As you experience BODY WORLDS & The Cycle of Life, we hope you are amazed, inspired and filled with
wonder about the incredible human body. These questions can help prepare you before and pull together your
experiences after your exhibition experience to optimize your learning. Feel free to write or draw your responses.
BEFORE VIEWING THE EXHIBITION
1. What different body systems do you know? How do they work? Do any systems work in concert with another system?
2. Think of experiences you or someone you know have with a body system, organ or limb that was diseased,
injured, enhanced or worn out. (i.e. physical flexibility, diabetes, loss of limb, acute sense of hearing, double jointed,
hip replacement, etc.) What daily life changes were made? How difficult was it adapting to a new lifestyle?
3. The exhibition shows authentic human specimens, organs and body slices. What apprehensions do you have
about viewing these? Will diseased body parts, organs damaged by alcoholism, smoking, etc., or other unhealthy
organs have an effect on your experience?
AFTER OBSERVING THE EXHIBITION
4. Describe a specimen that helped you better understand how the body works. Why is it so memorable?
Will it have an effect on your lifestyle?
5. What new questions do you now have about the body? How will you get answers for those questions?
6. As a person ages, the body changes. What positive and/or negative naturally occurring changes did you observe in
the exhibition?
7. Give an example of how the muscular and skeletal systems work together to help the body move.
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8. Fill in the blanks below using these words:
aorta
capillary
heart
Superior vena cava
arms
circulatory system
Inferior vena cava
vein
arteries
eye
larger
veins
atrium
food
legs
waste
blood vessels
head
oxygen
capillaries
heart
smaller
HOW BLOOD TRAVELS THROUGH THE BODY
A system of _________ _________ carries blood through the body. These vessels include _________,
_________, and _________. These vessels and the heart make up the _________ _________. Let’s follow a
droplet of blood through those vessels. When it leaves the ventricle of the _________, it goes into the _________.
This vessel is the largest artery in the body. Soon after entering this artery, it branches into smaller arteries leading
up to the _________ and _________. Or the droplet can travel down toward the _________. The artery divides
to carry blood to each leg. The droplet goes through one of these arteries. The blood travels through _________
arteries until it reaches the very end of the big toe. The blood vessel here is so small it cannot be seen by the
_________. This tiny vessel is a _________. At this point, the droplet nourishes the cells next to it with _________
and _________ and takes away _________ products.
Now the blood begins it return trip to the _________. As the blood moves upwards the vessels become _________.
The droplet joins other blood on its way back. One of these vessels is called a _________. Finally all the blood
from the bottom of the body joins one large vein called the _________ _________ _________. Another large vein
collects blood from the head and arms. This is the _________ _________ _________. Both then separately enter
the right _________ of the heart. The trip begins again.
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