Which part of the living system did you change?
Labs / Biology
Circulation
Watch the heart pump. Blood cells run the top loop through the lungs, where they turn bright red with oxygen, then the bottom loop out to the body, where they darken as the oxygen is used up. Slide the heart rate up & down, or press the canvas to give the heart a manual squeeze.
Circulation
Watch the heart pump. Blood cells run the top loop through the lungs, where they turn bright red with oxygen, then the bottom loop out to the body, where they darken as the oxygen is used up. Slide the heart rate up & down, or press the canvas to give the heart a manual squeeze.
Why it matters
Why explore this?
Living systems are connected and constantly changing. This model makes one biological process visible so you can test how its parts affect one another.
Explore
Try the model
Rate 72 bpmDelivery 0.0 cells/s
Investigate
Questions to test
Predict first, try it in the model, then use what you observe to answer.
What to try
- Push the heart rate from resting to a sprint. Does the delivery rate rise in step with the beats?
- Where exactly does a cell change colour — is it a sudden switch or a gradual one as it passes through an organ?
- Turn on slow motion and watch a single beat. When does the valve open, and when do the cells surge forward?
- Why does blood need two separate loops instead of one big circle through both the lungs and the body?
- If the heart could only beat half as fast, what would the body have to do to keep the same oxygen delivery?
Explain
Make sense of what happened
Explain the process as a chain: a change happens, the system responds, and that response affects what happens next. Use an observation from the model as evidence.
Check
Before you leave
How did the system respond?
How would you explain that response?
If you can answer all three using evidence from the model, you understand the main idea. If not, return to Explore and change one setting at a time.