Create A Heart Model
*This post is sponsored by Spielgaben and designed to demonstrate how their educational toys can be used in a science classroom or homeschool setting.
The heart is an amazing organ. It pumps blood throughout the body picking up oxygen and nutrients and delivering it to all the cells of the body. Then, it carries away waste products from those cells so that the body can get rid of them. This process ensures proper cellular function and the health of the body.
If the heart stops doing its job, the body will stop living. A healthy heart does its job constantly 24 hours a day 7 days a week without stopping, or without us even thinking about it. That is incredible, but it’s even more amazing than that.
To do its job properly, the heart needs to function like two pumps working together. This process is a bit complicated, so this is where a heart model comes in handy.
Related post: Circulatory System Study Resources
A Heart Model
We’ve been studying Human Anatomy and Physiology with Apologia Science this year with my son. The text does an excellent job of explaining how the heart functions, but I have found that when learning about complicated processes such as heart function, models can be very useful – especially models students make themselves.
We looked around the house for materials to use for our heart model. My daughter used clay when she did this study, but my son is more of a builder than a sculptor. He decided that our Spielgaben set had just the right materials in just the right colors. This is what he came up with.
Related post: Spielgaben Educational Toys
The blue circles represent the oxygen-poor blood in the right atrium and ventricles. The red circles represent the oxygen-rich blood in the left atrium and ventricles.
The large blue bead at the top of the right atrium is the superior and inferior vena cava that brings blood from the body into the heart. The large blue bead at the bottom of the right ventricle is the pulmonary artery that sends oxygen-poor blood to the lungs.
The small half-circles at the top of the left atrium are the pulmonary veins that bring oxygenated blood from the lungs into the heart. The large red beat at the bottom of the left ventricle is the ascending aorta that sends the oxygen-rich blood from the heart to the rest of the body.
More Science Models
Using simple objects like those in our Spielgaben set that students are familiar with and letting them come up with a model on their own, allow them to make complicated things seem simple. Here are some other examples.
Use Play-Doh And Modeling Clay For Science