Anatomy vs physiology, homeostasis
Open your materials, follow the steps, then turn in your work.
Distinguish anatomy from physiology and explain homeostasis using a feedback example.
1. Open your materials
Use the materials named in the first step below. Open lesson resources.
2. Start the work
Read the teacher background notes on anatomy (structure) versus physiology (function).
Show all 5 required steps
- Read the teacher background notes on anatomy (structure) versus physiology (function).
- Define homeostasis and label the parts of a negative-feedback loop: stimulus, sensor, control, effector.
- Work the PLTW online task introducing homeostasis and the levels of organization.
- Sketch how body temperature is corrected when you get too hot.
- Submit your homeostasis loop diagram with each part labeled.
Lost your place? If you lost your place, check your feedback-loop diagram (stimulus, receptor, control center, effector, response) and fill in the next part you are missing.
Check your work before submitting
- You can tell whether a statement describes anatomy or physiology.
- You can label every stage of a negative-feedback loop.
3. Turn in your work
DueCheck Schoology- Hand in
- Labeled negative-feedback loop diagram for thermoregulation with all four components identified.
How to submit and name your file
Submit a photo of your dated notebook page showing the completed loop diagram.
In Schoology, open your course and the assignment for this lesson. Attach your file, select Submit, and check that it appears in the submission.
PDF upload helpYou get two school days for every day you were absent, so this deadline moves with you.
Choose your Schoology section. Open only one assignment.
Check the section number beside Human Anatomy and Physiology in Schoology.
Assignment: Wk2 Lab notebook: Anatomy vs physiology, homeostasis
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How this lesson connects
Keep using what you learned last class: Medical knowledge advances through the study of real human bodies, which raises genuine ethical questions about consent and respect. Today: The body maintains a stable internal environment through continuous negative-feedback loops.
Unit 1 guide: what to keep and use nextOptional: listen or watch a unit review▸
Need help? Warm-up, timing, and directions▸
💡 Big idea: The body maintains a stable internal environment through continuous negative-feedback loops.
- 0-8Intro: vs physiology sorting activity (10 statement cards)
- 8-25Notes: definition and negative- components
- 25-45PLTW online task: and levels of organization
- 45-60Sketch thermoregulation in notebook
- 60-75Peer-check labels against reference, revise
- 75-80Submit diagram; exit preview of Wednesday day
- • Yesterday we debated ethics. Today we build the scientific foundation for everything else in this course.
- • Two words you will use constantly: and physiology. Anatomy is structure, physiology is function. A bone is anatomy. How that bone grows is physiology.
- • The body is always working to stay in balance. That balance has a name: . Today you will learn the loop that makes it happen.
- • By the end of class your labeled diagram will be in your notebook. That diagram is your first graded artifact.
- • describes structure; physiology describes function. Both are required to understand disease (pathophysiology).
- • is the maintenance of a stable internal environment; is the primary mechanism.
- • The components are: , /sensor, control center, , and response.
PLTW connection and today's work
Return to Activity 1.1.1 Meet the Patients (Lesson 1.1 Beginning With Bones) in myPLTW and complete the homeostasis and levels-of-organization online task; work through all required screens during class.
Today's stopping point: You finished the course-launch task Monday; by end of today the homeostasis task should also show complete in your progress bar.
PLTW activity titles identify the course connection. If your account will not open, use the posted materials for today and tell Mr. Mendoza. Do not mark an online activity complete unless you completed it.
Course connection
- Activity 1.1.1 Meet the Patients
Use the turn-in directions at the top of this page. Do not create a second submission unless your teacher asks for one.
Show another explanation or a smaller first step
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Lesson resources: reading, slides, and vocabulary▸
The deck carries the prior idea forward, lets you inspect an analogy, maps the rule to biology, and ends with the same evidence decision and exit ticket used on this page.
Generated from this lesson's canonical data with a red-team citation check.
Medical knowledge advances through the study of real human bodies, which raises genuine ethical questions about consent and respect.
The body maintains a stable internal environment through continuous negative-feedback loops.
A thermostat compares a room reading with a set point and changes the heater.
- What is measured?
- What is the target?
- What response reduces the difference?
detects a change and produces a response that reduces that change.
Body systems use many interacting signals and delays, not one simple thermostat wire.
- • Room reading maps to the measured variable.
- • Set point maps to the regulated range.
- • Heater response maps to an response.
Driving question: It is 95 degrees outside, but your core body temperature barely moves. What is your body doing, moment to moment, to pull that off?
What you already know: Medical knowledge advances through the study of real human bodies, which raises genuine ethical questions about consent and respect.
New idea: The body maintains a stable internal environment through continuous negative-feedback loops.
Visual or model: F1. F1. A lesson illustration or teaching diagram for Anatomy vs physiology, homeostasis. Use it with E1-E3; it is a model or context image, not experimental or patient data. What to notice: Trace the labeled structure, movement, or system relationship that connects form to function.
- Observe or measure the relevant feature in today's lesson.
- Organize the observation with a stable evidence ID.
- Apply this rule: detects a change and produces a response that reduces that change.
- Choose the option the evidence supports and state the limit of the conclusion.
Real biomedical example: It is 95 degrees outside, but your core body temperature barely moves. What is your body doing, moment to moment, to pull that off?
What the evidence supports: E1-E3 and F1 support the daily take-home when the response meets the stated success criteria.
What it cannot prove: The package does not support claims beyond this lesson's or any real patient diagnosis.
- • : The study of the body's structure and how its parts are arranged, from whole organs down to individual tissues and cells.
- • physiology: The study of how the body's parts function and work together to keep an organism alive and healthy.
- • : The body's ongoing process of keeping internal conditions like temperature, blood sugar, and pH steady despite changes in the outside environment.
- • : A direction term meaning toward the front of the body, such as the chest being to the spine.
- • : An anatomical direction meaning toward the back of the body or behind another structure.
- • : A direction term meaning closer to the point where a limb attaches to the body, such as the elbow being to the wrist.
- • : An anatomical direction meaning farther from the point where a limb attaches to the body or from the origin of a structure.
- • CER: Use the lesson context and glossary entry to explain CER in your own words.
Use it now: Choose one decision option. Cite E1 and E3, then explain how the rule connects the evidence to your choice.
Go further, optional: The source links below are optional enrichment. Every fact required for today's local evidence decision appears in this lesson package.
is dynamic regulation: sensors, control processes, and effectors use feedback to keep selected physiological variables within ranges that support cell and organ function.
Limit: A single feedback diagram simplifies interacting set ranges, delays, feedforward signals, local controls, and differences among individuals.
detects a change and produces a response that reduces that change.
Limit: Body systems use many interacting signals and delays, not one simple thermostat wire.
You can tell whether a statement describes or physiology.
Limit: E3 defines the classroom product or success criterion. It is not independent scientific evidence and cannot justify a clinical or causal claim.
PLTW-HAP-2027-01-29 · Simulated classroom evidence scenario
Your role: anatomy and physiology consultant
Decision: Your team must decide what the evidence from today's lesson supports before submitting the notebook record named on today's page.
- • Report that holds core temperature perfectly steady, so any wobble means the loop failed.
- • Track core temperature across the whole 95 degree afternoon, since one reading cannot show it being pulled back.
- • Describe body temperature as sensors and effectors constantly correcting small wobbles back toward the set point.
Response: State one choice, cite at least two evidence IDs, explain the rule that connects them, and add one limitation. Submit it as the notebook record.
Claim ceiling: Today's evidence supports a classroom claim about today's lesson. It cannot prove causation, diagnose a real patient, or justify action outside this room.
Reason for review: Your team must decide what the evidence from today's lesson supports before submitting the notebook record named on today's page.
Context: The body keeps a stable internal environment through continuous negative-feedback loops, which is why structure () and function (physiology) have to be understood together.
- • T1: Read the teacher background notes on (structure) versus physiology (function).
- • T2: Define and label the parts of a negative-: , sensor, control, .
- • T3: Work the PLTW online task introducing and the levels of organization.
- • T4: Sketch how body temperature is corrected when you get too hot.
- • T5: Submit your loop diagram with each part labeled.
- • E1: is dynamic regulation: sensors, control processes, and effectors use feedback to keep selected physiological variables within ranges that support cell and organ function.
- • E2: detects a change and produces a response that reduces that change.
- • E3: You can tell whether a statement describes or physiology.
Measurements: No patient measurement is supplied unless it appears explicitly in E1-E3 or F1. Do not invent a value.
Figure finding: Teaching diagram for vs physiology, . Trace the labeled structure, movement, or system relationship that connects form to function. This is a teaching model, not patient or experimental data.
Uncertainty: This is a composite classroom scenario. Missing history, measurements, or confirmation tests remain unknown and limit the conclusion.
Students often think means the body stays perfectly constant. The trap: is constant correction around a set point, not a flat line, so the value wobbles and feedback pulls it back
Title (dated): Negative-Feedback Loop, Cooling Down When Too Hot
Labeled loop (in order):
- Stimulus: body temperature rises above the set point of about 37 degrees Celsius (for example, after exercise).
- Sensor (receptor): temperature receptors in the skin and the hypothalamus detect the rise.
- Control center: the hypothalamus compares the reading to the set point and signals a response.
- Effector: sweat glands and skin blood vessels.
- Response: sweating increases and skin vessels widen (vasodilation), releasing heat. Temperature drops back toward the set point, which shuts the loop off.
One-sentence summary: This is negative feedback because the response (cooling) opposes the original change (heating), pulling the body back to its set point.
Note on anatomy vs physiology: naming the sweat gland is anatomy (structure); explaining that sweating releases heat is physiology (function).
This model shows the level of evidence and organization needed to complete: A dated lab-notebook diagram of a negative-feedback loop for body temperature, with every component of the loop labeled in your own words.
- Date and label the entry.
- Record the procedure, observation, or design decision clearly.
- End with what the evidence means and the next step.
Keep the structure. Replace the question, facts, measurements, and evidence. Then recheck units, vocabulary, and whether the conclusion goes beyond the evidence.
Also due today: Submit a photo of your dated notebook page showing the completed loop diagram.
- CER:
- Claim, Evidence, Reasoning: make a claim, back it with evidence, explain your reasoning.
- SOP:
- Standard Operating Procedure, the exact steps to follow (especially in a lab).
- Tracker:
- Your PLTW progress log where you record completed evidence.
- myPLTW:
- The PLTW course site where you do the online activities. Find it in Clever with your Microsoft sign-in, right next to Schoology.
Tap the speaker to hear a term. Add two of these to your notebook glossary with a definition and an example in your own words.
Pick just 2 or 3 words from today and make them yours: write what each one means in your own words, name the context clue or evidence that helped, then give one example from what you actually did in Anatomy vs physiology, homeostasis. Try your own words first; the glossary is there if you get stuck. This is voluntary and counts as extra credit, so keep it short.
Saved on this device. Show Mr. Mendoza or add these to your notebook glossary to claim the extra credit.
Play the cold open at the start of the unit to set the scene. Each recording is AI-generated and simulated (fictional callers, no real people or student data).
Hand-picked readings, videos, and interactives for this lesson, all free and from authoritative open organizations (NIH, CDC, OpenStax, Khan Academy, PhET, HHMI, and more).
A fillable, Cornell-style notebook for Unit 1: Road to Rehabilitation. Type your notes, cues, and summaries right in the PDF, or print it and write by hand. Each lesson page has a cue column, a notes column, and a summary box, plus dated lab-record pages you can turn in.
HBS Unit 1 notebook: Road to Rehabilitation Fillable PDFCornell notes + lab recordsOpenClassroom documents for this lesson are posted in Schoology. Open Clever, then Schoology, and find each one by the name shown on its card.
Use this as the classroom resource for HBS launch and body systems overview.
Placement rationale
Matched HBS launch and body systems overview by path:Human-Body-Systems/00-Course-Planning; keywords:body systems. Score 130. Visibility: student-schoology (student-facing resource; link through Schoology rather than local path).
Sign in to Clever with your district Microsoft account to open Schoology or myPLTW. Follow today's posted steps. If myPLTW will not open, use the posted alternative and tell Mr. Mendoza. Turn in your completed work through the Schoology assignment.
Practice: try a question, then check your answer▸
Claim ceiling for this check: Today's evidence supports a classroom claim about today's lesson. It cannot prove causation, diagnose a real patient, or justify action outside this room.
In the temperature feedback loop, which part is the effector, and what makes the loop negative feedback?
Write an answer and pick a confidence to unlock the key.
Fast retrieval with instant answers, not the commit-then-reveal check above. Try each from memory first: write what you remember about the earlier units, then check yourself here.
Missed class or ready for more?▸
Run this before you touch the bench. It is built from the real lab procedure, so the decisions you make here are the ones you will make with the equipment in your hands.
What today's skills lead to. These are real health-science careers this course builds toward. Tap one to see, on the US Department of Labor's O*NET site, what the job actually involves, what it pays, and how fast it is growing.
Today's work depends on equipment and locations in our lab, so it cannot be finished from home. Do the part that travels: read the target above and the safety notes, and write what you already know.
Back in class. The in-room part has to be done in the room. See Mr. Mendoza on your first day back and he will run it with you before you work at the bench.
Class still runs. Complete the online activity above (it's self-guided). Need the concept taught without a teacher? Use this authoritative explainer:
CDC Laboratory Safety- CompleteEvery required part of the artifact is present, nothing left blank.
- AccurateThe science and the data are correct and match the evidence.
- Scientific reasoningYou explain your claim with evidence and reasoning (CER), not just an answer.
- Professional communicationClear, organized, labeled, and written the way a clinician or scientist would.
- SubmittedGo to Schoology to turn this in. Submit one PDF. Put your first and last name in the document header. Name the file: FirstName LastName - Assignment Title - YYYY-MM-DD.pdf. If you cannot get in, see Mr. Mendoza. Do not skip the work.
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