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•Try and orientate
the heart as it would
lie in the chest
•Try and decide which
parts are the atria
and which parts are
the ventricles
•Can you see any
coronary arteries?
•Try and lift up a piece
of valve tissue with a
pair of forceps. Can
you see the strings
attaching the valve to
the ventricular muscle,
are they strong or
weak?
•Pull on one and
observe what happens
to the valve tissue.
•Cut through the heart in
the direction of the yellow
straw, right down the
heart: you should have
opened up the left
ventricle,
•Look at the thickness of
the wall of the left
ventricle. What do you
notice?
• You will have also cut
through the mitral valve,
have a look at the valve
tissue and the tendinous
chords that attach it to the
ventricle.
•Feel the walls of both
atria. Is there a difference
in thickness?
Get 4 coloured straws
orange - vena cava,
green - pulmonary artery,
pink - aorta
yellow - pulmonary vein.
•You should find that a pair
of straws ends up in each
side of the heart – look at
the diagram on the board to
see why
•Cut along the heart in the
direction of the orange
straw, down to the bottom
of the heart.
• This should open up the
rest of the right atrium and
show you inside the right
ventricle. Is there any
difference in thickness
between the right atrium and
the right ventricle?
• You will have cut right
through the tricuspid valve
too.
Cut through the heart in
the direction of the aorta
(red straw ). You should be
able to open up the aorta
to see the semilunar valves.
In the region of the
semilunar valves try and
find a small hole – this is
the beginning of a coronary
artery