Required Practical activity 7

• The nervous system enables humans to react to their surroundings and to coordinate their behaviour
• The nervous system comprises millions of neurones and uses electrical impulses to communicate very quickly
• The nervous system is part of Biology (Single Science) and is related to Homeostasis and response
• A practical activity to investigate the effect of a factor on human reaction times involves using the ruler drop test
• In the ruler drop test, a partner drops a ruler without telling the other person, who must catch it
• The distance on the ruler where the ruler is caught is recorded in a suitable table
• A suitable investigation could be the effect of caffeine or the amount of background noise in the room on reaction times
• Noise reduces the response times of the person in the experiment, as shown by comparing data with and without noise
• The ruler drop test can be repeated multiple times to gather data