Teaching activity – Models of the human heart

This resource for level 5–6 students compares three diagrams that model the structure and function of the human heart.

Illustration of an anatomical heart and connecting veins.

About this resource

This activity supports students to critique models of the human heart.

Reviews

Teaching activity - Models of the human heart

Curriculum Links

Level 5 and 6

Nature of science: Communicating in science

Students will:

Use a wider range of science vocabulary, symbols and conventions.
Apply their understandings of science to evaluate both popular and scientific texts, including visual and numerical literacy.

Living world: Life processes

Students will:

Identify the key structural features and functions involved in the life processes of plants and animals.

Mātauranga Māori

Different iwi have different atua responsible for different body parts. It is important to check with local iwi as to the tikanga of the area and the corresponding element of tapu or noa with which it is viewed. Building these connections will also potentially reveal symbolism within the pūrakau of the rohe.

This resource is focused on developing student understanding of the roles of models in science, as well as the importance of critique in science. This involves looking at what any representation shows and what it leaves out. As further observations are made, what is sought to be demonstrated in the model changes. Within te ao Māori, the discussion of the benefits or otherwise of a particular course of action occurs through wānanga – a process of discussion through to consensus. The process may be long or short, but time is taken to thoroughly explore and offer rationale to support any propositions being made. This task embodies the concept of wānanga. Wānanga recognises all voices and perspectives; however, the process continues until agreement is reached as to the group’s decision.

Learning Intentions / Success Criteria

Students will:

interpret a range of representations (models) of the heart (Interpret representations)
critique the strengths of different representations and identify what information is shown and not shown in a range of representations (Critique evidenc e)
explore how models are used in science and their strengths and weaknesses (Interpret representations).

Learning Activity

What you need

A combination of 2D and 3D (physical and virtual) models of the heart.

Some suggestions:

other printed images of the human heart
physical model of the human heart if one is available or can be purchased
Human heart model - 3D digital model by Sketchfab
heart emojis and icons

Starter questions for students

What is the role of the heart in the human body?
How does the heart move blood around the human body?
What do you know about the structure of the human heart?
Where is the heart located in the human body?
What are some ways that we can represent the heart and the way it functions? (All representations, including diagrams, are models.)
Why is it more useful to have a range of models, rather than just one?

For teachers: Guiding student exploration

Share the models with the students.This could be done as a bus-stop activity with the models at stations around the classroom with students moving around them in small groups.
Ask each group to share their ideas for each model – of what is represented by the model (this relates to the key idea that the model is trying to convey) and what has been left out.
Ask students to decide, with reasons, which model most clearly shows each of the following features of the heart:
- The heart lies very close to the lungs
- The heart pumps blood through the circulatory system
- Mammals have a four-chambered heart, consisting of two atria and two ventricles
- The right and left sides of the mammalian heart are completely separate from each other, so there is no mixing of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood
- Oxygenated blood enters the heart from the pulmonary veins through the left atrium, passes to the left ventricle, and leaves the heart through the aorta
- Deoxygenated blood enters the right atrium, is pumped through the right ventricle to the pulmonary artery, which conveys it to the lungs for oxygenation
- The surface of the heart is constantly moving as it beats
- There are valves inside the heart, between the chambers

Questions for students

What clues let you know you are looking at a human heart?
Where do you see labels or extra information in your model?
How might scientists have first found out about how a heart works?
When we think of models of the heart now, we think of it as a pump. Has it always been thought of as a pump? Why/why not? (Pumps were not invented until the Middle Ages.)
Why did Aristotle, who lived 2000 years ago, think of the heart as a “fiery furnace”?
Would you be able to understand how the heart works only by doing a dissection if you didn’t have a scientist’s model in your mind?
How do different models give you different insights into how the heart works? What information does this model tell you about the heart, and what does it NOT tell you?
Why are some models made to look like the actual object and others are more stylised? Who do you think the intended audience is for this model, and why do you say that? For example, why are doctors’ models made as visually similar to the object itself as possible? (To cater for the different knowledge and level of understanding of the viewer. A very realistic model makes it easier for doctors, with highly developed knowledge, to explain heart-related matters to patients.)
What is the important thing this model is trying to tell you?
What questions do you still have about human hearts that the models have not addressed?
Students could then identify an audience who might want to know more about the human heart – for example, grandparents, year 1–2 students, ESOL students – and choose one model to suit that audience, with reasons for the choice.

Resources to go further

Science Learning Hub, Pokapū Akoranga Pūtaiao:

Students could also:

Dissect a mammalian heart and look for the different parts using the models they’ve already studied.
Develop their own model of a human heart using a medium of their choosing, for example, playdough, Tinkercad, 2D drawing, using recyclable materials.
Investigate who Leonardo da Vinci was and his diagrams and understanding of the human heart from 1507 onwards, see What Leondardo taught us about the human heart (BBC, 28 June 2014); images with captions are available from SCIENCEphotoLIBRARY.
Investigate the structure of the heart of other animals and develop a model.