#10 Human Body

The Human Body
http://www.scienceforkidsclub.com/human-body.html

Parts of the body:

Blood:

• Blood carries oxygen and essential vitamins and minerals to the locations in our body. It is like a train that carries good things to our organs and when it drops them off, it picks up the ‘waste’ that our bodies no longer needs.

Brain:

• The brain is the center of our nervous system, allowing us to control movements, thoughts and decisions.
• The human brain is one of the most powerful organs in the body. It allows us to think, store memories, analyze and make judgments while at the same time it controls other areas automatically, such as breathing.

Digestive System:

• The only time we ever think about our digestive tract is when we are hungry or if we are sick and have ‘tummy troubles’. 
• The digestive tract has a big responsibility and there are quite a few parts to it. The main purpose is the break down the food that we eat into tiny pieces so that the body can absorb the nutrients.

Eye:

• We experience the world through sight and it is one of the five senses. Without sight, we would not be able to view a sunrise, see the colors of flowers or paint a picture. Our eyes are very sophisticated in the way they process information and light.

Hearing:

• There are three specific parts to your ear: the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear.
• We are surrounded by marvelous sounds that our ears capture, send inside and are transmitted to our brain. It is the brain that does most of the work in hearing. It translates what is being sent to you so that you can recognize or take action.

Immune System:

• The word ‘immune’ actually means to be protected. Our immune systems work in the body to fight off illness and sickness. It is a network of tissues, organs and cells that all work together to keep us healthy.

• Everyone can help their immune system to do its job by eating healthy foods, washing your hands to prevent infections, getting enough sleep and exercise and seeing you doctor for regular examinations.

• Just because you have this wonderful immune system in place, doesn’t mean that you won’t get sick. Your immune system kicks in to give you extra protection but sometimes the illness is stronger than your body can handle and even the immune system isn’t enough.

Muscle:

• You might think of muscles as those in the arms and legs that allow an athlete to perform well, but we have hundreds of muscles throughout our body and we use them without thinking about it.

• Muscles allow us physical movement such as sitting, eating and walking as well as maintaining our posture. Muscles also allow the movement of internal organs such as the movement of food through the digestive system or even the beating of our heart.
• Muscles are soft tissues within the bodies of animals and humans whose main purpose is to produce motion and force.

Nose:

• Our nose is an important part of our everyday life. Think what it would be like to never smell chocolate chip cookies baking or the smell of green grass that has just been mowed. The nose is another one of the body’s complex organs and we really don’t think about it until we catch a cold and our nose gets stuffed up.
• You breathe air through your nose and the air is then filtered by a lot of tiny little hairs that are just inside the nostril. They help to remove dirt and dust so that you don’t breathe it in.
• Your nose is useful for more than smelling good things, it can help you to detect if there is anything dangerous in the air such as chemicals.

Senses:

• We rely on our five senses to exist every day: smell, taste, hearing, touch and seeing. 
• Around 80% of what you think you are tasting is actually based on smell. The flavor of something is a combination of smell and taste perceptions.
• There are other human senses that exist in subsets of the main ones. These are the ability to detect pain, temperature, and balance.

Teeth:

• Our teeth are incredibly important in the way we eat and digest our food. Teeth are small, hard, bony calcified formations that are set into our jaws and are used for chewing and biting.
• The enamel on our teeth is the hardest substance in the human body.
• When we are born, we don’t have teeth. The first set, known as ‘baby teeth’ slowly grow in and they total to twenty teeth. When our adult teeth grow in we have a total of thirty two teeth.
• It is important to brush and floss your teeth every day to keep tartar from building up. Food that is left on the teeth can attract bacteria and between the tartar and bacteria, that can create cavities.

Bones and Skeletons:

• Our bones and skeletal structure are a main requirement for our bodies to be able to move. Without our bones, we would be more like a slug, just a ‘bag of blood, fluids and skin’.
• When we are born there are around 300 bones in the human skeleton. By the time we reach adulthood, some of these bones have fused together, so we only end up with 206 bones.
• If you break a bone it will try to repair itself and re-grow. Sometimes it doesn’t grow back in the right way so that’s why doctors put a splint or cast over the broken bone area to make sure they grow back properly.
• Some bones help protect important organs in the body for example the rib cage helps to protect your heart, liver and lungs.

Lungs (Breathing System):

• We take our breathing system for granted because it happens without thinking. The body has a part of the brain that automatically makes us breath. From the moment a baby is born, we breathe in and out, no matter what.
• When we breathe in, we are taking in oxygen into our lungs. This is a requirement for us to live. When we exhale, or breathe out, we have deposited the oxygen into the lungs and are breathing out carbon dioxide. The oxygen will be picked up by the blood that flows through our lungs and taken to the many parts of the body that need it.
• Every day your lungs take in nearing 2,000 gallons of air. This is sufficient to supply the 2,400 gallons of blood that circulate through your heart every day.
• Your brain is the main control center in communicating with your lungs about how fast or slow to breathe. When you play and exercise, the brain sends a message to your lungs to work faster. When you sleep at night, your brain tells the lungs to slow down.

Ears:

• Hearing is one of the five senses and we couldn’t hear without the help of our ears. They are very complex and intricate parts of the body that give us the ability to detect sounds, noises and even the variations of beat and music.
• The outside ear that we see is just a portion of the entire ear. The ear shape is designed to capture sound waves.
• The middle part of the ear is behind the ear drum and takes the sound waves and amplifies sound pressure.
• You might have always wondered why people have ear wax. This is actually produced by skin glands in the ear and protects the ear from dirt and dust through lubricating it.

Hair:

• Humans have all different colors and types of hair. It is believed that the texture and colors were developed over thousands of years, depending upon the location of the world that the people survived in.
• The location under the skin that allows a hair or strands of hair to grow is called a follicle. It is found in the skin layer called the dermis.
• The eyelash protects the eye area from dust, dirt and any other possible harmful objects.
• Human facial hair grows faster than any of the other types of body hair.
• An average person loses from fifty to one hundred strands of hair per day, directly from the scalp.
• Humans can grow hair everywhere except a few places: lips, palms of the hands, soles of the feet.
• The hair that we have on our heads acts as both a coolant by deflecting the UV rays of the sun as well as a heat insulator when the weather is colder.

Heart:

• Our heart is one of the hardest working organs in the body. It goes non-stop, pumping blood throughout your body and through all of the blood vessels. When you have a healthy heart, it makes it easier to have better overall health.
• The heart is located in the chest area of the body and because it is so vital it is protected by the ribs of your rib cage.
• The heart is considered to be a muscle.
• The heart consists of four different chambers: the left atrium, the right atrium, the left ventricle and the right ventricle.
• There are four critical valves in the human heart. They make sure that the blood only goes one way, the way it’s supposed to go and does not back up or go in the wrong direction.

Videos:

The Magic School Bus Inside Ralphie

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