After considering the Health and Safety implications when handling animal tissue, the children got their gloves and aprons on and prepared their workspace accordingly. Because the heart is not perfectly symmetrical, the children had to ascertain which side they were looking at. They were able to see how thick the left side was compared to the right, and could locate the aorta, pulmonary veins and artery.
Some identified the valves which prevent the blood travelling backwards, and one group found a hole in the septum! We wondered if this caused any mixing of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood and hypothesised whether this would heal or grow over the course of time.
We also learnt about the vital function of the valves. They used syringes and pipettes to carefully pass water through the vessels to see which direction it travelled.
The children also noticed lots of ‘string like’ structures- these were chordae tendinae.
These tendons hold the heart valves in place and are sometimes known as ‘heartstrings’.
