Week 14 A&P Lab & Inquiry: Reading Your Own Autopilot

Human Anatomy and Physiology I Free sample edition

Part 1 — The Big Picture

This week you learned that the peripheral nervous system carries commands out of the brain and spinal cord, that the autonomic nervous system runs cardiac muscle, smooth muscle, and glands without asking you, and that its sympathetic and parasympathetic branches push the same organs in opposite directions. In this lab you watch those two branches work on your own heart with nothing but a pulse and a timer. You count your pulse at rest, right after a minute of brisk activity, and one minute after stopping, put the counts in a data table, and work the averages, the rise, and the first-minute fall. Then you name the branch behind each move and finish by checking a chatbot's account of your lab and catching its slips.

Time budget: Plan for about 120 minutes.

Part 2 — The Task

Guiding question: How does my own heart rate change from rest, to right after one minute of brisk activity, to one minute after stopping, and which autonomic branch is behind each change?

Before you begin — hypothesis: Before you count, write one hypothesis in the if… then… because… form: if you do one minute of brisk activity and then sit still, then your heart rate will change in a pattern you predict from rest to right after activity to one minute later, because of a reason about the two autonomic branches. Then define your variable so it can be measured: name what you count, its unit, and how long you count.

Workshop data: Your own pulse counts at rest, right after activity, and one minute after stopping, with an illustrative fallback series

Source: Nine pulse counts you take at your own wrist at home with only a timer; if you cannot or would rather not do the activity or the counting, the printed fallback series, constructed for this lab and not measured from anyone, stands in for yours.

Rows: 3 trials, shown as 3 rows of the data table with 3 counts each, 9 counts in all; the inquiry table has 4 rows, the summary table has 1 row, and the branch table has 3 rows
Columns: trial number, resting count, count right after activity, and count one minute after stopping, each in beats per minute
Timing: each count taken for 30 seconds and multiplied by 2, or for a full 60 seconds, around one minute of brisk activity

Part 3 — Materials & Procedure

Tools and materials

A free virtual anatomy atlas or 3D anatomy viewer (Innerbody, GetBodySmart), a virtual microscope for histology (Histology Guide), free physiology simulations (PhET pH Scale, Membrane Channels, Neuron, Gene Expression Essentials), and a spreadsheet (Google Sheets or any free spreadsheet)

Ways of working

structure-identification-on-a-virtual-atlas
histology-on-a-virtual-microscope
at-home-physiology-measurement-and-data-table

Procedure

Read this first: stop at any discomfort, and use the printed fallback series instead if the activity or the counting is uncomfortable, or if you would rather not measure yourself. Sit quietly for a few minutes. Find your pulse by placing your index and middle fingers on the underside of the opposite wrist, below the base of the thumb. Set a timer on a phone or any clock with a seconds display. Tool: A free virtual anatomy atlas or 3D anatomy viewer (Innerbody, GetBodySmart), a virtual microscope for histology (Histology Guide), free physiology simulations (PhET pH Scale, Membrane Channels, Neuron, Gene Expression Essentials), and a spreadsheet (Google Sheets or any free spreadsheet). Check: You can feel a steady beat under two fingertips and have a timer ready.
Before you count anything, fill in the inquiry table in Part 4: your hypothesis, the variable you count and its unit, how you count, and one thing you keep the same every trial. Tool: A free virtual anatomy atlas or 3D anatomy viewer (Innerbody, GetBodySmart), a virtual microscope for histology (Histology Guide), free physiology simulations (PhET pH Scale, Membrane Channels, Neuron, Gene Expression Essentials), and a spreadsheet (Google Sheets or any free spreadsheet). Check: The inquiry table has all four cells filled before the first count.
Trial 1, resting count: still seated, count the beats for 30 seconds and multiply by 2, or count for a full 60 seconds. Write the result in beats per minute in the data table. Tool: A free virtual anatomy atlas or 3D anatomy viewer (Innerbody, GetBodySmart), a virtual microscope for histology (Histology Guide), free physiology simulations (PhET pH Scale, Membrane Channels, Neuron, Gene Expression Essentials), and a spreadsheet (Google Sheets or any free spreadsheet). Check: One resting count for trial 1, in beats per minute, is in the data table.
Trial 1, activity: do one minute of brisk activity, such as stepping in place or climbing a flight of stairs at a pace that is hard but comfortable. The moment you stop, count your pulse for 30 seconds and multiply by 2. Write it in the right-after column. Tool: A free virtual anatomy atlas or 3D anatomy viewer (Innerbody, GetBodySmart), a virtual microscope for histology (Histology Guide), free physiology simulations (PhET pH Scale, Membrane Channels, Neuron, Gene Expression Essentials), and a spreadsheet (Google Sheets or any free spreadsheet). Check: A right-after count for trial 1 sits in the data table.
Trial 1, recovery: stay still. When one minute has passed since you stopped, count again for 30 seconds and multiply by 2, and write it in the one-minute-after column. Rest until your breathing feels like it did at the start. Tool: A free virtual anatomy atlas or 3D anatomy viewer (Innerbody, GetBodySmart), a virtual microscope for histology (Histology Guide), free physiology simulations (PhET pH Scale, Membrane Channels, Neuron, Gene Expression Essentials), and a spreadsheet (Google Sheets or any free spreadsheet). Check: Trial 1 has all three counts filled in.
Repeat steps 3 to 5 for trial 2 and trial 3, so you have three counts in each column. Tool: A free virtual anatomy atlas or 3D anatomy viewer (Innerbody, GetBodySmart), a virtual microscope for histology (Histology Guide), free physiology simulations (PhET pH Scale, Membrane Channels, Neuron, Gene Expression Essentials), and a spreadsheet (Google Sheets or any free spreadsheet). Check: The data table holds nine counts, three per column, in beats per minute.
Open a blank spreadsheet. Type the trial numbers 1 to 3 in cells A2 to A4, your resting counts in B2 to B4, your right-after counts in C2 to C4, and your one-minute-after counts in D2 to D4. In B5 type =AVERAGE(B2:B4), and fill the same formula across to C5 and D5. In E5 type =C5-B5 for the rise and in F5 type =C5-D5 for the first-minute fall. Work every value by hand in the summary table too, and check that they match. Tool: A free virtual anatomy atlas or 3D anatomy viewer (Innerbody, GetBodySmart), a virtual microscope for histology (Histology Guide), free physiology simulations (PhET pH Scale, Membrane Channels, Neuron, Gene Expression Essentials), and a spreadsheet (Google Sheets or any free spreadsheet). Check: Cells B5 to F5 show your three averages, the rise, and the fall, each matching your hand-worked line.
Fill in the branch table: for the resting rate, the rise, and the fall, name the autonomic branch, the nerve or the part of the spinal cord it works through, and one more effect of that branch, using Chapter 14 and not a chatbot. Tool: A free virtual anatomy atlas or 3D anatomy viewer (Innerbody, GetBodySmart), a virtual microscope for histology (Histology Guide), free physiology simulations (PhET pH Scale, Membrane Channels, Neuron, Gene Expression Essentials), and a spreadsheet (Google Sheets or any free spreadsheet). Check: Every row of the branch table names a branch, a pathway, and one effect.

Fallback route

When to use it: Use this route if the activity or the counting causes any discomfort, if you cannot do the activity, or if you would rather not measure your own pulse.

Use the illustrative fallback series below, constructed for this lab and not measured from anyone, as your nine counts. Complete every table, every analysis question, and the critique step with it, and submit the same items for equal credit.

This route earns the same credit as the primary route.

An illustrative fallback series, constructed for this lab, that stands in for your own nine counts.

Fallback model data
Trial	Resting count (beats per minute)	Right after activity (beats per minute)	One minute after stopping (beats per minute)
1	63	107	74
2	67	111	78
3	65	109	76

Part 4 — The Scaffold

Name the parts of your inquiry before you count, so every count is measured the same way.

Student scaffold table 1
Part of the inquiry	Your answer
Hypothesis (if… then… because…)
The variable you count, and its unit
How you count (30 seconds times 2, or a full 60 seconds)
One thing you keep the same for every trial

Record each count as soon as you take it, so the three conditions stay in their true order.

Student scaffold table 2
Trial	Resting count (beats per minute)	Right after activity (beats per minute)	One minute after stopping (beats per minute)
1
2
3

Work each summary value by hand, showing the arithmetic, so a reader can rebuild it from your counts.

Student scaffold table 3
Resting average	After-activity average	One-minute-after average	Rise (after-activity minus resting)	First-minute fall (after-activity minus one-minute-after)

Name the branch behind each move, so your numbers read as the two branches trading control.

Student scaffold table 4
Move	Autonomic branch	Nerve or part of the cord it works through	One more effect of that branch
The resting rate
The rise
The first-minute fall

Part 5 — Analysis Questions

Show your three averages, your rise, and your first-minute fall, writing each step in words and numbers with the unit, and say in one sentence what the rise means for your heart.
Compare your one-minute-after average with your resting average. Was one minute a full return to rest? Work out what share of your rise was recovered in the first minute (the fall divided by the rise, times 100) and say what that share tells you.
Using your branch table, explain the three moves as two branches sharing one heart: name the branch that speeds the heart and where its neurons leave the cord, the branch that slows it and the nerve it uses, and what dual innervation means here.
Connect your data to the feedback loop from Week 1: which part of the loop do the two autonomic branches act as, and are the commands to your heart somatic or autonomic, afferent or efferent? Explain each choice in one sentence.
Answer one option. (a) Name one way your own counting could be off, such as a beat missed under your fingers or a late timer start, and say how it would change your rise or your fall. (b) Name one thing a pulse count cannot show you about what the two branches are doing, and say which part of this week's chapter fills that gap.

Part 6 — AI-Critique Moment

Choose one equal-credit critique route. Route A: ask an approved AI tool to critique your completed work, then check its response against your own evidence. Route B is the no-AI equivalent printed below.

Approved tools: Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT, Grok, Microsoft Copilot.

Prompt to paste:

I've pasted my completed Reading Your Own Autopilot tables above: three pulse counts at rest, three right after one minute of brisk activity, and three one minute after stopping, in beats per minute, with my arithmetic. Please do six things. First, check my three averages, my rise, and my first-minute fall, showing each step. Second, name the autonomic branch behind my resting rate, my rise, and my fall, and for each branch say where its neurons leave the central nervous system and which chemical messenger it releases. Third, name the nerve that slows my heart and say whether it is a cranial nerve or a spinal nerve. Fourth, list in order the chain from the brainstem to the number I counted at my wrist. Fifth, say what kind of muscle tissue the heart is, and whether the commands to it are somatic or autonomic and afferent or efferent. Sixth, tell me whether my numbers are normal for someone like me, with a source.

Test the response for these likely failures:

Chatbots sometimes say the parasympathetic branch sped the heart during the activity and the sympathetic branch slowed it afterward, swapping the two branches' jobs.
Chatbots sometimes call the vagus nerve a spinal nerve, or say it carries the sympathetic speed-up signal to the heart.
Chatbots sometimes divide a sum of three counts by 2, or work the rise as the one-minute-after average minus the resting average instead of the after-activity average minus the resting average.
Chatbots sometimes start the chain at the heart and end at the brainstem, or put the pacemaker before the autonomic branch that drives it.
Chatbots sometimes call the heart's commands somatic, call the heart skeletal muscle, or label the outgoing command to the heart afferent.
Asked whether the numbers are normal, chatbots readily supply a normal resting range, a typical rise for adults, or a recovery target with a confident source this lab never gave.

In three to five sentences, quote at least two statements from the chatbot that you corrected, give each correction with evidence from your tables or Chapter 14, and name one thing the chatbot got right.

Equivalent route (no AI required)

No AI account is required for this lab. Instead of the chatbot, critique this flawed analysis, printed here in full: "My resting counts were 63, 67, and 65 beats per minute, so my resting average is 195 ÷ 2, about 97.5 beats per minute. During the activity the parasympathetic branch sped my heart up, and afterward the sympathetic branch slowed it back down through the vagus nerve, which is a spinal nerve. The chain runs from my heart's pacemaker up to the brainstem, and then the pulse appears at my wrist. My heart is skeletal muscle, so the commands to it are somatic and afferent. A study I read says every heart recovers exactly 90 percent of its rise in the first minute, so my recovery is on target." Mark it up: quote each flawed sentence, name what is wrong (a mislabeled structure, a wrong structure-to-function pairing, a miscomputed value, an order scrambled, a confused directional term or tissue type, or an invented figure), cite the evidence from your tables or this week's chapter, and write a corrected sentence beneath it. This route assesses the same objectives (Objective 7 and Objective 1) as the chatbot critique, takes comparable effort (about 30 minutes and 200–300 words), is scored by the same scoring criteria for the same credit, and its own submission artifact is the marked-up flawed analysis, posted in place of the chatbot share link and report.

Part 7 — What to Submit

All four completed scaffold tables, with the data table filled from your own counts or the illustrative fallback series
Written answers to all five analysis questions, including the option you chose for question 5
The chatbot critique report with its share link, or the equivalent route's marked-up flawed analysis

Deliverable:

A short A&P Lab & Inquiry report on your heart's autopilot: four completed tables (the parts of your inquiry, your nine counts, the summary values, and the branch behind each move), written answers to five analysis questions, and a critique of a chatbot's account of your lab, or, on the equivalent route, a marked-up correction of the printed flawed analysis. 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. Choose a written, recorded, or visual form for your answers; every form is graded by the same scoring criteria.

Rubric

The rubric below shows how each submitted part is evaluated; bands are full, partial, or none.

Workshop evaluation criteria
Criterion	Full	Partial	None
Testable hypothesis and a measurable variable	A falsifiable if… then… because… hypothesis appears before the first count, and the counted variable, its unit, the counting method, and one condition held the same are named.	A hypothesis appears but is not falsifiable, or the variable, its unit, or the counting method is missing.	No hypothesis, and the parts of the inquiry are not named.
Data table and summary values	Nine counts from the student's own trials or the fallback series, the three averages each worked as a sum divided by 3, and the rise and the first-minute fall each subtracting the right two averages, with every step and unit shown.	The counts are recorded, but an average divides by the wrong number, the rise or the fall subtracts the wrong averages, or a unit is missing while the method is visible.	The data table is blank, or the counts are not from the student's trials or the fallback series.
Branch table and the mechanism	The branch table gives the resting rate and the fall to the parasympathetic branch through the vagus nerve and the rise to the sympathetic branch from the thoracolumbar cord, each with one more correct effect, and dual innervation is explained.	The branches are named but one move is given to the wrong branch, a pathway is missing, or dual innervation is left unexplained.	No branch table, or both branches are given the wrong moves.
Analysis questions	Answers all five questions with evidence from the tables, including the share of the rise recovered, the effector role in the feedback loop, and one chosen limitation option.	Answers most questions but leaves one unsupported, or calls the heart's commands somatic or afferent.	Analysis questions are unanswered or unsupported by the tables.
Critique of the chatbot or of the printed flawed analysis	On either route, at least two errors are quoted and corrected with evidence from the student's own tables or the chapter, and one correct point is acknowledged; both routes earn this band equally.	On either route, errors are named but corrected without evidence, or only one error is caught.	No critique appears, or pasted output is submitted without any checking.

Quality Gate

Every count in the data table comes from your own pulse or the printed fallback series, never from memory, a classmate, or a chatbot.
The hypothesis was written before the first count, has the if… then… because… form, and the variable is defined so it can be measured.
Each average divides the sum of three counts by 3, and the rise and the fall subtract the right two averages, with every step and unit shown.
The branch table gives the rise to the sympathetic branch and the fall to the parasympathetic branch through the vagus nerve.
No measurement, normal range, percentage, study, or source is invented anywhere in the submission.
You stopped at any discomfort, and your write-up treats your counts as your own values, never as a norm to meet.
The critique quotes the chatbot or the flawed analysis and corrects at least two errors with evidence from your tables or the chapter.

Built with The Course Maker · samples.thecoursemaker.com