Regulation of heart rate during activity (AQA A-level PE)

This fully-resourced lesson looks at the regulation of the heart rate by the cardiovascular centre in the medulla oblongata. The engaging and detailed PowerPoint and accompanying resources, which are differentiated 3 ways, have been designed to cover the sixth point of topic 1.1.2 in the applied anatomy and physiology unit of the AQA A-level PE specification.

This lesson begins with a prior knowledge check where students have to identify and correct any errors in a passage about the conduction system of the heart which was covered in an earlier lesson in topic 1.1.2. This allows the SAN to be recalled as this structure plays an important role as the effector in this regulatory system. Moving forwards, the three key parts of a regulatory system are introduced as the next part of the lesson will specifically look at the range of sensory receptors, the regulatory centre and the effector. A quick quiz round is used to introduce a range of stimuli so that students can understand how chemoreceptors, proprioceptors and baroreceptors generate electrical impulses to be conducted along a neurone to the brain. Another quick quiz introduces the medulla oblongata as the location of the cardiovascular centre. The communication between this centre and the SAN through the autonomic nervous system can be poorly understood so detailed explanations are provided and the sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions are compared. The final task challenges the students to demonstrate and apply their understanding by writing a detailed description of the regulation and this task has been differentiated three ways to allow differing abilities to access the work