Respiratory System
What is the respiratory system? What are its main organs?
The respiratory system brings air into your body and CO2/H2O out of your body. The main organs are the lungs.
Describe the process of gas exchange between the alveoli and the blood.
- air enters alveoli and O2 goes through capillary walls in the blood
- at the same time, CO2 and H2O move from blood to alveoli
What is excretion?
The process of removing wastes.
What are the kidneys and what do they remove?
The kidneys are two bean shaped organs that filter blood and regulate the amount of water in the body. They remove water and urea.
What is the function of the liver?
The liver produces urea from proteins and other wastes, including pieces of old red blood cells.
Name the structures of the respiratory system.
- nose: moistens air you breathe
- trachea: windpipe
- bronchi: two passages that direct air into lungs
- alveoli: tiny thin walled sac of lung tissue where gases move between air and blood
What gases are exchanged in the respiratory system?
CO2 and H2O.
What are the main organs of the excretory system?
Kidneys, urinary bladder, urethra, lungs, skin, and liver.
What are nephrons?
Nephrons are small filtering structures inside the kidneys that remove waste from blood and produce urine.
How does the respiratory system work with the excretory system?
When you exhale, you remove carbon dioxide from the body.
What are alveoli?
Alveoli are tiny thin-walled sacs of lung tissue where gases move between air and blood.
Pneumonia is a lung infection that causes alveoli to fill with fluid. How do you think this disease affects the way we breathe?
If the alveoli are filled with fluid, air cannot flow easily in and out of them, making it difficult to breathe.
What is urea?
A chemical produced by the breakdown of proteins.
If a person has a disease in which the kidneys cannot filter wastes from the blood, what would happen?
Cell wastes would build up in the blood.
How does the digestive system work with the excretory system?
Your liver breaks down old red blood cells and creates urea from proteins.
What is the difference between breathing and respiration?
- breathing: exchange of gases between inside and outside of body
- respiration: cellular respiration, process cells use to break down glucose to produce energy.
1. Kidneys filter waste from blood, which we release from the bladder.
2. Lungs release waste when we exhale.
3. Skin releases waste as sweat to cool us down.
How might a blockage in the ureter impact the excretion of wastes from the body?
Urine cannot flow properly from the kidney to the bladder. Wastes build up in the kidney, leading to damage and eventually kidney failure.
How does the integumentary system work with the excretory system?
Your skin removes water and urea while sweating.
What happens when you inhale? What happens when you exhale?
- inhale: rib muscles/diaphragm contract
- exhale: muscles relax, chest lowers, air forced out
Where does urine collect? How does it exit the body?
It collects in the bladder, and it exits through the urethra.
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What is the sequence of events that the respiratory system takes to breathe?
1. Breathe in through nose
2. Clean air travels down trachea, into smaller tubes in lungs
3. O2 passes from air sacks into blood, CO2 passes from blood plasma into air sacs in lungs.
4. CO2 leaves body when we exhale