This Valentine's Day will you be giving someone special a gift from the heart? Or will you be pleading with your Valentine not to break your heart? Perhaps you'll be the recipient of a wonderful gift, and respond with heartfelt thanks. Whenever the discussion turns to love, the association with our hearts is not far behind. Popularly characterized as the center of our emotions, the heart is actually an amazing and tireless pump. Hop on board, as we learn more.
"About a hundred times a minute, 100,000 times a day, 36.5 million times a year, your heart keeps the beat . . . the beat of life. That familiar thump, thump, thump tells you that your heart is doing its job pumping blood from the veins to the heart and lungs, where it is replenished with oxygen and then distributed back to the body through the arteries. How does the heart work? Read on." This single-page illustrated introduction to the heart includes links to advice on how to keep your heart healthy.
As you move your mouse over the cardiovascular system, clickable, labeled hot spots (such as heart or pulmonary artery) will appear. Clicking them will display a short article in the left-hand frame. Related images (a cut-view of the heart or a pacemaker) are listed across the top of the page. There are a couple of cool animations (a pumping heart and a flowing cardiovascular system) buried in the yellow left-hand menu. To wander beyond the cardiovascular system, use the blue vertical menu on the left.
Perfect for elementary and middle-school students, this article clearly illustrates the heart's chambers and valves. "We see and hear about hearts everywhere. A long time ago, people even thought that their emotions came from their hearts, maybe because the heart beats faster when a person is scared or excited. Now we know that emotions come from the brain, and that the brain tells the heart what to do. So what's the heart up to, then? How does it keep busy? What does it look like? Let's find out."
This multimedia extravaganza for teens and grownups explores how a healthy heart works, "how a heart gets into trouble," how heart disease is treated, and how it is prevented. Highlights are an excellent glossary (from ACE inhibitor to x-ray), assembling a heart, and building a circulatory timeline by placing five "heart events" in proper order.
Tha-thump, tha-thump, tha-thump. Enter with your speakers on. The tour begins at the bottom of the first page (where you'll find a link to the Table of Contents) or you jump directly to the activities labeled Do, See, Learn, Go and Hear. Whichever route you choose, you'll learn about the anatomy and function of the heart. For a fun look at the heart's role in popular culture, don't miss The Heart Goes Pop.
Buy Your Heart Printable for $2.00
or try a FREE trial of the Printables ClubThe following links are either new discoveries or sites that didn't make it into my newspaper column because of space constraints. Enjoy!
Biology Education Interactive WebNOVA: Electric Heart | PBS: To Heal a HeartWhat is the Heart? |
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