Learning About the Heart.

 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.

This picture shows me and some classmates carefully dissecting a sheep heart. This lesson taught me a lot especially since it was a hands on experience. I was able to detect where everything was by cutting open the heart, and following a diagram we were given.

The most fun thing so far has been everything; I am the type of person that enjoys everything. If I had to chose one thing, however, it would be dissecting the sheep hearts and watching our teacher demonstrate dissecting sheep and heart lungs (we did that before we dissected our own sheep hearts).

Next year I will be year ten and I would like to focus more on biology based things since I have always taken a fascination in this type of science. But in general I would not mind what topic we would start on next year. I am happy as long as everyone else is happy. I will enjoy anything that gets put in front of me.