Unit 5a: Keeping Healthy
The Heart and
Lungs
Key Stage 2: Year 5 Science
by Mrs. Chapman, 2005
Greet School, Birmingham
Introduction
1 The human body
2 What does the heart do?
3 Heart key facts
4 Heart health
5 What do the lungs do?
6 Lungs key facts
7 The circulation
8 Pulse and exercise
9 Pulse rate data
10 How do I look after them?
Heart and lungs quiz
Links for further study
Unit 5a Keeping Healthy: The Heart and Lungs Year 5 Science by Mrs. Chapman
The human body
• Your body is very special.
• We need to look after our
bodies to stay healthy.
• Although we may look still and
quiet on the outside, our body
is constantly moving and
changing inside.
• Can you find the brain, the
heart and the lungs?
Back to Introduction
What does the heart do?
• Your heart, made of muscle, pumps
blood around your body via blood
vessels (tubes).
• The heart is inside your chest,
protected by bones - the ribs and
breast bone.
• When the heart pumps, it beats - we
measure the heartbeat via the pulse
- easily found on your wrist and
neck.
• Blood carries oxygen to the parts of
the body that need it.
Back to Introduction
Heart key facts
• Your heart is about the size of your fist.
• In most adults it beats about 70 times a
minute (70 bpm).
• In children and small animals, the heart beats
faster.
• The first heart transplant was in 1967.
• You cannot normally live for more than 5
minutes if your heart stops beating.
• Heart disease is the number 1 killer in the
western world!
• Doctors examine your heart by taking the pulse
(to see how fast it’s beating), ECGs (special
electrical rhythm charts), x-rays and scans
including ultrasound (like an unborn baby
scan).
Back to Introduction
Heart health
Heart on chest x-ray
Man having a chest x-ray
Ultrasound output
ECG graph output Back to Introduction
What do the lungs do?
• Your lungs receive the air you breathe
in through your nose.
• When you breathe in, the lungs puff-
out or inflate, and deflate when you
breathe out.
• From the air, they take the useful part
- oxygen (a gas), and convert it for use
in the body via the bloodstream.
• The blood swaps carbon dioxide (the
waste material) for oxygen in the lungs.
This is why the lungs are often said to
convert gases.
Back to Introduction
Lungs key facts
• You have 2 lungs.
• Your lungs are protected by your
ribcage.
• Close-up, they look like a wet sponge.
• The left lung is smaller - to
accommodate your heart (see the x-ray
showing the heart).
• Your lungs are particularly vulnerable to
breathing-in nasty substances - toxic
chemicals, smoke from fires and
cigarette smoke all damage your lungs.
Back to Introduction
The circulation
• Blood (with oxygen and nutrients)
goes round our bodies via the
heart. We call this circulation
(from the word ‘circle’).
• The heart sends blood to the
lungs first to collect the oxygen
from the air we’ve just breathed-
in, then it goes to where it’s
needed (this is shown in red).
• The blood then returns to the
lungs via the heart (this is shown in
blue) with carbon dioxide - the gas
that we breathe out.
• This is described as a figure of ‘8’.
Back to Introduction
Pulse and exercise
• When you exercise parts • What parts of the body
of your body need an need an increased blood
increased blood supply supply when running?
(more oxygen and
nutrients) so your heart • Take your resting pulse
beats faster. and produce a bar chart
• You also breathe faster - of your group’s results.
to get more oxygen into • What is the most
your lungs, and to get rid common range for pulse?
of the carbon dioxide.
• You also get hot and
sometimes flushed (or
red faced).
Back to Introduction
Pulse rate data
After 2
min
After 1
min Miss B
Mr A
Mrs C
Jumping
Rest
0 100 200
Back to Introduction
How do I look after them?
By doing exercise regularly: • How can we check
• our hearts get fitter and
bigger - better at pumping
that exercise is good
blood and not needing to work for our hearts or
so hard or fast. lungs?
• our lungs get stronger and
have increased capacity so we • What else could we
are able to take in more check to see if
oxygen in a single breath.
exercise is good for
• we will feel healthier.
us?
Back to Introduction
Heart and Lungs Quiz
Are they True or False?
• Your heart pumps blood around your body.
• The heartbeat of smaller animals and children is slower than adults
or big animals.
• Your blood carries carbon dioxide to all the parts that need it .
• Your lungs exchange gases.
• Blood travels around the body in a figure of ‘8’.
• Your pulse tells you how much air you are breathing.
• Athletes have a slower resting pulse than unfit people.
• The ribs are bones that protect the heart and lungs.
• Exercise and eating healthily are good for your heart.
Back to Introduction
Heart and Lungs Quiz
• Your heart pumps blood around your body.
– True
• The heartbeat of smaller animals and children is slower than adults or
big animals.
– False – the smaller the animal the faster the heartbeat.
• Your blood carries carbon dioxide to all the parts that need it .
– False – the blood carries oxygen to all the parts that need it.
• Your lungs exchange gases.
– True
• Blood travels around the body in a figure of ‘8’.
– True
• Your pulse tells you how much air you are breathing.
– False – pulse tells us how fast your heart is beating.
• Athletes have a slower resting pulse than unfit people.
– True
• The ribs are bones that protect the heart and lungs.
– True
• Exercise and eating healthily are good for your heart.
– True
Back to Introduction
Useful links for further study
• http://www.schoolscience.co.uk/content/4/biology/abpi/heart/index.html
Back to Introduction