Cow Heart Science Projects
Cow heart science projects give biology students the opportunity to take their education beyond the textbooks. A teacher can have students work with drawings or models of cow hearts or obtain actual cow hearts from a local butcher. Preserved cow hearts are available from educational supply companies and cost about $30 each.
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Comparative Structures
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A cow heart is a mammalian heart, similar in structure to the human heart. Students can compare diagrams of a cow heart to a fish heart, a frog heart and a sheep heart, noting the similarities and differences. In the lower grades students can be provided with diagrams to color in, and then the class can discuss the various hearts. Older students can work in small groups, labeling structures and explaining the reasons for the differences they see.
Dissection
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Dissecting an actual cow's heart will give a student the opportunity to see the organ's various anatomical structures, such as valves and ventricles, first hand. Each student, or group of students, should begin with a gross examination, noting the color, length and weight of the heart they are working with, before moving on to examine the internal structures. If students are working with a preserved heart, it may be helpful to have one fresh heart available as well, so that each group of students can see the organ in its natural state.
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Protein Extraction
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Advanced students with access to equipment such as a centrifuge and an electrophoresis chamber can extract proteins from a cow heart and compare the characteristics of the proteins to other muscles and tissues of the cow or even to characteristics of the proteins found in cows milk. In addition to a cow's heart, these experiments will generally require specialized solutions and chemicals, such as agarose or polyacrylamide gels and buffering solutions.
Model
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Students can use materials such as clay or paper mache to build a model of a cow's heart. The complexity of the model will vary by age group, with younger students constructing a simple model of the gross structure and older students creating a model that can be taken apart to reveal the internal structures of a cow heart. The veins and arteries leading to and from the heart can also be included in the model.
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References
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- Photo Credit Jupiterimages, Brand X Pictures/Brand X Pictures/Getty Images
