Kidneys

Wednesday (24/06/2009)

a) Kidney failure
Teacher: Did you ask your parents “What happens if our kidneys fail?”
Sharlene: We will die.
Eugene: We still can live if we have one kidney.
· When a patient’s kidneys failed, the doctors would arrange for dialysis while awaiting for new donors. However, not all kidneys are suitable for our body. If the donated kidneys aren’t suitable, our body would reject them. Thus, doctors need to examine carefully before doing transplant.
· A dialysis machine costs expensive and hospitals charged a sum of money for every dialysis treatment.
· The dialysis function id similar to kidneys that filter our blood and thus, helps us to pass urine.
It is definitely painful but after dialysis, the patient would feel stronger.

b) Kidney diagram
* I drew a kidney diagram. Thus, we learnt about Renal Artery, Renal Vein, Ureter, Renal Pelvis and also capillaries in the Nephrons.
* After doing work, our cells will produce a waste which could be poisonous to our body. Thus, this blood is carried through Renal Artery to the capillaries and being filtered. The waste would be channeled into the ureter as urine. Meanwhile, the cleansed blood would return to our body through the Renal Vein. It would go to the heart which pumps it to to the alveolus in our lungs to discharge CO2 and accept O2.
* Urine contans of 95% of water, 2.5% of urea and other toxins. They are kept in the bladder from the ureter before discharged as urine. If the toxin remains in our body, the accumulation would be dangerous to us!
Ze Yan: Is liver enough to filter our blood when we have kidney failures.
· Liver has 500 tasks to perform in our body such as restoring the vitamins and cleansing blood too. However, only kidneys can channel the urea as urine. Kidneys failure can be assisted with machine but liver is yet to have a machine to assist any liver failure. Both are equally important!

c) Experiment
* We took a bottle and cut a hole at its bottom. Then a cut open balloon is tied overt the hole. The other end, the cap was not covered but we attached another balloon over it. When, we pulled the top balloon quickly and released it, the cut opened balloon at the bottom deflated and inflated.
* The cut open balloon is our diaphragm.

c) Recording: Boomerang Ring
* We recalled the vocabulary included: cones, players, rings, line and score marker.
* After drawing, they labwelled the pictures. Some kids suggested for other titles such as Mighty Rings and Canon Rings. I allowed them to choose but they still have to jot their record neatly.