CODE BLUE!
Essential Questions and Vocabulary
------------------------------------------------------Required Systems---------------------------------------------------Skeletal-Muscular System:
What is the primary function(s) of our skeletal and muscular systems?
How do bones and muscles work together?
What are the purposes of ligaments, tendons, and cartilage?
What makes bone so light yet so strong?
How do our bones change from the time we are born?
How are the three types of muscles different?
Vocab: bone, muscle (smooth, skeletal, cardiac / voluntary-involuntary / flexor-extensor), tendon,
ligament, cartilage, compact bone, spongy bone, joints (ball-and-socket, hinge, fixed), ossification.
Digestive System:
What is the primary function(s) of our digestive system?
Why do we eat? What do we get from the foods we eat?
How does food get digested mechanically (aka physically) and chemically?
What is the path of food through the digestive system and what do the digestive organs do to the digesting
food along the way?
What are villi and what do they do?
How do the nutrients get from the digesting food to the rest of the body?
Vocab: enzymes, hydrochloric acid, bile, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine = colon,
rectum, anus, pancreas, liver/gall bladder, mucus, peristalsis, villi, nutrients, chyme, feces.
Circulatory System (aka Cardiovascular System):
(possibly including Lymphatic System)
What is the primary function(s) of our cardiovascular system?
Why must blood always be flowing?
Where does the blood travel to and why does it go there?
What are the differences between arteries, veins, and capillaries?
What are the main components of human blood and what does each do?
Why are there four chambers within the heart? (What are the differences?)
Vocab: heart, ventricle, atrium, valve, septum, chamber, vessels (artery, vein, capillary), aorta, pulse,
pulmonary circulation vs. systemic circulation, coronary circulation, blood, plasma, red blood cells,
hemoglobin, spleen, white blood cells, platelets, lymph, lymph vessels, lymph nodes.
Respiratory System:
What is the primary function(s) of our respiratory system?
Why do we breath?
How do we breath (hint: diaphragm)?
How and where does the oxygen and carbon dioxide get in and out of our bloodstream?
What are alveoli and what do they do?
Vocab: lungs, sinuses, larynx, vocal cords, trachea, bronchi, bronchial tubes, alveoli, diaphragm, cilia,
epiglottis.
Nervous System:
What is the primary function(s) of our nervous system?
What is the difference between the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system?
What are the differences between the three main types of neurons?
What are the functions of the three main sections of our brain (cerebrum, cerebellum, medulla)?
Why are our five senses considered part of our nervous system?
Vocab: neurons (interneuron, motor neuron, sensory neuron), cerebrum, cerebellum, medulla, spinal
cord, axon, dendrites, effectors and receptors.
Immune System:
What is the primary function(s) of our immune system?
What is the difference between infectious and noninfectious diseases?
What are some ways that pathogens can enter our body and make us ill?
What are ways that our body prevents pathogens from infecting us?
What are ways that our body can destroy pathogens that have already infected us?
Vocab: pathogen, vaccination, immunity, antibodies, fever, macrophages, white blood cells: B cells, T
cells (helper T cells, killer T cells), allergies.
--------------------------------------------------Optional Systems--------------------------------------------------------Integumentary System:
What is the primary function(s) of the skin?
What is the difference between the dermis and the epidermis?
How does skin help regulate our body temperature?
Vocab: dermis, epidermis, sweat glands, subcutaneous fat, oil glad (sebaceous gland), hair follicle.
Endocrine System:
What is the primary function(s) of the endocrine system?
What are some main endocrine glands?
What are some important hormones and what do they do?
How do hormones travel throughout the body?
Vocab: hormones, ductless glands, pituitary gland, adrenal gland, pancreas, thryroid gland, thymus
gland, ovaries, testes.
Urinary System:
What is the primary function(s) of the urinary system?
How do the kidneys filter wastes and reabsorb water?
What are nephrons and what do they do?
What is the composition of urine, and why?
Vocab: kidneys, ureters, bladder, urethra, urine, urea, nephrons.