Description of the Project
In this project my group and I researched and worked on building a model of two human body systems. The systems we chose happened to be the respiratory system and muscular system. These systems are very important and can only work if they work together. In this project I discovered the respiratory system uses smooth, involuntary muscles to contract and expand the diaphragm which controls air flow in and out of the lungs. After finishing our through research we moved on to the moving phase.
In this phase we started building models of the body systems that you can see below. These models helped my group and I, along with the class better understand how the body systems work. We created these models over a two week period where we used materials we found in the maker space. This was an overall fun project that taught me a lot and was interesting.
In this phase we started building models of the body systems that you can see below. These models helped my group and I, along with the class better understand how the body systems work. We created these models over a two week period where we used materials we found in the maker space. This was an overall fun project that taught me a lot and was interesting.
This is the google slideshow that we put together to help us present our final project.
Concepts
Respiratory System: The respiratory system breathes in oxygen and breathes out carbon dioxide into the air. This system keeps the blood stream and organs oxygenated with healthy blood. It works together with the muscular system to contract and expand taking in and releasing air. The air flows through many steps in the Respiratory System.
Trachea: The trachea also known as the windpipe is vital in the human body for swallowing. Epiglottis cover the entrance to the trachea when you swallow. Smooth muscles line the walls of the trachea to contract and expand while swallowing food.
Pharynx: The pharynx is a passageway for food and air. Food moves from the trachea to the pharynx in the process of digestion and this shown by the second straw connected inside the head in our project.
Larynx: The larynx houses the human bodies voice box and vocal cords. Smooth involuntary muscles pull together and then vibrate to make noise. This is another stage in the respiratory system because oxygenated air flows through this canal. The larynx is located at the top of the neck.
Bronchi: The bronchi are large passageways in the chest cavity. The bronchus passageways lead to the lungs which leads to the bronchi oles. These cavities are filled with fluid and flem when a person has bronchidus. The bronchi are found in the lungs which is represented by the balloons above our diaphragm in our project.
Alveoli: The alveoli are tiny sacs of air connected in little clusters by networks of capillaries. These small pods are loading docs for the lungs to add oxygenated blood to the blood stream and take out deoxygenated and deliver it back to the heart to receive more oxygen.
Diaphragm: The diaphragm is a large smooth involuntary muscle at the bottom of the chest cavity. It is used to contract and expand the volume of the chest cavity to take in and push out air. This movement creates a partial vacuum in the body moving air throughout the lungs and to outside the body. This is represented by the cut and stretched balloon at the bottom of the bottle and below our lungs in our project.
Muscular System: This system is vital so we can move our bones and perform tasks each day. This system performs simple to complex tasks with voluntary and involuntary movement daily. There are three main types of muscles smooth, skeletal, and cardiac. Each serve a difference purpose but all are vital to the human bodies function and movement.
Skeletal Muscles: Skeletal muscles are primarily found in the top half of the body. Skeletal muscles are used for voluntary muscle movements and usually contract like we showed in our model. Most of these muscles are connected to collagen fibers called tendons holding the bone and muscles together.
Smooth Muscles: Smooth muscles are a type of muscle tissue in the body. Smooth muscle fibers are located in the walls of the hollow visceral organs. These muscles are almost always used in involuntary movement. Some examples of this happening in the body is the diaphragm in the lungs and the pump of the heart to move blood around the human body. Smooth muscles can be found represented by balloons in our model.
Cardiac Muscles: Cardiac muscles pump blood through the body. They are involuntary muscles found on the outside of the heart. These muscles contract to pump out blood and relax to let blood back in to the heart. Cardiac muscles also help with digestion and move food along through the digestive tract.
Trachea: The trachea also known as the windpipe is vital in the human body for swallowing. Epiglottis cover the entrance to the trachea when you swallow. Smooth muscles line the walls of the trachea to contract and expand while swallowing food.
Pharynx: The pharynx is a passageway for food and air. Food moves from the trachea to the pharynx in the process of digestion and this shown by the second straw connected inside the head in our project.
Larynx: The larynx houses the human bodies voice box and vocal cords. Smooth involuntary muscles pull together and then vibrate to make noise. This is another stage in the respiratory system because oxygenated air flows through this canal. The larynx is located at the top of the neck.
Bronchi: The bronchi are large passageways in the chest cavity. The bronchus passageways lead to the lungs which leads to the bronchi oles. These cavities are filled with fluid and flem when a person has bronchidus. The bronchi are found in the lungs which is represented by the balloons above our diaphragm in our project.
Alveoli: The alveoli are tiny sacs of air connected in little clusters by networks of capillaries. These small pods are loading docs for the lungs to add oxygenated blood to the blood stream and take out deoxygenated and deliver it back to the heart to receive more oxygen.
Diaphragm: The diaphragm is a large smooth involuntary muscle at the bottom of the chest cavity. It is used to contract and expand the volume of the chest cavity to take in and push out air. This movement creates a partial vacuum in the body moving air throughout the lungs and to outside the body. This is represented by the cut and stretched balloon at the bottom of the bottle and below our lungs in our project.
Muscular System: This system is vital so we can move our bones and perform tasks each day. This system performs simple to complex tasks with voluntary and involuntary movement daily. There are three main types of muscles smooth, skeletal, and cardiac. Each serve a difference purpose but all are vital to the human bodies function and movement.
Skeletal Muscles: Skeletal muscles are primarily found in the top half of the body. Skeletal muscles are used for voluntary muscle movements and usually contract like we showed in our model. Most of these muscles are connected to collagen fibers called tendons holding the bone and muscles together.
Smooth Muscles: Smooth muscles are a type of muscle tissue in the body. Smooth muscle fibers are located in the walls of the hollow visceral organs. These muscles are almost always used in involuntary movement. Some examples of this happening in the body is the diaphragm in the lungs and the pump of the heart to move blood around the human body. Smooth muscles can be found represented by balloons in our model.
Cardiac Muscles: Cardiac muscles pump blood through the body. They are involuntary muscles found on the outside of the heart. These muscles contract to pump out blood and relax to let blood back in to the heart. Cardiac muscles also help with digestion and move food along through the digestive tract.
Reflection
In this project there were many positives and some negatives that we can learn from this project. Two positives that we had was our time management/ work ethic and our presentation. Both worked well because they have been practiced thoroughly in the STEM Marin program over the past two years. The time management in our project was planned out carefully through a written plan. This allowed us to become more efficient and in turn finish the project earlier with the same quality of work. Since we were done earlier our presentation was better practiced and therefore became easier to present. Speaking became easier and describing the body systems along with the models became familiar.
There were also negatives that we can learn from in this project. Two negatives could be the communication in the group and the lack of knowledge in complex power tools. There was lack of communication in the group because there were many days where people were absent which hindered communication within the group. This is good to learn from because next time we could solve this by creating a group chat or other forms of communication between multiple people at home. The lack of knowledge with power tools made the building process slower but this problem will be fixed after we continue to use projects with these tools and become familiar with them. These negatives will turn into positives after they are learned from and improved upon in the future.
There were also negatives that we can learn from in this project. Two negatives could be the communication in the group and the lack of knowledge in complex power tools. There was lack of communication in the group because there were many days where people were absent which hindered communication within the group. This is good to learn from because next time we could solve this by creating a group chat or other forms of communication between multiple people at home. The lack of knowledge with power tools made the building process slower but this problem will be fixed after we continue to use projects with these tools and become familiar with them. These negatives will turn into positives after they are learned from and improved upon in the future.