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Tuesday, June 21, 2016

The Circulatory System

I have recently started a Khan Academy course on the human anatomy and physiology and have decided to write blog posts on the different systems of the body, so here is the Circulatory System.





The Circulatory System includes the heart (pump) arteries (outflow pipes) and veins (inflow pipes). The heart acts like a pump to push oxygenated blood around the body through arteries to give the cells food and oxygen, and to pump deoxygenated blood back to the heart through the veins. So let's see how it works.

Let's say you're an oxygenated red blood cell and you're starting your journey in the Aortic arch you will go out to the lower body in one of the three arteries. As you go through the body the arteries will start to branch off and get smaller. You will go past lots of cells and tissues giving them your oxygen and they will give to you their carbon dioxide. You will then go into a vein and make the journey back as a deoxygenated red blood cell. Eventually you will come to the Inferior Vena Cava (if you had gone to the upper body will have come to the heart through the Superior Vena Cava) from there you will go into the Right Atrium (this is from the person who owns the heart's perspective) and when the Tricuspid valve opens (the valves opening and shutting make the lub dub (S1 S2) sound you hear)  you will be pumped into the Right Ventricle. From there the Pulmonary Semilunar valve will open letting you be pumped into the Pulmonary trunk (anything with the word Pulmonary means it has some thing to do with the lungs). From the Pulmonary trunk you will branch off into either the right or left Pulmonary arteries, You will then go into the lungs. Passing by the alvioli you will get oxygenated and give the lungs the carbon dioxide which it will exhale out. You will then be an oxygenated red blood cell again!

From the lungs you will be pumped back into the heart via the Pulmonary veins. From there you will make your way into the left atrium. When the Mitral valve (here the Bicuspid valve) opens you will go into the Left Ventricle and finally when the Aortic valve opens you will be back inside the Aortic arch ready to go back in to the body many more times (unless your owner is a crazy one and cuts him/herself and you find youself outside the body but lets hope that doesn't happen).         



Well that is the Circulatory system for you and I hope you go back just that little bit more smarter.

By the Tiger

Sunday, June 12, 2016

Alastor Adventure by Princess

Auntie Annette tending the fire.
Me on the throne of Alastor.

We got ready to go to Alastor (a special family place) with Grandfather, Uncle Danny and Auntie Annette. We got in the cars and began driving. We were in the Blue Mountains. We drove straight through Blackheath and down a winding road into the Megalong Valley. 

Daddy on the throne of Alastor.
We parked the cars and began walking. It was so extreme and adventurous all at the same time. After two hours of extreme bush bashing we were starving hungry, exhausted and desperate to get there. 

We sent two of the adults to get the cars and walked further down the road. When the cars came we drove up the road and to find a place to have lunch but before we could have lunch Grandfather found Alastor. 

Some of the beautiful fungi we found.
It was beautiful, and we were successful! There were cliffs towering majestically overhead. To the right a stream bubbling softly over rocks. To the left the queenly moss covered throne of Alastor. There was a name tree with names carved into the tree, and a moss fireplace. 

We had lunch and went to explore our superb scenery, with moss covered boulders, fungi and rainforest trees. It was so wild yet so beautiful. We stayed for a few hours before we left. We had so much fun. Finding Alastor was really an adventure.
Can you find the A in the cliff ?
Written by Princess


Alastor by the Tiger


Fungi and moss on the side of a tree.
In the Blue Mountains,.. near a town called Blackheath,.. there is the Megalong Valley,.. it has a steep winding road,.. and a few metres down from the road is... Alastor!  Alastor is a secret family place discovered and made by my great grandfather when he was 12 years old and it was there that his mother taught him the Christian faith. And we recently went there with grandfather and the Wotherspoons, (Uncle Danny and Auntie Annette).

The fire...on which we are drying the kids clothes because
they got wet in the creek.
We came down the deceivingly scary winding road and after a while parked the cars on the side of the road, then we went into the valley. We had decided before that we would park a little away from Alastor so as to go for a bush walk to find it, but... we had calculated wrongly and so we were walking (or rather bashing) our way through the extreme and exhausting bush of the valley for hours not knowing that we were going the wrong way! Whilst we were walking Uncle Danny taught us lots of stuff about the plants and scenery around us. We found lots of different kinds of fungi and lichen.

We decided eventually to go back up to the road and Daddy and Auntie Annette walked back to get the cars while we walked down the road. When the cars came we drove down the road and discovered that we had gone too far down the road. Whilst we were driving we saw two lyre birds on the side of the road.

Daddy resting on the Throne of Alastor
Eventually we found it and the scenery was beautiful with majestic cliffs and boulders with wonderful ferns and moss. There was an amazing tall tree with names carved in it and a queenly throne made out of a rock that was surprisingly comfortable. We think that the throne was where my Great Great Grandmother sat whilst talking to my Great Grandfather. There was also a fire place in which we made a fire. We went exploring and built a dam in the small creek that was flowing through the valley.

We had a wonderful time there and I can't wait to go there again. We didn't take enough photos because we were all so exhausted from the walking.

Written by the Tiger









Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Fungi


We were in the Blue Mountains, in the Megalong Valley. This is a picture of me near some fungus. This fungus was orange and white and was on a green stick. There was moss on the stick, because most rainforest sticks have moss.                
Mushrooms are fungus. You can find fungus in every different colour. They grow in the rainforest. In a creek, in a big cave there was a big colourful fungus that was above the water.

Written by Tank