Objective 16: Outline the path of blood flow through the chambers of the heart and through the systemic and pulmonary circulations

Pulmonary circuit

Pulmonary circulation transports oxygen-poor blood from the right ventricle to the lungs where blood picks up a new blood supply. Then it returns the oxygen-rich blood to the left atrium

Systemic circuit

The systemic circulation provides the functional blood supply to all body tissues. It carries oxygen and nutrients to the cells and picks up carbon dioxide and waste products. Systemic circulation carries oxygenated blood from the left ventricle, through the arteries, to the capillaries in the tissues of the body. From the tissue capillaries, the deoxygenated blood returns through a system of veins to the right atrium of the heart.
 

I found this information that outlined the path of blood flow through the chambers of the heart and through the systemic and pulmonary circulations from the Internet Encyclopedia of Science. The illustration was very descriptive and allowed me to understand the blood flow of the systemic and pulmonary circulations. This picture shows the oxygen-rich, CO2-poor blood in red and the Oxygen-poor, CO2-rich blood in blue which helped me follow the diagram better because at first i was confused on which circuits carried which type of blood. The descriptions of both circuits were short and straight to the point, but they gave me a better understanding of what the goal was of each circuit.

 



These three photos helped me with understanding the path of the blood flow through the heart and the two circuits because the photos are animated. The animation is a great visual for me because i am literally able to see the flow of the blood instead of having the think about how it might actually occur from just reading the text alone.