Virtual dissection – heart, lungs, fish gills and a frog model
BiologyHuman & Animal PhysiologyAges 16–17Virtual lab
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A virtual dissection lab with textbook-style drawings. Complete a risk assessment, then cut a mammalian heart to expose its chambers, valves and vessels and measure the ventricle walls with callipers; inflate a pair of lungs and trace the airway from the trachea to the alveoli; lift a fish's gill cover, remove a gill arch and count the lamellae of a filament under the microscope; and open a frog model to see its digestive, circulatory, respiratory, nervous and urinogenital systems. A label test checks each stage.
Lesson: Dissection practical: mammalian heart, lungs and fish gills; frog morphology and organ systems
What it shows
Dissection shows how the structure of an organ fits its function. The left ventricle has a much thicker muscular wall than the right, because it pumps blood all round the body; valves with tendinous cords stop blood flowing backwards. In the lungs, cartilage rings keep the trachea open, the airways branch into bronchioles and end in millions of alveoli, and elastic tissue recoils to push air out. Fish gills have arches carrying filaments covered in thin lamellae, where blood flows opposite to the water (counter-current exchange). A frog model shows an amphibian's organ systems, including its three-chambered heart.
How to use
Choose Heart, Lungs, Fish gills or Frog model. For real tissue, complete the Risk assessment first. Then drag the scalpel along the dotted line or press Make the cut. Tap label points to read about each part. On the heart section, drag the callipers onto a wall, choose the wall and press Record. Use Pump air in, Microscope and Turn over where they appear, and switch Mode to Label test to test yourself.
Parameters you can change
- Specimen Mammalian heart, Lungs and trachea, Fish gills, Frog model
- Mode Explore, Label test
- Specimen number (changes the measurements) 1–6
- Start with the specimen already cut open
- Frog organ system shown All main organs, Digestive, Circulatory, Respiratory, Nervous, Urinogenital
- Sex of the frog model Male, Female
Questions to explore
- Why is the wall of the left ventricle about three times as thick as the wall of the right ventricle?
- How do the C-shaped cartilage rings and the elastic tissue help the lungs to work?
- Why does counter-current flow in the gill lamellae let a fish take up more oxygen than parallel flow?
