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BSL Home for Life Science Practical Labs

BSL Home Lessons for Single-channel Data Recorder

BSL Home guides students to record great life science data from their own bodies— heart signals (ECG), brain waves (EEG), muscle activity (EMG), eye movement (EOG), and Respiration.

Student-friendly, media-rich software provides prompts, screen shots, and lesson videos to demonstrate calibration, setup & cable management, recording procedures, and data comparison.

Tutorial-style guided lessons and active learning segments for student-designed experiments.

Experimental Objectives

L01 Electromyography (EMG) I — Standard & Integrated EMG
Students investigate the properties of skeletal muscle by measuring maximum clench strength.

L02 Electromyography (EMG) II — Motor Unit Recruitment & Fatigue
Students lift weights to examine motor unit recruitment and skeletal muscle fatigue.

L03 Electroencephalography (EEG) I —Relaxation & Brain Rhythms
Introduces students to electroencephalography by recording from the occipital lobe.

L04 Electroencephalography (EEG) II — Alpha Rhythms in the Occipital Lobe
Students discover how the brain constantly receives and integrates sensory input.

L05 Electrocardiography (ECG) I — Components of the ECG
Introduces students to electrocardiography and the recording of the heart’s electrical signals. Bipolar Leads, Einthoven’s Law, Mean Electrical Axis on the Frontal Plane. Explains Einthoven’s triangle while students perform tasks designed to change the rhythm of the heart.

L08 Respiratory Cycle I — Respiratory Rates, Relative Depths of Breathing, Regulation of Ventilation
Students observe and record EMGs from thoracic respiratory skeletal muscle during eupnea and voluntary apnea.

L10 Electrooculogram (EOG) I — Eye Movement; Saccades & Fixation
Students record horizontal eye movements during real and simulated tracking of a pendulum.

L14 Biofeedback —Relaxation & Arousal
Explores the concept of biofeedback training and its effect on autonomic control of heart rate.

L15 Aerobic Exercise Physiology — Cardiovascular & Respiratory Adjustments During and After Exercise
Students record ECG and HR to see how the electrical activity of the heart and heart rate change.

Tasks Performed by the Student

L01 Electromyography (EMG) I

  • Record EMG from the dominant and non-dominant forearms.
  • Clench fist four times, increasing the grip each time to reach the maximum grip strength with the fourth clench.
  • Listen to the sound of the EMG.

L02 Electromyography (EMG) II

  • Record EMG from the dominant and non-dominant forearms.
  • Complete at least three cycles of lift-wait-repeat with increasing weight.
  • Lift the maximum weight to 45 degrees and hold it until the onset of fatigue.

L03 Electroencephalography (EEG) I

  • Record EEG from the occipital lobe.
  • Record EEG from a relaxed subject with eyes closed, eyes open, and eyes closed again.

L04 Electroencephalography (EEG) II

  • Record EEG data from the occipital lobe.
  • Lie down and relax with eyes closed.
  • Perform a mental word exercise.
  • Hyperventilate for two minutes.
  • Open eyes and continue to relax.

L05 Electrocardiography (ECG) I

  • Record Lead II ECG.
  • Event mark each new activity.
  • Lie down and relax.
  • Seated and relaxed.
  • Take 5 deep breaths.
  • Perform a physical exercise to increase the heart rate.
  • Relax while heart rate returns to normal.
L08 Respiratory Cycle I

  • Record respiration.
  • Sit down and relax.
  • Hyperventilation and recovery (2 min).
  • Breathe normally for 20 seconds, hold breath for as long as possible, breathe normally for 20 seconds.
  • Hyperventilate for 20 seconds and hold breath as long as possible.

L10 Electrooculogram (EOG) I

  • Record horizontal EOG.
  • Hold a pendulum and track with eyes until pendulum stops swinging.
  • Track an imaginary pendulum with eyes.
  • Read a passage of text silently.
  • Read a passage of text aloud.

L14 Biofeedback

  • Record ECG and Heart Rate.
  • Seated, recording baseline for 20 seconds.
  • Concentrate on relaxation for 2 min (i.e., think of something relaxing).
  • Concentrate on arousal for 2 min (i.e., think of something stressful or exciting).
  • Watch a presentation of relaxing images or video for 2 min.
  • Watch a presentation of unsettling images or video for 2 min.

L15 Aerobic Exercise Physiology

  • Record ECG and Heart Rate.
  • Seated, recording baseline for 20 seconds.
  • Exercise for three minutes.
  • Recover in seated position until Heart Rate returns to baseline.

 

Key Features

Students record data from their own bodies

Easy-to-use, handheld data recorder

On-screen commands prompt the student throughout the lesson

BSL Home software automates the calibration procedure for the student

Works wherever students are—lab, home, remote locations on or off campus

Students can run lessons alone or in a group

Introduces fundamental physiology concepts for ECG, EMG, EEG, EOG

Includes active learning options

Provides BSL and BSL PRO analysis tools

Add event markers throughout the recording

#BIOPACSvestheLab

 

Videos

Biopac Student Lab "BSL Home"

BSL Home L01 Cal

BSL Home L01 Recording

BSL Home L02 Recording

BSL Home L02 Cal

BSL Home L02 Recording - Fatigue

BSL Home L03 Recording

BSL Home L03 Recording Seg 3

BSL Home L03 Recording Segment 4

BSL Home L06 Recording

BSL Home L08 Recording Seg 1

BSL Home L08 Recording Segment 2

BSL Home L08 Recording Segment 3

BSL Home L10 Calibration

BSL Home L10 Pendulum

BSL Home L10 Recording 1B

BSL Home L10 Recording 2

BSL Home L10 Recording Segment 1

BSL Home L15 Recording

How to Start a BSL Home Lesson Recording

BSL Home Installation

Student Prep & Distance Learning

Click the link(s) below for sample data and/or lesson procedure video(s), BSL PRO Lesson procedures (PDF) for human lessons*, and graph template files (*.gtl) for BSL PRO Lessons. If more than one .gtl is available, download the .gtl with the _suffix to match BSL version and hardware.

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How to Add NIRS Labs for Brain Function and Muscle Oxygenation

With Biopac Student Lab, students learn by doing and use near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) sensors to record and analyze data displaying changes in deoxygenated (Hb) and oxygenated (HbO2) hemoglobin during cognitive and neuromuscular.
Learn what fNIRS can add to your physiology lab:
– Principles of optical brain imaging
– Lessons on prefrontal cortex imaging and muscle oxygenation
– Demonstration examining Hb and HbO2 during BP occlusion
– Combining fNIRS curriculum with EMG, EDA, EEG, ECG, SpO2, and Respiration to examine the relationship between brain oxygenation and other physiological signals
– Use cases for both teaching and research

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