Unit 3 Reflection

This unit was about the physiology of different parts of the heart and how they all worked together as a whole. The unit also included several problems that the heart could have and possible ways to fix these problems. The cardiovascular system works by pumping nutrient and oxygen-rich blood through the body, and returning the deoxygenated blood to the heart to pump it to the lungs.

Cardiovascular health is the state of the arteries and if they are cleared and not filled with plaque. A heart attack is caused by a build-up of to much plaque in the walls of the arteries which results in less blood flow, and a cardiac arrest is an electrical malfunction in the heart's rhythm.

A stroke is caused by a blood clot usually in the brain or in another part of the body and travels to the brain. I can promote my cardiovascular health by eating  from proper food groups such as fruits and vegetables as well as carbohydrates and protein.

I want to learn more about how a malfunction of the valves, or a leak can affect the entire heart and also how alternative methods such as valve replacement can be used to prevent patients of heart attacks and prevent a heart attack from occurring.

For the most part, it was easy for me to memorize the different parts of the heart and how they all worked together to make the heart function, and it was easy for me to understand how the circulatory system worked. However, it was difficult for me to imagine what to do in a real world situation if the heart malfunctioned in some way such as a blood clot resulting in a stroke or a heart attack. It was also difficult for me to tell the difference between some of the different types of white blood cells and the different treatments of heart disease. 

I believe that working together to create the chalk drawing of the hearts was successful, however, I did not believe that the video was necessary. I also liked the activity for the one Monday wellness on jump roping during this unit because it taught me a lot about how the circulation of blood was relevant to the exercise that we do, and it also taught me how helpful jump roping can be as a form of exercise and prevent heart disease. I learned that as a group it is important to have everyone fully onboard and participating with projects because it helps everyone involved and one person is not stuck doing all the work. As a class, it is also enjoyable to have everyone participating in discussions because that makes the lessons that we learn more interesting.

Based on what I learned in this unit, I think I have successfully accomplished my unit 2 goals because I did figure out how to connect the individual parts of the heart and their functions and figured out how they help the body and why they are so important to our health in general. My new goal for the rest of the semester is to be more active during class, especially with the Monday Wellness presentations.