Lately we have been learning about the Heart, how it pumps blood around our bodies, how it receives oxygen, the types of blood that flow through our veins and just in general how the heart functions and appears to the human eye.
We learnt about the cardiovascular system, how it refers to blood, arteries, veins, the coronary veins, capillaries, and the heart itself. We learnt about the different types of blood; RBCs, WBCs, plasma, and platelets. We learnt that the RBCs are responsible for carrying oxygen around our body to our cells and organs, how WBCs create antibodies when the body has infection or disease, how plasma carries nutrients, water, salts and waste and how platelets are responsible for clotting our blood when we get a cut or wound. Platelets are kind of like our bodies natural plaster. We learnt that arteries carry the oxygenated blood and that the veins carry the deoxygenated blood. A way to remember what transports what is that the arteries carry oxygen AWAY from the heart and the veins carry deoxygenated blood TO the heart. The veins carry deoxygenated blood to the heart so that it can go back to the lungs to get filled with oxygen again which the arteries carry around the body, providing the cells and organs in our body with nutrients. You may ask how the heart gets oxygen. Well veins called coronary veins go to the lungs, collects oxygen and then gets transported back to the heart. They wrap around and into the heart, providing the heart with the nutrients it needs in order to survive. The heart is broken up into four sections, the upper ones named the left and right atrium and the lower ones named the left and right ventricles. The left side is stronger than the right side and this is so because that side is responsible for pumping the oxygenated blood around the body which requires more strength, the left side needs to pump blood to the lungs and back. The left side only has to pump the blood back to the heart after being taken around the body.
