Objective 76: Differentiate between zygote, morula, and blastocyst

When I was trying to differentiate between zygote, morula and blastocyst I could not find anything about them in the textbook. I did, however, find information about the three of them in our lab book and it was very helpful. The lab book describes the accurately describes the three, and is straight to the point. The zygote is the fertilized egg, the morula is a solid ball of blastomeres, and the blastocyst consists of a sphere of trophoblast cells and a cell cluster called the inner cell mass. The diagram in the lab book made figuring out the differences of the three easier because I was able to see where each process took places within the uterus and also a picture of each cell structure. Being able to see where each process takes place in the uterus helps me understand the differences of the three better because I don't have to wonder by reading, I can actually see the pictures of the cell structures. This diagram refreshed my memory of information that I learned in my human growth and development class two years ago. I had just found out I was pregnant and was extremely scared and also a little bit curious on how the process of fertilizating really occurred. My teacher at the time was very animated and vocal, so when she came across this information she made it very interesting and with my new curiousity for the subject it kind of stuck. So this chart and clips of texts from the book were a great refresher.