Cliona's Biology page http://clionabiology.posterous.com Most recent posts at Cliona's Biology page posterous.com Mon, 05 Dec 2011 06:19:08 -0800 Pig Heart Dissection http://clionabiology.posterous.com/pig-heart-dissection http://clionabiology.posterous.com/pig-heart-dissection

On the first day, we watched Mr. B-R showed us the dissection of the right side of the heart so we know what to do when we dissect it.  He measured its weight and its volume.  To measure its weight he just put it on a weighing scale, my estimate was 700 grams, the real weight was 380 grams.  To measure the volume, he filled a beaker with water, put the beaker in a tub and dropped the heart in.  then he measured the amount of water in the tub.  This is called displacement.  My estimate of the volume was 400 milliliters, its real volume was 345 milliliters.

On the second day, we did the dissecting:

First look: before dissecting.  We could see that the right side is smaller than the left side, it doesn’t really reach down to the bottom of the heart, the left occupies the bottom of the heart.  The left side was a lot denser than the right side.  The pulmonary artery and the aorta were quite rubbery and pink on the outside and we found out that its true color is white (we see this when we cut in).  The heart had some fat on the outside, it looked quite pinky white.  It had a very smooth texture.  You could see the vein between the left side and the right side.

Cutting in.  there was some blood in our heart so we had to drain it first.  Then we started cutting down the pulmonary artery.  At the top there were some valves, these would fill up with blood and close up so that the opening would close and the blood is forced through another opening.  The valves are quite elastic and thin.  Then we cut down the side of the right side right to the bottom, as far as the right side could go.  To cut, we needed the scissors to find its way on its own because if we force it or poke it, the dissection would be ruined.  When we got to the bottom, we turned around and went back up so that the right side would open completely.  Inside the right side, there were a lot of blood clots, mainly around the middle valves.  The blood clots were very dark red and they were squidgy.  We used tweezers to get them out.  We tried pulling the valves to see how they work.  They were the same as the top valves.  The wall of the right side was around 5 millimeters thick.  Our atriums were cut off so we couldn’t really see it properly.  There were some valves up there too.

On the left side, it was a lot harder to cut.  This is because the wall was about 4 times as thick as the right side and it was denser.  We did the same thing with the cutting, going down to the bottom and coming back up, letting the scissors find its way.  The inside was smooth but it had a lot of vertical dents.  There were a lot of blood clots as well, these were harder to get out.  The valves were in the same places.  The left side seemed a lot stronger with a lot more muscle.  The wall between the left and right side was quite thick.  We got a bit confused about where to cut from with the left side because people around us had hearts with atriums. 

Flow chart of the blood cycle:  The deoxygenated blood returns from the body throught the vena cava à it then gets pumped out from the heart to the lungs through the pulmonary artery à in the lungs, the blood does gas exchange to get rid of the carbon dioxide and receive oxygen à the blood then comes back to the heart through the pulmonary vein à the blood filled with oxygen is then pumped out of the heart through the aorta to the body so that the body can take the oxygen away from the blood and use it for respiration à from respiration, the blood carries the waste: carbon dioxide and brings it back to the heart through the vena cava.

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Sun, 27 Nov 2011 18:45:21 -0800 How does gender effect the capacity of a human lung? http://clionabiology.posterous.com/how-does-gender-effect-the-capacity-of-a-huma-21505 http://clionabiology.posterous.com/how-does-gender-effect-the-capacity-of-a-huma-21505

Conclusion:  Males have a bigger lung capacity than females.  This is supported by all the results gathered by different methods of measuring lung capacity.  Males take less breaths per minute compared to females, they breathe in and out more air.  Males also have a higher peak flow than females, this means that they can breathe out with more power.

Lung bags and Spiropet:  The spiropet gathered significantly lower results compared to the lung bags, this could’ve been because the lung bags may have had air in them before people started breathing into them.  The spiropet shows results approximately a third less than the lung bags.

Evaluation: 

Limitation/problem

How it effects the results

Improvements

Peoples resting pulse might be effected by the was they sit, they could be a fidgety person or they could be someone who sits comepletely still like a statue

The resting pulse wouldn’t exactly be the "resting" pulse, there would be some exercise involved.  Then, the difference between the exercise pulse and the resting pulse would be wrong, it wouldn’t be accurate.  Also, to keep the test fair, the resting pulse would have to include the same activities for everyone.

People shouldve decided on a certain way to rest.  Maybe if everyone had to lay down completely still it would be better because then, everyone is truly resting and everyone would be dong the same thing

Some people measured their lung capacity after they exercised and some did it before so the people who did it after might not be completely at rest.

If some people arent completely at rest and some are, that would effect how much air they breathe in.  If they do it after exercise, most likely they would take in more air so they would have more oxygen to supply their cells for respiration.

Everyone should do each method in the same order, for example: Breathing rate at rest, breathing rate after exercise, lung bag, spiropet, peak flow.

Different people jump vigorously and some don’t so that effects how tired they are and how much oxygen they need to supply their cells with

The people wo jump vigorously will be more tired than the other people and they would need to take in more oxygen, relulting in more breaths per minute.

Everyone should jump at the same height and speed.

Some people jumped around the room and some people jumped on the spot.

Jumping around the room would require more power to push forward than to jump up and down on the spot.  This would make the person more tired and they would need to take in more oxyen and they would have to breathe more frequently

Everyone should jump up and down on the spot to avoid the difference of energy used.

Some people didn’t take all of the air out of the lung bags and so there was some left over.

This means that the second result they take would be the leftover air from the first result added with the new air coming in.  This would give you a higher result.  It wouldn’t give you the capacity of your lung, it would give you the capacity of your lungs plus the unknown mass of leftover air.

Everyone should make sure there is no air in the bag befor they do the repeat readings.  This is easily done by pulling the bag over the edge of the table so that the edge of the table is forcing the air out completely.

The measurement of breaths per minute wouldn’t be accurate because you might be at half a breath at the end of the minute.

The results arent very accurate because the results are rounded up/down.

We should've counted breathing in as one breath and breathing out as another.  This would be more accurate than the pair as a whole because breathing in takes less time that the pair together.

Some peoples lung bags were leaking.

The results arent as accurate because some of the air was let out, it excaped so the capacity would be less and inacurate

Everyone should use the same lung bag to avoid any leaks.

Some people didn’t stop after one minute, they went over the designated time.

People were breathing more than necessary, the results werent accurate because some people carried on taking measurements after the minute.

Everyone should stop at exactly one minute, they should always be looking at the stopwatch, keeping an eye on the time and when to stop.

Some people were in a hurry using the spiropet so they didn’t accurately turn it to zero.

The results werent taken from zero so the results wouldn’t be accurate, it would either be more or less than the actual result.

Everyone should double check that the results start from zero, they should check with other people as well.

When people breathed into the mouth piece, it might not have been connected properly so the air might have come out of the sides.

The results would be less than the actual result because air escaped out of the side so all the air wasn’t collected.

All the mouth pieces  should be put on by the same person so the tightness of the mouthpiece does not change.

Limitation/problem

How it effects the results

Improvements

Peoples resting pulse might be effected by the was they sit, they could be a fidgety person or they could be someone who sits comepletely still like a statue

The resting pulse wouldn’t exactly be the "resting" pulse, there would be some exercise involved.  Then, the difference between the exercise pulse and the resting pulse would be wrong, it wouldn’t be accurate.  Also, to keep the test fair, the resting pulse would have to include the same activities for everyone.

People shouldve decided on a certain way to rest.  Maybe if everyone had to lay down completely still it would be better because then, everyone is truly resting and everyone would be dong the same thing

Some people measured their lung capacity after they exercised and some did it before so the people who did it after might not be completely at rest.

If some people arent completely at rest and some are, that would effect how much air they breathe in.  If they do it after exercise, most likely they would take in more air so they would have more oxygen to supply their cells for respiration.

Everyone should do each method in the same order, for example: Breathing rate at rest, breathing rate after exercise, lung bag, spiropet, peak flow.

Different people jump vigorously and some don’t so that effects how tired they are and how much oxygen they need to supply their cells with

The people wo jump vigorously will be more tired than the other people and they would need to take in more oxygen, relulting in more breaths per minute.

Everyone should jump at the same height and speed.

Some people jumped around the room and some people jumped on the spot.

Jumping around the room would require more power to push forward than to jump up and down on the spot.  This would make the person more tired and they would need to take in more oxyen and they would have to breathe more frequently

Everyone should jump up and down on the spot to avoid the difference of energy used.

Some people didn’t take all of the air out of the lung bags and so there was some left over.

This means that the second result they take would be the leftover air from the first result added with the new air coming in.  This would give you a higher result.  It wouldn’t give you the capacity of your lung, it would give you the capacity of your lungs plus the unknown mass of leftover air.

Everyone should make sure there is no air in the bag befor they do the repeat readings.  This is easily done by pulling the bag over the edge of the table so that the edge of the table is forcing the air out completely.

The measurement of breaths per minute wouldn’t be accurate because you might be at half a breath at the end of the minute.

The results arent very accurate because the results are rounded up/down.

We should've counted breathing in as one breath and breathing out as another.  This would be more accurate than the pair as a whole because breathing in takes less time that the pair together.

Some peoples lung bags were leaking.

The results arent as accurate because some of the air was let out, it excaped so the capacity would be less and inacurate

Everyone should use the same lung bag to avoid any leaks.

Some people didn’t stop after one minute, they went over the designated time.

People were breathing more than necessary, the results werent accurate because some people carried on taking measurements after the minute.

Everyone should stop at exactly one minute, they should always be looking at the stopwatch, keeping an eye on the time and when to stop.

Some people were in a hurry using the spiropet so they didn’t accurately turn it to zero.

The results werent taken from zero so the results wouldn’t be accurate, it would either be more or less than the actual result.

Everyone should double check that the results start from zero, they should check with other people as well.

When people breathed into the mouth piece, it might not have been connected properly so the air might have come out of the sides.

The results would be less than the actual result because air escaped out of the side so all the air wasn’t collected.

All the mouth pieces  should be put on by the same person so the tightness of the mouthpiece does not change.

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Wed, 23 Nov 2011 06:27:29 -0800 Lung Dissection http://clionabiology.posterous.com/lung-dissection http://clionabiology.posterous.com/lung-dissection

Observations – At first, the lungs were dark red and it dripped a bit of blood but when we pumped the air into it, it became a lighter peach color.  I could see that the lungs are quite big compared to humans.  The air pipe was put into the trachea so the air pumped in would go into both the left lung and the right lung.  The air slowly filled the lung, making it at least twice its original size.  When we stopped pumping air into it, the air pressure from outside was pushing on the outside of the lung, slightly helping with squeezing the air out and the lung went back to its original form (there was a leak somewhere because we could hear a hissing noise).  We saw that the lung isn’t one big piece, it has many flaps that, when grouped together, look like one piece.  These flaps were more visible when the lung was inflated.  I saw the trachea branch off into the bronchioles and I saw that the trachea is made up of cartilage rings.  They aren’t really rings, they are more of a ‘c’ shape, allowing more flexibility. 

When I touched the lungs, it was very cold and squidgy.  Apparently it was a very healthy lung.  When I pushed down on it, it would sort of bounce back to its original form.  Sometimes the plastic gloves would stick to the lungs a bit.  I felt the cartilage in the trachea and tried squeezing it a bit to see how the ‘c’ shape works.  The voice box was a lot more firm than the lungs and the trachea.  The whole thing had this smell to it, I don’t know how to explain it.

Opinions – I think it is quite useful to dissect a lung because then you would know how it actually works.  I think it would be wrong to dissect a lung if the animal was killed especially for the dissection or some scientific use, but if the animal was killed for meat and the lungs were going to be thrown away it is good to make use of it.  I don’t really see why learning about how the lungs work in this detail is necessary, but I’m not a scientist.  I wonder what people thought of the first person to dissect a lung.

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Sun, 20 Nov 2011 05:53:00 -0800 Video 59 Notes: Organs systems at Work http://clionabiology.posterous.com/video-59-notes-organs-systems-at-work http://clionabiology.posterous.com/video-59-notes-organs-systems-at-work

·         All organ systems work together and respond to each other like in a complicated machine

·         To lift your arm, the muscles pull the skeleton which acts like a set of levers, the nervous system  tells your muscles what to do, your circulatory system supplies the muscle with food and oxygen

 

All information an images came from http://lgfl.skoool.co.uk/content/keystage3/biology/pc/learningsteps/OSWLC/launch.html

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Sun, 20 Nov 2011 05:47:13 -0800 Video 7 Notes: Organ Systems http://clionabiology.posterous.com/video-7-notes-organ-systems http://clionabiology.posterous.com/video-7-notes-organ-systems

·         A human has a gas exchange, digestive, nervous, circulatory, excretory and muscular-skeletal system

·         The digestive system breaks down large molecules for the circulatory system to transport around the body

·         Nervous system is connected to the brain, tells you about your senses

·         Excretory system gets rid of waste

·         Muscular-skeletal system protects and creates something for the muscles to attach to

All information and images come from http://lgfl.skoool.co.uk/content/keystage3/biology/pc/learningsteps/ORSLC/launch.html

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Sun, 20 Nov 2011 00:38:00 -0800 Video 5 Notes: Specialized Cells in the Breathing System http://clionabiology.posterous.com/video-5-notes-specialized-cells-in-the-breath http://clionabiology.posterous.com/video-5-notes-specialized-cells-in-the-breath

·         The nose and air passages are lined with mucous membrane which produces mucous

·         Mucous traps dirt and germs from the air you breathe

·         Cilia are tiny hairs that move the mucous and germs to the back of your throat where it is swallowed

·         Mucous and Cilia keep the lungs clean and reduces chances of infection

All information and pictures are from http://lgfl.skoool.co.uk/content/keystage3/biology/pc/learningsteps/SCBLC/launch.html

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Wed, 16 Nov 2011 07:05:00 -0800 Video 2 Notes: Cell Structure and Function http://clionabiology.posterous.com/video-2-notes-cell-structure-and-function-40573 http://clionabiology.posterous.com/video-2-notes-cell-structure-and-function-40573

·         The cell membrane controls what goes in and out of the cell

·         The nucleus controls the cell

·         Chromosomes (in the nucleus) have genes which controls the characteristics of the body

·         Chemical reactions take place in the cytoplasm (water and dissolved substances)

All pictures and notes are from http://lgfl.skoool.co.uk/content/keystage3/biology/pc/learningsteps/CAFLC/launch.html

 

 

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Wed, 16 Nov 2011 06:17:57 -0800 Video 1 Notes: Organisation in Living things http://clionabiology.posterous.com/video-1-notes-organisation-in-living-things http://clionabiology.posterous.com/video-1-notes-organisation-in-living-things

·         Tissues are made by similar cells with the same job grouped together

·         Different tissues grouped together are called organs

·         Organs do not work on their own, they need other organs to supply them with what they need

·         Organs have their own specific job

All information and photos come from http://lgfl.skoool.co.uk/content/keystage3/biology/pc/learningsteps/OLTLC/launch.html

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