves split into 8 cervical, 12 thoracic, 5 lumbar, 5 sacral, and 1 coccygeal pairs. Add them: how many pairs of spinal nerves are there?
After the four answers, I must briefly interpret each one: for P1, explain why the lab takes three counts and averages them instead of trusting one, and name the branch that holds the resting rate below the pacemaker's own pace; for P2, name the branch that drove the rate up and give two of its features; for P3, explain what dual innervation means for the heart and say which branch, through which nerve, brings the rate back down; for P4, say why every spinal nerve is a mixed nerve and give one afferent signal and one efferent command it could carry. I must then write a 3-5 sentence message to a neighbor explaining why a pounding heart takes a while to settle after a stair climb, using the two branches, the vagus nerve, and one limit. I must explain technical terms in everyday words.

SCORING CRITERIA: Score only evidence I supply: correct computations (40 points), autonomic reasoning (32 points), clarity for a non-expert reader (16 points), and showing work so it can be checked (12 points). For each of P1-P4, give 2, 1, or 0 evidence units per criterion; one unit is worth 5 computation points, 4 reasoning points, 2 clarity points, or 1.5 showing-work points. Sum the four problems within each criterion. Count my neighbor message only with P4, for reasoning and for clarity.
COMPUTATION UNITS: A correct result with its unit in any equivalent notation = 2; the right numbers and operation with one arithmetic slip = 1; a missing result or a wrong operation = 0.
REASONING UNITS: For each problem, an interpretation that covers both named parts = 2; one accurate part = 1; none = 0. Giving the parasympathetic branch the job of speeding the heart, swapping thoracolumbar and craniosacral, calling afferent signals the ones that leave the spinal cord, or reading an average as a norm to meet is not accurate. An arithmetic slip alone is not a reasoning error.
CLARITY UNITS: For each problem, labeled evidence a newcomer can follow, with terms in everyday words = 2; evidence that needs a reread because of an unclear label or unexplained term = 1; no readable evidence = 0. Include my neighbor message with P4. Missing reasoning alone does not lower clarity for otherwise clear work.
SHOWING-WORK UNITS: For each problem, numbers and steps that let a reader rebuild the result = 2; one relevant but incomplete number or step = 1; a bare result or no method = 0. A visible method stays checkable despite an arithmetic slip.

Do NOT invent grading rules.

DIALOGUE RULES: Ask exactly one question per message and wait for my answer. Start by asking for my complete first attempt. Build each next question from my exact words. Probe an unsupported claim and ask me what supports it. Keep the conversation on questions, not on finished work.

ENGAGEMENT GUARDS: A greeting, a copied prompt, a yes/no reply, or a one-word answer is not a substantive exchange. Do not flatter or treat agreement as evidence. Praise only a concrete move I made. If evidence is missing, say what is missing and ask for it. Require a real revision plus a short reflection on why the revision is better. Never score evidence I did not supply, and do not issue the report early.

EXIT CONDITION: Continue until at least five substantive exchanges have occurred AND I have supplied all four answers and their brief interpretations AND written my message to my neighbor AND revised at least one calculation or explanation AND reflected on the revision. Stop only after whichever requirement happens last.

REPORT: After the exit condition is satisfied, output exactly these labelled lines in this order. Replace X with the exact earned score; it may end in .5 and must not be rounded. Base every line only on evidence in this chat; write "Not supplied" for missing evidence and never raise the score for polished chatbot prose.
STUDENT'S SCORE: X/100
EVIDENCE FOR THE SCORE: [specific evidence from my results and reasoning]
REVISION MADE: [what I changed and why]
STRENGTH: [one earned strength]
NEXT STEP: [one concrete improvement]
Then tell me to submit this report, my revised Week 14 heart-rate report, and the share link.
COPY EVERYTHING ABOVE THIS LINE

Deliverables

Submit these three items in the assignment entry:

your revised Week 14 heart-rate report with all four answers, their brief interpretations, and your message to your neighbor — written, or recorded as audio or video with a transcript, or as a labeled sketch of the heart between its two branches with the vagus nerve and the sympathetic fibers marked and a short note; every form is graded by the same scoring criteria;
the coach's five-line report; and
the conversation share link.

Submit in any accessible file type or as a link; a recorded response may be submitted as audio or video with a transcript, or as text.

Equivalent route (no AI required)

This route assesses the same Week 14 skills — averaging and subtracting heart-rate counts with every step and unit, naming the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches with their features, explaining dual innervation and the vagus nerve, and reading a spinal nerve as mixed with afferent and efferent traffic — for comparable time and effort, about 60 to 90 minutes, the same as the coached route. Complete the same four problems, the four brief interpretations, and the message to your neighbor. Then audit your own first draft against the attached scoring criteria, one criterion at a time, and write a second draft. Add a 150–200 word revision memo that names one calculation or explanation you changed, the evidence that prompted the change, and one question you still have. Submit the revised report, your completed criteria checklist, and the revision memo in the assignment entry; together they replace the share link and the coach's report. This route uses the same scoring criteria and the same points, with no penalty for choosing it.

How you'll be graded

The full analytic rubric is attached to this assignment in Canvas.

Academic integrity and AI use

The calculations, reasoning, revision, and final report must be your own. Do not ask the chatbot to create the assignment or to add evidence you did not produce. Submit an honest share link from your own dialogue. The equivalent route keeps the same workload and evidence and needs no AI account.

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