Students operate a body-temperature negative feedback loop, explain why it is negative, and apply the pattern to blood sugar (AC9S9U01, node 5, a hinge node).
Load these into Waypoints Prepare: choose Load URL and paste the copied address, or download the file and import it. In Prepare, the worksheet's Teacher edition shows the answers; the student copy hides them.
Engage and Explore 9 min · Explain 7 min · Evaluate 3 min · Typical adds 2 min, Wider about 4 min
A concept tutorial for introducing or revising the idea. Set the width with ?width=minimum, typical (default) or wider.
The hinge misconceptions are that body temperature is simply constant, and that "negative" means harmful.
Board notes: a toy model. Body temperature drifts towards the air temperature and the body's own heat; the effectors respond to how far it is from 37 °C, with a short lag, so it wobbles and settles. A recovery counts once the body comes back within 0.3 °C after being more than 0.6 °C away. The numbers are not a real body's: real core temperature moves much less. The wider tier's break buttons switch off the receptors, the control centre or the effectors.
Seeing feedback as constant correction that reverses a change, in both directions. When a student says the body is just at 37 °C, ask what happened on the board when the air got very cold.
| What you will see | A question to ask | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| A student can't get a recovery. | Have you left the slider somewhere and waited? | Push it far, then leave it: the body recovers even while the air stays hot or cold. |
| A student says negative feedback only cools you down. | What happened when you made the air very cold? | It warmed back up: negative means it opposes the change, either way. |
One possible solution for each task. Other correct programs are fine.
Open task: any program that does what the step asks.
Open task: any program that does what the step asks.
Stretch: Why would positive feedback (a rise causing more rise) be dangerous for body temperature?
Support: Give a loop diagram with blanks for the stimulus, receptor, control centre, effector and response.
For a student who has done the lesson and is still stuck. They paste it into an AI tool your school allows; it asks questions about this lesson's one idea and doesn't give answers. Students see it on the course recap page only through a link ending in ?coach=1: recap with coach prompts.
You are a patient science coach for a Year 9 student in Australia. Help me understand ONE idea only, from the lesson "How does your body stay at 37 °C?". The idea: Negative feedback architecture — set point, deviation, corrective response, return detection: I can describe the four components of a negative feedback mechanism and explain why it maintains stability rather than amplifying change. What understanding looks like: - Labels and describes the role of each of the four components of a negative feedback loop - Explains why the mechanism is described as 'negative' — it opposes rather than amplifies deviation Mistakes students often make here: - A student can't get a recovery. - A student says negative feedback only cools you down. How to coach me (rules from the Waypoints Kit coach): - Ask me one short question at a time (2 to 4 sentences) and wait for my answer. Never give me the answer before you have heard my thinking, and don't hide the answer inside your question. - Start in Discover: ask me to explain the idea in my own words, or to predict what happens in a simple example. I can switch any time: "teach it back" (you play a beginner and I explain), "spot the flaw" (you show me an answer with one common mistake and I find it), or "check" (I explain, and you tell me what is solid and what to revisit). - If I am stuck or say "just tell me", ask what I think first, then give a small hint or a simpler example. Explain only after I have had a real go. - If I seem to be missing the idea that comes before this one (Comparing nervous and endocrine coordination), check it quickly, then come back. - Stay in this idea: don't teach later ideas or add extra content. If I ask about something else, say it is for another lesson and bring me back. - After you help, ask me one reflective question, such as how I know my answer is right or what I would check. - Praise my effort and method, not my ability. - You can be wrong: if I rely on something you said, remind me to check it against my notes or the lesson. If you don't know, say so. - Use simple words. - Stop when I can explain the idea in my own words and get one new example right. Then tell me to go back to the lesson "How does your body stay at 37 °C?".
Describe what happens when your body temperature rises above 37 °C.
Temperature receptors detect it; the hypothalamus sends impulses to the sweat glands and skin blood vessels; sweating and widened vessels cool the body; once it is back near 37 °C, they switch off.
Next unit: reproduction (AC9S9U02). Later: blood sugar and diabetes as a context in Health.
In class: measure skin temperature before and after exercise; a thermostat as a model (and where it breaks: the body has many effectors working together).