Mid School Med

         This page has been stared as an adjunct tool for Mrs. Maichin's middle school human anatomy class.  If you are not part of the class, please feel free to join the discussion.  We can all learn from one another.·         

 Being asked to learn “what?” without learning “why?” seems disrespectful.   As a doctor, a scientist, an educator, and a student, the colleagues I respect most are those who push boundaries, i.e. those who ask questions.  Moreover, those who refuse to accept "because I said so" as an answer to those questions are our leaders.  It is always in your power to express your maturity and ask, “but why?” 

·         The successful physician, scientist, educator, and professional not only finds the courage to ask "why?" but attempts to answer that question for themselves.  The universe is filled with facts; facts are everywhere around you.  As a doctor, I see a patient who gives me a fact and says, "my chest hurts."  There are a million reasons for the patient's chest to hurt.  It is my job to figure out how to stop that chest from hurting.  But I can't do that without asking, "why does the chest hurt?"  Then I must answer those questions, or else that chest won't stop hurting.

      You are about to learn about the anatomy and physiology of the human body.  You will be presented with many facts.  You will be told the fact, "the heart pumps blood."  This is good to know, but a successful learner sees this fact as a challenge and asks themselves, "why does the heart pump blood?"  
 
      When in the classroom, we are accustomed to being asked questions by our teachers (the Socratic method).  But in reality, this is not the way medicine, science, and other investigatory disciplines are designed.  As an investigator, it is YOUR job to observe, and then it’s YOUR responsibility to ask the question.  How you answer the questions may be to rely on others to help you understand, to look to the teacher for help, or to forge a way of answering that question on your own. 

·        I will pose to you observations - facts.  In the human heart, the left ventricle is stronger than the right ventricle.  And the ventricles are stronger than the atria.  Does this reality leave you with questions? What are your questions? How are you going to answer them?  And most importantly, why do you even want to answer them?

Help yourself, and help others find the questions that need to be asked.  Greatness is borne from great questions; the answers are simply the reward.

Your first fact: The Left Ventricle is stronger than the Right Ventricle.

What are your questions, how are you going to answer them, and what are your answers.


34 comments:

  1. You have a very good blog and what you write in it shows that you are a great doctor and professor

    see you on Friday

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  3. the left ventricle needs to pump blood to the whole body. it needs to be strong enough for the blood to reach all ends of the body. the right ventricle on the other hand, pumps blood to the lungs, not nearly as far

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  4. The left ventricle is stronger than the right ventricle because the left ventricle has to pump to the body and the body parts so it has to pump a lot harder. The right ventricle just pumps to the lungs, which are right next to the heart.

    -Andrew Desiderio

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  5. Te left ventricle is stronger than the ventricle because it needs to pump blood to the whole body. It needs to be strong enough for the blood to reach all ends of the body.

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  6. Even though the right vertical is bigger I think that is why the left vertical is stronger. Becuase it's smaller it has more muscle.
    - how do you know it's stringer?
    - what job does the left do that the right doesn't?

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  7. Why is the left aricle stronger then the right? The left has to pump to the whole body so it has to contract and relax a lot which gives it the durability

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  8. The left has a different job then the right so it would have to be stinger because it pumps blood

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  9. The question is not which is bigger, yet where do each lead to? The left ventricle which is stronger leads throughout the whole body. The right only leads to the lungs. That is a much shorter distance. That is why the left is stronger, it has farther to travel and more too pump throughout. So that is where they both travel and why the left ventricle is stronger.

    -Michelle Vande Stouwe, Ms.maichin and Ms.Zaleskis class

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  10. The left vertical is stronger then the right vertical. This is because the right vertical pumps POOR oxygen blood to the lungs. The left ventricle pumps RICH oxygen blood to all parts of the body. This is why I believe that the le ventricle is stronger than the right ventricle.

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  11. The first thing I notice is that the right ventricle is bigger than the left one. Why is that if the left ventricle is stronger???

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  12. You've posted some great answers and some great questions!

    Your next fact to consider:

    When the ventricles contract (pump), the atria don't. When the atria contract, the ventricles don't.

    Keep pushing!

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  13. So the atria gets blood, pumps it into the ventricle, the ventricle pumps it into the body or the lungs, and then comes back to the atria.

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  14. That forvme gets a little confusing so I'm going to have to keep pushingvmy self to understand

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  15. What would happened if they both did at the same time? What would happen to the person?

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  16. the atria gets blood by pummping it in to the ventrical and it goes to the body and lungs then back to the atria

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  17. Want to challenge yourself to learn even more? Check out this video:

    http://www.khanacademy.org/video/circulatory-system-and-the-heart?playlist=Biology

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  18. What would happen if one of the valves didn't close? What would happen to the whole cycle?

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  19. That was a really good video. You explained how the heart works and how it functions.

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  20. I learned that veins come into the heart and artery go out of the heart. Also now I have a more clear idea of how the heart works.

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  21. in the 1st diagram in side the red blood cells contains stuff that is we didnt have the shell of the cell would make our blood more heavy and gooey???

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  22. I learned that the heart does more things than I though it does...

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  23. What if Blood stops traveling from the atrium tomthe ventricles? What would happen?

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  24. This video was very helpful for the entire class and I learned that deoxgynated blood goes through the vein and the pulmonary vein doesn't have oxygen

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  25. What was the gooey stuff in your blood again?

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  26. This was a good video, because we are gonnna dissect a heart right after the vid. So we won't be as discusted and now we have a inner view ....... No surprises now

    I have a question what's the difference between a animal heart and a human heart
    -nuvaera

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  27. Fnding the wholes in the heart was awesome but when we had to open up the heart it was really discusting!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  28. So currently in class we're dissecting a sheep heart. We are cutting into the heart looking at the right and left sides. Its really interesting to see! So for we made two cutta into the heart. To see the insides of the right ventricle and Artium.

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  29. Why is the left ventricle strong then the wright that is the question?
    It is stronger because it pumps blood through out he whole body.

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  30. Today's heart disection was very interesting and successful ( even though some of us didn't feel well to do it). I was able to take some really great photos. As a class, I think we better understand the circulatory system.

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  31. Right now in class were in the process of disecting a sheep heart. Its pretty discusting so im not particpating. We have cut the heart in half. I can see now how the left ventricle is stonger. the left ventricle has very large and thick muscles

    -Maddy

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  32. Now that the heart is open (ew) you can actually see how the left ventricle looks smaller than the right one. Dr.Peck is showing us the left side is thicker because it transport blood throughout the whole body. While the right transport blood only to and from the veins. Now so many kids or grossed out!!!!!

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  33. Ew. Dissecting the sheep heart is disgusting but very interesting. We are looking at the left and right ventricles right now. You can see how much smaller is then the left. The left is stronger because it pumps the blood throughout the hole body. This is nasty! -Lauren k

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    Replies
    1. Thank you so much for inviting me to your classroom!!! I had a lot of fun.

      You all impressed me. You were able visualize the four major holes that lead into and out of the heart, you saw the leaflets of valves, and you saw how much thicker the muscular wall of the left ventricle is than the right ventricle. Your enthusiasm was great, and your questions were on point.

      Keep up the good work. Your class works well as a team. I was impressed!

      - TeachMD

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