Demonstrate How Systems Interact!

Your body is made up of a lot of systems that do all kinds of complicated things that keep you living. A cool thing is that they all work with each other. In this series of short, interactive activities, you’ll demonstrate how the circulatory system works with other systems.

1. Respiratory and Nervous Systems

Materials: none

Procedure:1. Hold your hand over the left side of your chest to feel your

heart rate 2. Hold your breath for 30 seconds3. Hold your hand over your heart again. Is your heart

beating faster?

Why? The respiratory, nervous, and circulatory systems are working together! The circulatory system takes blood to and from lungs. Oxygen from the lungs is sent through blood which is transported in circulatory system to other parts of body. When you held your breath you didn't get oxygen so your heart had to work harder to pump blood. Your brain is what tells your heart to pump faster even if you don’t think about it.

2) Muscular System

Materials: none

Procedure:1. Do 10 push-ups 2. Do your muscles feel tingly?

While doing physical exercise, the circulatory system will supply extra blood to muscles. The more active the muscular system, the healthier the circulatory system. Exercise increases the amount of enzymes that destroy blood clots=less strokes. Do your pushups people!

3) Integumentary System

Materials: none

Procedure:1. Do 10 more pushups2. Getting hot from the workout?

Have no fear! The capillaries near the skin surface work with your integumentary system (skin,hair, nails, protects your body) by opening when your body needs to cool down.

4)Digestive System

Materials: Milk jug cap with holes in it Bowl Bottle of water

Procedure1. Hold the milk cap over the bowl (bowl will catch water)2. Slowly pour water onto the milk cap 3. Watch how the water is spread out like a shower. This is

kind of how the circulatory system works

How? The bottle of water represents nutrients from your digestive system. The milk jug cap represents the circulatory system and the bowl represents your body. When you poured the water over the cap, it was like the digestive system putting it'd nutrients into the circulatory system blood stream. the cap then diffused the nutrients into the bowl (body) like the circulatory system does.

5) Excretory SystemMaterials:

High Pulp Orange juice strainer       Bowl

1. Pour the orange juice through the strainer into the bowl2. Enjoy some pulp free OJ!

This is kind of how your excretory system works with the circulatory system. The juice is like your blood and the strainer is like your kidneys. Your kidneys filter all the bad things out of your blood which then go into your urine as waste.

6) Endocrine/Reproductive Systems

Materials: Cup of a carbonated drink straw

Procedure: 1. Suck a the drink through the straw

The drink is your blood, the bubbles are hormones, the cup is  a gland that releases hormones. Hormones are released into the bloodstream to be transported throughout the body. These hormones include development for maturity for reproduction.

7) Skeletal and Immune SystemsMaterials:

Bubbles and bubble blower wand

Procedure:1. Blow some bubbles

How is this relevant? You represent bone marrow in the bones of your body. Bubbles represent red and white blood cells. Bone marrow produces red and white blood cells which  are what transport oxygen (red) and help fight disease (white). The bone marrow is crucial to the circulatory system because without it, you would be more prone to disease, have less blood cells to transport oxygen, and be overall less healthy.  Therefore, the bone marrow makes people happy, kind of like bubbles.