The Digestive System Lab

1. In this lab, the class made models of our own digestive systems by measuring and cutting yarn to represent lengths of different parts of the system and taping the pieces of yarn together to form one long string. My main "takeaways" of this lab was to understand how long the hollow tube in our digestive system really was. It differs for everyone due to their height and several other factors.

Data Table:

2. My height is 1.5494 meters (61 inches). The length of my digestive tract in meters is 8.3729 meters, which means my digestive tract is approximately 6.8235 meters longer than my height. The digestive system is able to fit inside the abdomen because it is coiled up.

3. I think it takes about two days for food to move through your entire digestive system. From the Mayo Clinic (Mayo Clinic) digestion takes about 24 to 72 hours for healthy adults. My guess is close to what the actual value was. Some factors that influence the time it takes is how frequently you eat, how much you chew your food, and what you eat.

4. Digestion is the breakdown of food into smaller particles while absorption is taking in needed nutrients, water, etc.

5. I want to learn about how exactly the food is broken down and what processes occur in the digestive system.

New Year's Goals

My first goal is that I will not procrastinate in any of my classes, including Anatomy, for the whole semester. To work towards this goal, I will start work and homework the day it is assigned. If it is a huge project that is hard to do in one day, I will do a little each day, so I don't have to worry too much when the day before the project is due comes. For the 20 Time Project, I will work hard every Monday, so the project will be done by the end of the semester. Also, I will start studying for a test four days in advance instead of the day before the actual test. I will use my planner so I can know in advance when everything is due. Last semester, I didn't use a planner, so I always had to ask my friends the day before something was due. A planner would make it easier for me not to procrastinate. 

My second goal is that I will listen more in class for the whole semester. Usually, I do not focus as much as I can in class so when I go home, I have to learn everything by myself. This year, I hope to listen and focus, so at home, I will be less stressed out from all the work. To work towards this goal, I will pretend that after class, I have a quiz on the material that is taught that day. Then, I will focus more and hopefully, I will be less stressed out. I will also block out all distractions. For the 20 Time Project, I will make sure to focus and listen to all the instructions given in class, so I don't do anything wrong.

Heart Dissection Lab

Q1: What is the purpose of the pericardium?

The pericardium is a double sac of serous membrane that secretes a fluid to lubricate the heart and reduce friction. It also protects the heart.

Q2: Observe the blood vessels connecting to the heart.  How do arteries differ from veins in their structure?

Veins have thinner walls than arteries and are also one way valves (prevent back flow of blood). Arteries carry blood away from the heart to the tissue while veins carry blood to the heart from the tissue. Veins store the most blood volume in the body. Arteries are elastic and contractile.

Q3: Place your finger inside the auricle.  What function do you think the auricle serves?

The auricle feels rough when we placed our finger inside the auricle. Auricle increases blood capacity and volume in the atrium and also collect blood.

Q4: Observe the external structures of the atria and ventricles.  What differences do you observe?

The right atria is the upper chamber that receives oxygen deprived blood. The right ventricle a lower chamber that discharges blood. The left atria is the upper chamber that receives oxygen rich blood. The left ventricle is a lower chamber that has the thickest wall. In structure, the ventricle has thicker walls and takes up more space.

Q5: Find and Describe the following structures in the heart:
1. Coronary Sinus: a wide venous channel that receives blood from the coronary veins and empires into the right atrium of the heart.
2. Inferior Vena Cava: (carries blood from lower body) a large vein and empties into the right atrium of the heart. The superior vena cava carries blood from upper body.
3. Tricuspid Valve: Located between the right atrium and right ventricle; it prevents back flow of blood into the atrium

Q6: Draw a picture of the tricuspid valve, including chordate tendinae and the papillary muscle.

Picture:

Q7: Why is the “anchoring” of the heart valves by the chordate tendinae and the papillary muscle important to heart function?

After the right ventricle contracts, the blood pressure pushes on the tricuspid valve, which stops the blood flow to the right atria. The job of chordae tendinae is to make sure the side edges of the valve don’t get pushed into the atria. It is important because it stops the valve from pushing blood in the wrong direction.

Q8: Using pictures and/or words describe what you see (bicuspid valve)

Picture:

The probe in this picture points to the bicuspid valve, which is between the left atrium and ventricle

Q9: What is the function of the semi-lunar valves?

The Semilunar valves prevent arterial blood from re-entering the heart. Two types are the pulmonary semilunar valve and the aortic semilunar valve.

Q10: Valvular heart disease is when one of more heart valves does not work properly.  Improperly functioning heart valves can lead to regurgitation, which is the backflow of blood through a leaky valve.  Ultimately this can lead to congestive heart failure, a condition that can be life threatening.

If the valve disease occurs on the right side of the heart, it results in swelling in the feet and ankles.  Why might this happen?

The ventricles are not strong enough to pump blood against gravity from your toes and feet. Blood is not able to function normally and back flow occurs.

If the valve disease occurs on the left side of the heart, what complications would you expect to see?

If the valve disease occurs on the left side of the heart, not enough blood would be pumped. Therefore, swelling would occur.

Q11: Using pictures and/or words describe what you see (left/right coronary arteries, left semilunar valve (3 cusps), chord tendinae of bicuspid valve, and pillar muscle of the bicuspid valve)

Picture of left ventricle:

a. Entrance to the left/right coronary arteries: The coronary arteries supply blood to the heart.
b. Left (aortic) semilunar valve (3 cusps): The aortic semilunar valves prevent arterial blood from re-entering the blood.
c. Chordae Tendinae of the Bicuspid Valve: Chordae Tendinae are tendons attached to cusps of valves.
d. Papillary Muscle of the Bicuspid Valve: They provide "muscle power" and they pull on the chordae tendinae to open/close valve.

Q12: Describe how the left and right sides of the heart differ from each other.

The right side of the heart pumps deoxygenated blood to the lungs. The left side of the heart pumps oxygenated blood to the aorta and out to the rest of  the body. Also, the right side of the heart has thinner walls while the left side of the heart has thicker walls.

Q13: Draw and label all structures visible in the interior of the cross-section.

Picture:

Unit 3 Reflection

This Unit was about the circulatory system, the respiratory system, and cardiovascular diseases such as stroke and heart disease. The circulatory system transports materials needed by the cells and removes waste materials from the cells. The respiratory system works with the circulatory system to exchange gas. The cardiovascular system works by the pulmonary circuit (O2 deprived) and the systemic circuit (O2 rich). Blood first enters the right atrium from the inferior and superior vena cava. It then passes through the tricuspid valve and enters the right ventricle. It passes through the pulmonary semilunar valve to the pulmonary trunk to the pulmonary arteries and out to the lungs. Lungs then exchange carbon dioxide for oxygen. In the systemic circuit, pulmonary vein returns blood to heart via the left atrium. It passes through the bicuspid (mitral) valve and enters left ventricle. Lastly, passes through aortic semilunar valve into aorta and out to body. Veins carry blood to the heart from the tissues while arteries carry

blood away from the heart to the tissue. 

Cardiovascular health refers to the health of the heart and blood vessels. Lack of exercise, being overweight, smoking, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, high blood pressure (caused by atherosclerosis), and high cholesterol all cause cardiovascular disease. To promote cardiovascular health, people should control their blood pressure. 40-90% of all stroke victims had high blood pressure before their stroke. To maintain healthy blood vessels, people should exercise, maintain a healthy weight and diet, control blood pressure and cholesterol, prevent atherosclerosis, prevent diabetes, don’t smoke, and minimize stress. I want to learn more about Lung Cancer, Chronic Bronchitis, Asthma, Cystic Fibrosis, Sinusitis, Tuberculosis, Pleurisy, Influenza, etc. because those chronic pulmonary diseases seem very interesting to me. My aunt had lung cancer so I would love to learn more about it and how it can affect someone’s life. I wonder if there has been any medications to prevent strokes kind of like a vaccine.

My weaknesses in this unit were learning the diagram of the heart. I had a lot of trouble understanding the different parts of the heart even though I understood the functions of all the major valves and blood vessels. I enjoyed the heart dissection even though it was very difficult to locate all the parts of the heart. Working in a group helped me with this challenge. This unit was very interesting to me because some of my family members have had heart attacks (they never recovered fully after) so I finally understand what could have caused the disease. I also had trouble studying for this test because I tried many methods to try to understand all the material. I studied with Nimisha the day before to make sure we both understand the topics. I am still having trouble studying because even though I put a lot of effort into my studying, it doesn’t seem to help because I still don’t do good on the tests. My strengths in this unit was being able to identify the functions of the different blood vessels and the different diseases (causes and effects). 

My health goals (from Unit 2 Reflection) were to eat more fruits and to sleep more. I have been eating more fruits; however, my amount of sleep has remained the same because of tennis and work from school. It is hard to balance out both my tennis practice and homework. For the remainder of the semester, I hope to spend more time understanding the pictures because they are very helpful in understanding the unit.

Pictures:

For the video above, we made one mistake toward the end of the video. After the left ventricle, we said it goes through bicuspid vale but it actually goes through the aortic semilunar valve into aorta and out to the body.
Picture one is a picture of the heart we drew on the street. Picture two is a picture of the heart during dissection. Picture three is a selfie we took with the heart at the beginning.

Measuring Blood Pressure Lab

From my data, I learned that my systole was 120 and my diastole was 75 for test one. For test two, I learned that my systole was 140 and my diastole was 70. The two tests showed somewhat different results mostly likely because we did them so close to each other due to time. A typical blood pressure is 120/80 mm Hg. The first number represents the pressure when the heart contracts and is called the systolic blood pressure. The second number represents the pressure when the heart relaxes and it called the diastolic blood pressure.

This is my data for heart rates and blood pressure.

To measure heart rate, you need a stethoscope and your own two fingers to measure the pulse rate (radial and carotid). You use a stethoscope only when you find the pulse of your actual heart. Carotid arteries are located on your neck while radial arteries are located on your wrists. To measure blood pressure, you use an instrument called a sphygmomanometer. The sphygmomanometer contains an air bulb, valve, cuff, a pressure gage, etc.

Using your thumb to measure pulse is not ideal because there are large vessels located in the thumb that have their own pulse so it can interfere with the pulse you are trying to find.

Using a blood pressure cuff (sphygmomanometer) is simple once you understand the procedure. First, you wrap the cuff around the person's upper arm, making sure the cuff is located above the crease of the person's elbow. Make sure to put on a stethoscope so you can hear the pulse later on in the lab. Inflate the cuff gently while watching the pressure gauge. Keep inflating until the person's pulse disappears. When you reach about 150 mmHg, open the valve on the air pump slightly, making sure not too much air is released. Listen to the stethoscope carefully until you hear the heart beat start again. This is the systolic blood pressure (write it down). The sounds should continue to become louder. Write down when you hear the sound for the last time. This is called the diastolic blood pressure.

This is a picture of the stethoscope and sphygmomanometer we used.

Unit 2 Reflection

Health is the measure of our body's efficiency and over-all well being. The 5 pillars of health are very important to live a healthy life, which include stress, exercise, social, sleep, and nutrition. All of these pillars of health are very important and people should not focus on just a couple, they should focus on all of them. Being Healthy also corresponds to having healthy hormones. The "big 4" hormones are Insulin, Leptin, Cortisol, and Glucagon. Insulin is anabolic hormones secreted by alpha cells of the pancreas while Glucagon is the opposite: catabolic hormones secreted by beta cells of the pancreas. When insulin, leptin, glucagon, and cortisol are doing their job properly, you are physically healthy.After studying Unit 2 Health, I think I am healthy because I always follow the five pillars of health. Sleep is very important to me and I try to get as much as possible. I eat healthy and stay away from hydrogenated oils. I try not to get too stressed out because that can negatively affect my health. I play tennis every day and I also play on the school tennis team. Lastly, I spend a lot of times with friends. However, I don't think overall people at Saratoga High School are healthy mostly because they are not getting the necessary amount of sleep and they get too stressed out from school. Students procrastinate which makes them more likely to be sleep deprived. To promote greater health and wellness on campus, I think students should be given less strenuous homework assignments and students should try not to procrastinate. 

I learned a lot from the health unit. I did not know that stress and sleep can affect your overall well being. I also learned a lot from the Falcon Market because a lot of the foods I thought were healthy turned out to be very fatty. For example, some types of peanut butter contain hydrogenated oil, which I thought was very interesting because hydrogenated oil (transfat) is very bad for you and should be avoided as much as possible. I also learned a lot about the different types of hormones and the effect they have on the body. The themes and essential understandings of this unit was what is health, what is needed to maximize your nutrition for optimal health and disease prevention, how does exercise enhance health, why is sleep important, what are the physiological affects of stress, and why are social connections good for your health? I still don't fully understand all the functions of the hormones, such as leptin and cortisol because they are very complex. To improve on the next unit, I will focus more in class and try to stay more organized with all my worksheets. 

This unit relates to my life because my grandma got a very severe diabetes and I never fully understood why. However, now i know that diabetes is common with people who eat an excess about of sugars and unhealthy things. This relates to one of the five pillars of health: nutrition. To prevent from getting diabetes or other illnesses, people need to eat good food, including omega 3. 

Goal Sheet: My health goals are to eat more fruits and vegetables and to sleep more. The actions I will take is to pay more attention to the foods I eat and to not procrastinate so I can finish my homework earlier. A healthy life is important to me because I want to be healthy and I don't want to die from any health related reasons. I will know when I have reached my goal when I have eaten more vegetables and I sleep earlier. 

Images relating to blog post: (sleep, good nutrition, and exercise)

Monday Wellness Reflection

Link to Google Presentation:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1qbXs8aSpLjKF9leBtxv0DF8mW3iA1LOpTTMSozO2xdA/edit?usp=sharing

For our Monday Wellness Project, Cassi and I chose stretching because it is a really interesting topic and I feel that a lot of athletes don’t stretch because they think it is a waste of time. However, I wanted to inform the class that stretching does help and it should be done before and after exercise for many benefits that were discussed in the presentation. From our research on stretching, we learned that muscles need to be well circulated and healthy. A normal person spends most of the day in the same position. If people avoid stretching, their muscles will continue to fatigue. As a result of not stretching, people decrease their circulation and flexibility. As an athlete myself, I found this research very fascinating because before this presentation, I would rarely stretch before practice because I always thought that stretching was a waste of time. However, this presentation taught me that stretching is beneficial and now, I stretch before and after practice and games. Our Monday Wellness project has really inspired me to stretch myself.

The most interesting things that we learned while preparing for the presentation was Brad Walker’s research that explains that the current research on stretching is flawed. As we were looking through research, we noticed that a lot of the research done on stretching was done in the same way: two groups, one stretching and the other not stretching. This led us to Brad Walker’s article that talks about the flawed research because stretching shows effects after a long period of time. Also, we found that changing stretches too often, called “bouncing,” is not beneficial. This fact was very interesting to me because usually when I stretch, I would change my stretches often to get it over with, but now I know that doing that is not effective and shows no beneficial results. 

Stretching is important for health and wellness because it increases flexibility, increases range of motion, improves circulation, promotes better posture, etc. Stretching is very important and athletes should not just skip stretching because it is very beneficial. I think stretching should be enforced more in sports because it is very useful and ultimately helps people’s overall wellness. 

Overall, I would give our presentation a high 8 or low 9 out of ten because even though we spent a lot of time preparing for our presentation, we put too many videos in our presentation. This was not effective; instead, we should have just talked about the major points in the videos. I think that we should have explained more of the anatomy of the different stretches so students can understand how the major muscle groups work during stretching. We should have made the presentation more interactive so students would not get bored during our presentation. Also, I think that our information was very helpful and I hope people now understand that they should spend more time stretching. I feel that a lot of students don’t do stretches properly, mostly because they are too lazy, so I hoped that the stretches we did during class showed them the most effective ways to stretch in order to get the full effects of the stretch.