Thursday 23 April 2015

The Circulatory System

Today we looked at this quote:
Men go abroad to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering.  

Many of us don't know how complex the workings of our body are and yet we walk around in it every day of our lives. The body is amazing and today we started to look at just why it is so amazing. In our inquiry we are going to look at the different systems of the body and how they work perfectly together to help us exist and operate. We started looking at the Circulatory System. We learnt about how much blood we have in our body and how fast the heart pumps it around the body.

Here is a video where Evaan tries to compete with a heart.


It was so great to see you asking such inquisitive questions guys. I think this is going to be a great inquiry.

A few amazing facts:
  • It takes 20 - 60 seconds for a blood cell to leave the heart, travel around the body again, and make it back to the heart.
  • The heart pumps 5 liters around the body in 1 minute, with each beat pumping about a third of a cup. Check out the video attached to see just how fast this is.
  • The circulatory system is basically the transport system of the body. The blood transports the nutrients, oxygen, CO2 and lots of other things around the body. 
  • Arteries carry oxygenated blood from the heart and veins carry deoxygenated blood back to the heart and then on to the lungs to be reoxygenated.
Here are a couple of pictures we used to discuss the heart.