Week 14 — A&P Lab / Scientific Inquiry · "Reading Your Own Autopilot"

Course: Anatomy & Physiology I (BIOL 2301 + BIOL 2101) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Navarro
Objective: Objective 7 — the autonomic nervous system; sympathetic vs. parasympathetic control of the heart · SLO A (relate structure to function; trace a homeostatic response) · SLO B (use physiological terminology correctly)
Worth 50 points · Labs group = 15% of the grade · Lab 14
Format: a simple at-home physiological measurement (no equipment to buy — just your pulse and a timer) — you'll record your resting and post-activity heart rate, watch the sympathetic branch act on your own heart, and then catch the AI's mistakes when it labels autonomic effects.

This is the course's signature weekly component. Every instructional week has one A&P lab. This week's is an at-home measurement of your own autonomic nervous system in action; other weeks use a virtual anatomy atlas, a virtual microscope, or PhET simulations. The optional atlas link below is a link to an external site — nothing to buy or download.

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Part 1 — The Big Picture

This week you learned that your autonomic nervous system runs your heart automatically through two opposing branches: the sympathetic ("fight-or-flight," which speeds the heart up) and the parasympathetic ("rest-and-digest," which slows it down). Today you'll watch that happen in your own body. You'll take your resting pulse, do a short burst of activity to trigger the sympathetic branch, take your pulse again, and then watch it fall back toward baseline as the parasympathetic branch re-engages.

The scientific habit this builds: make a prediction → measure → compare the data to the prediction → explain the result with a mechanism. Here the "mechanism" is the sympathetic/parasympathetic balance acting on your heart in real time.

Safety first. This lab uses light activity (e.g., two minutes of jumping jacks, marching in place, or climbing a flight of stairs a couple of times). If any physical activity is unsafe or uncomfortable for you, do not do it — choose the alternate non-exercise option in Part 3 (a startle/cold-stimulus observation), or ask Prof. Navarro for an accommodation. Never push to discomfort, dizziness, or pain.

Background (optional, ~10 min): OpenStax A&P §15.1, "Divisions of the Autonomic Nervous System" — keep it open as your reference for which branch does what: 🔗 https://openstax.org/books/anatomy-and-physiology-2e/pages/15-1-divisions-of-the-autonomic-nervous-system

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Part 2 — Your Scientific Question & Hypothesis

Physiology labs start like any inquiry — with a question and a prediction you'll test against evidence (here, your own pulse).

The question: When you do a short burst of activity, what happens to your heart rate — and which branch of the autonomic nervous system is responsible? And what happens as you rest afterward?

Before you start, write your hypothesis / prediction:

I predict that after light activity my heart rate will _ (increase / decrease / stay the same) compared to resting, driven by my _ (sympathetic / parasympathetic) division; and that in the minute after I stop, my heart rate will _ as my _ division re-engages. I also predict that when I ask an AI to label these autonomic effects, it will make at least ______ error(s) I can catch.

(There's no "right" prediction for the AI — you're estimating how reliable it will be, then checking.)

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Part 3 — Materials & Procedure

You need (all free):
- Your own pulse (place two fingers on your wrist or the side of your neck) — do not use your thumb to feel the pulse (it has its own pulse).
- A clock, phone, or timer with a seconds display.
- ~5 minutes of quiet, then a safe spot for light activity.
- An approved chatbot (Gemini, Claude, or ChatGPT) for Part 6.

How to count: count the beats for a full 60 seconds to get beats per minute (bpm). (Shortcut: count for 15 seconds and multiply by 4 — but 60 seconds is steadier.)

Procedure:
1. Rest first. Sit quietly for 3–5 minutes. Then take your resting pulse for 60 s. Record it. Repeat for three trials (you can rest ~30 s between counts). These three numbers are your resting data.
2. Trigger the sympathetic branch. Do ~2 minutes of light activity (jumping jacks, marching in place, or two trips up a flight of stairs). (Unsafe for you? Skip to the alternate below.)
3. Measure the surge. Immediately after stopping, take your pulse for 60 s. Record it. Do three trials, counting one right after another (your rate will start falling, so the first count will be highest — that's expected and is itself data).
4. Watch the recovery. Sit and rest 1 minute, then take your pulse for 60 s, three trials. Record these as your recovery data.
5. Compute the average of each set (add the three trials, divide by 3) and fill in Part 4.

Alternate (no-exercise) option: instead of step 2, do a safe mild stimulus: hold a cold pack (or a bag of ice wrapped in a towel) against the back of your neck for ~30 seconds, OR have a partner clap loudly behind you once (a startle). Take your pulse before and right after. The sympathetic branch still responds (often a small, brief rise). Use the same table; note in Part 5 which option you chose.

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Part 4 — Data Table (fill this in)

Record each trial in bpm, then compute the average of each row.

Condition	Trial 1	Trial 2	Trial 3	Average (bpm)
Resting (sitting quietly)	____	____	____	______
Right after activity (sympathetic surge)	____	____	____	______
1 minute after stopping (recovery)	____	____	____	______

Then compute:
- Increase = (post-activity average) − (resting average) = __ bpm
- Did your recovery average fall below the post-activity average (back toward resting)? ____ (yes / no)

(Average = add the three trials and divide by 3. Example: trials 60, 64, 62 → 186 ÷ 3 = 62 bpm.)

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Part 5 — Identify the Reasoning

Answer in a sentence or two each:
1. Did your heart rate increase after activity? Name the autonomic branch responsible and its everyday nickname, and explain in structure→function terms why a faster heart helps during exertion.
2. In the minute after you stopped, your heart rate fell back toward resting. Which branch is bringing it back down, and what is the major nerve that carries much of that calming signal to the heart?
3. The two branches push your heart rate in opposite directions. Explain in one sentence how this antagonism is an example of homeostasis (a variable pushed off baseline, then restored).
4. Which option did you use (light activity, or the alternate cold/startle stimulus)? In one sentence, say whether the result matched your hypothesis.

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Part 6 — AI-Critique Moment (required — this is the BYOAI step)

Now bring in your approved chatbot (Gemini, Claude, or ChatGPT) and be the physiologist who checks its work.

1. Paste this to the chatbot: "When I exercise and my heart rate goes up, which autonomic branch causes that — sympathetic or parasympathetic? And when I rest afterward and my heart slows back down, which branch is responsible? Also, which branch dilates the pupils, and which one stimulates digestion?"
2. Check everything it says against what you measured and OpenStax §15.1:
   - Did it credit the sympathetic branch with speeding the heart during exercise (fight-or-flight)? Chatbots sometimes say the parasympathetic speeds it — that's backwards.
   - Did it credit the parasympathetic branch with slowing the heart as you rest (rest-and-digest)?
   - Did it put pupil dilation with the sympathetic branch and stimulating digestion with the parasympathetic branch? (Watch for these two being swapped.)
3. Write 2–3 sentences reporting what the AI got right and at least one error you caught and corrected (with the correct branch). If it happened to get everything right, say how you verified each claim against your own data and OpenStax — that's the skill.

The habit all term: the tool drafts, you judge. On this topic a chatbot will confidently swap the two branches — and you just felt the real answer in your own pulse, so you can catch it cold.

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Part 7 — What to Submit

Submit a single document (or text entry) with: your hypothesis/prediction, your completed Part 4 data table (with averages and the computed increase), your Part 5 answers, and your Part 6 AI-critique paragraph. Due Sunday, Dec 6, 11:59 p.m. (50 points).

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Instructor answer key — REMOVE BEFORE PUBLISHING TO STUDENTS

Students' own numbers will vary (resting pulses commonly run ~60–100 bpm; post-activity higher). What's graded is the pattern and the reasoning, not hitting specific values. The sample table below uses clean, pre-computed averages so you can see what a correct, fully worked submission looks like. All sample numbers were independently re-verified in /tmp with a Python script (see Quality gate).

Sample completed table (illustrative — averages verified):

Condition	Trial 1	Trial 2	Trial 3	Average (bpm)
Resting	60	64	62	62
Right after activity	96	100	98	98
1 minute after stopping	70	74	72	72

• Increase = 98 − 62 = 36 bpm (the sympathetic surge).

• Recovery: the 1-minute average (72) has fallen below the post-activity average (98), heading back toward resting (62) — the parasympathetic branch re-engaging. (Verification: 186 ÷ 3 = 62; 294 ÷ 3 = 98; 216 ÷ 3 = 72; 98 − 62 = 36 — all confirmed in /tmp.)

• Part 5: (1) Yes, heart rate increases — the sympathetic branch ("fight-or-flight") speeds the heart; a faster heart pumps more blood, delivering more oxygen and fuel to the working muscles, which is exactly what exertion demands (structure→function). (2) The parasympathetic branch ("rest-and-digest") brings it back down; the vagus nerve (cranial nerve X) carries much of that calming signal to the heart. (3) The two branches push heart rate in opposite directions, and the body balances them to hold heart rate appropriate to the moment — pushed up by activity, restored toward baseline at rest — which is homeostasis (the same sense-and-correct logic as the Week-1 temperature loop). (4) Accept either option; full credit if the student states whether the result matched their hypothesis (it almost always does — HR rises with activity).

• Part 6 (AI-critique): full credit for a specific catch — most commonly the AI claiming the parasympathetic branch speeds the heart for exercise (it's the sympathetic), or swapping pupil dilation (sympathetic) with stimulating digestion (parasympathetic). Full credit also if the student verified each claim against their own data and OpenStax §15.1.

Grading rubric — 50 points

Criterion	Full	Partial	None
Hypothesis / prediction — a clear prediction about the HR change, the branch, the recovery, and the AI's reliability (6)	6	3–4	0–2
Data table (Part 4) — three trials per condition with correct averages and the computed increase (16)	16	8–13	0–6
Reasoning (Part 5) — correct branch named for the rise (sympathetic) and the recovery (parasympathetic/vagus), a sound structure→function point, and the homeostasis tie-in (16)	16	8–13	0–6
AI-critique (Part 6) — names a specific autonomic error caught and corrected with the right branch (8)	8	4–6	0–3
Physiological language — uses sympathetic/parasympathetic, afferent/efferent, etc. correctly throughout (4)	4	2	0–1

Quality gate (self-checked): every autonomic fact in the key is verified against standard physiology (OpenStax A&P §15.1; InnerBody nervous system) — the sympathetic branch (fight-or-flight) speeds the heart, dilates the pupils, and inhibits digestion; the parasympathetic branch (rest-and-digest) slows the heart, constricts the pupils, and stimulates digestion; the vagus nerve (cranial nerve X) is the major parasympathetic nerve. No branch is swapped. Anatomy-accuracy gate: PASS. The sample averages were pre-computed and independently re-verified with a Python script in /tmp: resting 186 ÷ 3 = 62 bpm; post-activity 294 ÷ 3 = 98 bpm; recovery 216 ÷ 3 = 72 bpm; increase 98 − 62 = 36 bpm — all confirmed. Quantitative gate: PASS.

Provenance / links note: the optional OpenStax §15.1 link is to an external site, verified live on 2026-06-27; if it ever fails, substitute another authoritative autonomic-nervous-system reference (e.g., InnerBody nervous system or Khan Academy A&P). No license or copyright is claimed over any linked resource.