Heart Dissection videos

Sheep Heart Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Wj5pZnbVCY&feature=youtu.be

Cardiac cycle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cruHmQiTAA&feature=youtu.be

Sheep heart dissection

 The purpose of the pericardium is to protect the heart and to anchor the heart to its surrounding.
By comparing arteries and veins, arteries had a thicker wall than veins, and veins had valves to help the blood flow against gravity.
The function of the auricle is to expand the blood capacity of the atrium.
In our sheep heart, the ventricles and atria were collapsed, but we could see that the ventricles were smaller than the atria. The atria had thinner walls than the ventricles.

The anchoring of the heart valves by chordate tendinae and the papillary muscle is important in the heart's function because if there weren't chordate tendinae and papillary muscles, valves would  not shut. If the valves did not shut, the heart would not work properly.
The function of the semi-lunar valves is to prevent back-flow from ventricles to the aorta and pulmonary trunk.

If valve disease occurs on the right side of the heart, it results in swollen feet because blood is pooling in their feet because if the valve is not working, blood will not move forward and will be pulled down due to gravity. If valve disease occurred of the left side of the heart, the person might have decreased blood flow and a lack of oxygen

The right side of the heart is smaller than the left side of the heart, because the left side of the heart needs more muscle to be able to pump blood to the body.

 
  

Unit 3 Reflection

This unit was all about how the circulatory system works and the different parts of the circulatory system. There was also a section on the respiratory system. 
The cardiovascular system works by our heart pumping oxygen and nutrients and our body receiving that blood through blood vessels (veins and arteries). 

Cardiovascular health issues are heart attacks and cardiac arrests. They can be caused by atherosclerosis, a fatty buildup in our arteries. An ischemic stroke is caused by a blood clot in the brain and a hemorrhagic stroke is caused by an aneurysm in the brain (when a blood vessel in the brain bursts). 
To improve your cardiovascular health, you can exercise more, eat less food with high amounts of LDL and omega 6, and consume less alcohol. 

sheep heart from the dissection 

I wanted to learn more about blood cells, white blood cells especially, but I think that will be covered when we talk about the immune system. I am also confused about whether or not the human heart has auricles like the sheep heart did. 

In this unit, I studied a lot more for the tests and temp checks, so I learned more material than in pervious units. Another success of this unit was how well my group worked together; we really helped each other learn how the blood A weakness I had this unit was not staying on top of my journal work so i had to do a lot of table of contents work the night before, which could have been avoided. I had a lot of trouble understanding the treatments for strokes and cardiovascular disease section because it was a lot to memorize and I could not relate to it. 

The goal I made for my self for this unit was to start studying earlier and I did pay more attention to that and I did much better on my test for this unit. For the rest of the semester I want to focus on keeping up my study habits and organizing my notebook more. 

Blood Pressure Lab

The systole is the highest number and the diastole is the lowest number. Systolic is also when the ventricles contract, and the diastole is when the ventricles release/relax. In our lab, the systole averaged about 116 and the diastole was 70. To measure heart rate, we just used our fingers, except we used a stethoscope to measure our heart beat. To measure blood pressure we used a stethoscope, pressure cuff, and the sphygmomanometer. Using your thumb to measure pressure is not ideal because your thumb has a blood pressure as well, so it would get confusing. To use a blood pressure cuff, you secure it on to the person who you are measuring, and then find their pulse. After, you start pumping air to tighten the cuff, you let the air release and watch the dial. One you start hearing their pulse again, that is their systolic number and when you stop hearing their pulse that is their diastolic number.

Monday Wellness Reflection

Here is the link to the presentation my partner and I did on Tea: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1p5qPYVY4Lb-YmD8kLTVXgrTS92qT44oaomtix3TXEZU/edit?usp=sharing

  I really wanted our topic to be on tea because I drink tea regularly. My favorite type is green tea and I probably have it 3-4 times a week. I also enjoy drinking a lot of rooibos tea because it smells and tastes very good. Tea really helps me de-stress and I wanted to take the opportunity of a Monday wellness to share the benefits of tea with other students. I also thought it would be a fun thing to learn more about. After presenting I felt that my peers acted more awake and excited than before the presentation, so it was nice to see that they enjoyed some of the teas. 

                                           

The most interesting thing I learned while preparing for the presentation was about antioxidants. I had heard of them before but I never knew what they did or what free radicals were. It was also cool to learn about antioxidants because I am a chemistry student and antioxidants get its name from the oxidation reaction (a chemistry process) that takes place. In an oxidation reaction, the reactants lose electrons; this is the concept behind the stabilization of free radicals. Another interesting thing I learned was how many different kind of tea there are and how different they all look and taste. Even though green tea, black tea, pu'er tea, and white tea are all from the same plant, they all look and taste extremely different.                                            

Our topic is important for health and wellness because of its amounts of benefits. Teas can help promote sleep and it relates to our health unit. They reduce the risk of some cancers and can make you feel less stressed out. Stress is a big problem with students my age and any idea that can combat stress is a great benefit to students like us.  Teas can also help you lose weight because of how it speeds up your metabolism by increasing insulin production (this can help diabetics). 

If I had to grade myself, I would give myself an 8.5 out of 10, because I spent most of the time setting up and cleaning up the activity and did not get a chance to present. We had originally planned to split the slides in half; I was going to say the last 5 and she was going to say the first 5. But the tea making process in the beginning of class took quite a bit longer than expected so I just had to be flexible and let her do the slides, so I guided the activity with the discussion at the end. I also tried to speak more by answering any questions or adding in bits of unmentioned information to make the presentation a little better. I still put lots of time into researching and writing up the powerpoint, and also making the worksheet for the tea activity. We also had to choose which teas we wanted to bring into class and to save time we each made one tea at home. I just wish we could have seen how long it would have taken to make all those teas before coming to class.                                                                          

Unit 2 Reflection

Health is when the mental, social, and physical aspects of your life are in balance. Being healthy also includes getting enough exercise, healthy food, good sleep, reduced stress, and being more social. 

I am healthier in some pillars of health than in other pillars of health. For example, I try my best to maintain a healthy diet; a healthy diet means that you are getting adequate amount of nutrient dense foods, but at the same time eating a variety of foods in moderation. I am also pretty good about maintaining my stress even though I am surrounded by a stressful environment at Saratoga High School. Some people at our school are very sleep deprived (meaning that they carry a large sleep debt). There are a lot of stressful students at this school as well because of the amount of homework and tests our teachers give us. I think school should start later which would promote better sleep and a more positive learning environment because both teaches and students would be in a better mood. Teachers should also try to give as little busy work as possible; this would reduce student's stress levels and allow them to get more sleep. 

Some essential concepts from this unit is that people need to maintain a more healthier lifestyle. A reoccurring theme in this unit is the fact that aspects of health are related to each other. For example, a lack of sleep creates more stress and that creates a lack of a healthy social life. Also, bad nutrition can lead to an imbalance in hormone levels which can make you more susceptible to diabetes. I learned a lot about the 5 pillars of health and about what I can do to better my own health. One specific thing I will try to do is to turn off my phone at least an hour before I sleep to prevent the "tired but wired" effect that is harmful to quality sleep.Something I do not fully understand are the stress hormones in stage one of stress. I do not understand the difference between an adrenaline and a nonadrenaline response.

For the next unit, I will try to start studying for a test before the night before the test. This will reduce my own stress level and make me a healthier person. :)One real world application to this unit would be all the advice this unit has given me about becoming a healthier person. I discovered a lot of things I could do to make a change in my life. Another thing I could relate to during this unit is diabetes because several members of my family have it. It was really interesting to understand how they are insulin resistant and how it was caused by eating to many carbs. Since it is common in my family, I need to be more aware of over-carbsumption because I could get diabetes as well.

5 Pillars of Health

I think, as of now, I am the strongest in the sleep category because I make sure I get at least 8 hours of sleep on 6/7 nights of the week. I need to improve my health in the stress and exercise category because I have barely enough time to exercise anymore (if I want 8 hours of sleep) and my stress is getting harder to manage with junior year. I would like to learn how to balance all 5 pillars of health with school because it seems close to impossible. 

Unit 1 Reflection

Unit one was about the basics of human anatomy and physiology. We learned how to identify the location of something on a human, in the anatomical position, using anatomical terms. Some of the anatomical terms that I did not know before this class include proximal, distal, and transverse. The next thing we learned was about the four macromolecules; proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, and nucleic acids; and their function and monomers (what they are made of). After that, we learned about specific tissues and the cells that form them. The four types of tissues we learned about were epithelial tissue, connective tissue, muscle tissue, and nervous tissue. The essential concept for this unit is that the structure of cells, tissues, and organs are built to serve certain functions.


 I used an analogy this unit that helped me relate back to the essential concept mentioned above (how something's structure helps it to perform a specialized function). My analogy was about a toy and how it had different parts that each made up a certain, yet essential, part of the toy car. This is true for cells, in various tissues, as well. Many cells are look different, and their differences define their purpose as a cell.


One thing that is still confusing for me is how to identify tissues just by looking at a picture of it. Sometimes it is really hard to tell based on just a picture. For the next unit, I will improve by studying more before a test and asking any questions I have during tutorial.

Tissue Lab

In today's lab, we viewed various tissues under the microscopes. Some of the tissues were harder to draw than others, because every tissue looked a little different, or had a different shape. Every tissue has a different anatomy which helps them perform a different function. For example, the blood tissue and bone tissue shown below look completely different. Relating back to my cell specialization post about blood cells, blood cells are built smaller, which enables them to travel through veins and arteries to deliver materials to and from cells. The bone tissue, on the other hand, looks rigid. According to our class lecture notes, bones are a type of connective tissue which support the body. Thus the rigid anatomy of the tissue supports its function.

red and white blood cells

osteon (bone tissue)

White Blood Cells (Leukocyte)

Leukocytes are 20 µm in diameter, and are made on bone marrow. They can be found in your blood stream as well as other tissues in your body. White blood cells themselves are classified as connective tissue. The function of leukocytes are to protect your body from viruses, and bacteria.White blood cells are often referred to as "continually at war". To protect our bodies, these types of cells produce antibodies and engulf harmful bacteria. Unlike red blood cells, white blood cells have all of the organelles that make up a typical eukaryotic cell.

"Leukocyte." - New World Encyclopedia. N.p., 2 Apr. 2008. Web. 31 Aug. 2015.

"What Are White Blood Cells?" What Are White Blood Cells? N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Aug. 2015.

Sweetness Lab

Today in Anatomy/Physiology class we did a sweetness lab; we tasted different sugars to rate their sweetness on a scale from 0-200. The sugars we tasted were sucrose (disaccharide), glucose (monosaccharide), fructose (monosaccharide), galactose (monosaccharide), maltose (disaccharide), lactose (disaccharide), starch (polysaccharide), and cellulose (polysaccharide). Typically, the sugars that were monosaccharides were sweeter than sugars with multiple rings. This is true in real life as well; candy, containing monosaccharides, is sweeter than lettuce, containing polysaccharides.

How do we taste sweetness?

Taste buds on our tongue, which are made of nerves, send signals to our brain. This helps us differentiate between sweet, salty, or bitter foods.
Every person has a different reaction to what they taste, because everyone's tongue is different. For example, people who have more sensitive tongues are called "super tasters", while a person with few taste-sensitive structures on their tongue are called "non-tasters".





Sources:
http://www.livescience.com/17190-supertaster-nontaster-tongue-evolution.html
http://www.livescience.com/32408-what-makes-food-taste-sweet.html

Red Blood Cells

Red blood cells are shaped like flat disks with a dent in the middle. A normal red blood cell is 6-8 µm. The cells are typically found in veins, arteries, and the heart. The main function of red blood cells are to transport oxygen to the rest of the body and to carry carbon dioxide back to the lungs. The also help control the pH of blood.

Red blood cells do not have the same organelles as a typical eukaryotic cell. These types of cells lack a nucleus, and therefor have no DNA. Red blood cells actually have no organelles; the only thing these types of cells have are cytoplasm and a cell membrane. Red Blood cells, and other types of blood cells, are classified as connective tissue. 

Works Cited:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/53921113@N02/5645665364

http://www.wadsworth.org/chemheme/heme/microscope/rbc.htm

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Red_blood_cell