The human body never ceases to mystify and amaze us. In the scavenger hunt below, you'll find out some mind-boggling and impressive facts about your body.
1.I'll bet you thought kidneys were just for
filtering wastes out of the blood. Actually, the kidneys have two
other important jobs. What are they? How many gallons of blood are
pumped through the kidneys daily?
What
Kids Need to Know About Kidneys
2.The heart's job is no easier than the kidney's. The heart pumps
blood throughout the body relentlessly. How many times does the heart
beat in an average lifetime?
The Heart:
An Online Exploration
3.The brain is one busy organ that stays active even while you sleep-
in the form of dreams, that is. You usually dream about five times
during the night (although you don't remember all of them). How many
dreams would you have in one year?
Use your math skills to figure this one out!
4.Another part of the body, the gastrointestinal tract, breaks down
and digests the food we eat. How long is the entire gastrointestinal
tract?
Mad Scientist
5.It takes more work than you think to move a muscle! Describe how
your muscles move.
How Your Muscles Work!
6.DNA is a set of genetic instructions in your cells that make you
who you are. DNA information can go back hundreds of generations, and
is found in all of our cells. If we could unravel all of our DNA, how
long would it be?
A
Tall Tale of DNA
7.Even though our bodies can be very efficient, they are not so
perfect. For example, our bodies produce hundreds of extra cells that
we don't need. What happens to these unneeded cells?
Apoptosis
8.The spinal cord is one tissue that scientists once believed could
never repair itself once damaged. That view has changed thanks to a
group of Swedish scientists. What have these scientists proven about
the spinal cord in their study with rats?
Wonderous
Rodents
9.The eyes are probably one of the most valuable parts of our bodies.
In order to keep our eyes moist and protected we blink every few
seconds without really thinking about it. How many times during a day
does an average person blink?
Amazing
Eye Facts - Click on "Kids Eye Safety Quiz", then click on the bar "Safe Eyes Quiz". You will find the answer by clicking somewhere on this page.
10. Describe how the structure of the eye is like a house.
Eye Care
Information Services
11. Who was the first Englishman to sail around
the world, and what area of our country did he claim for his queen
along the way?
Sir Francis Drake, The Bucaneer
12. How was Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882) able to gather the
information which inspired him to form his theories of evolution?
Charles
Darwin - British Naturalist
13. Explain the controversy over which explorer reached the North
Pole first.
Where
none have gone before: The life of Roald Amundsen
14. What were the circumstances surrounding the death of Captain
James Cook (1728 - 1779)?
The Death of Captain Cook
15. Who was Ferdinand Magellan?
Ferdinand
Magellan
16. What famous Italian explorer do the Americas take their name
from?
Early America
17. Name two reasons why Roald Amundsen reached the South Pole, (Dec.
14, 1911), before Robert F. Scott.
An
indepth look at the reasons why Roald Amundsen reached the South Pole
before Robert Falcon Scott.
18. What was Juan Ponce de Leon searching for off the coast of
Florida?
Ponce
de Leon, Juan (1460 - 1521)
19. Dr. Livingstone died in 1873 before he found the source of the
Nile River- why was his work so important even though he did not
reach his goal?
The
source of the Nile
20. What famous American explorers do we associate with
Sacagawea?
Enchanted Learning
ANSWERS
1.The kidneys balance the volume of fluids and minerals in the body
(called homeostasis). The kidneys also produce hormones
that tell the body to make red blood cells, for example. About 400
gallons of recycling blood is pumped through the
kidneys every day.
2.In an average lifetime, the heart beats more than two and a half
billion times, without ever pausing to rest.
3.In one year, we will have had 1,825 dreams.
4.The adult gastrointestinal tract is approximately 15 feet long.
5.When a nerve tells your muscle to contract, little grabbers on the
myosin filaments pull the actin filaments between them. When this
happens in thousands and millions of cells, movement occurs.
6.If you unravelled all your chromosomes from all of your cells and
laid out the DNA end to end, the strands would stretch from the Earth
to the Moon about 6,000 times.
7.The unneeded cells undergo "Apoptosis," which means they destroy
themselves. When this happens, the cells break into smaller pieces
that other cells recognize and eat.
8.The scientists severed part of the rat's spinal cord. Then they
rerouted the axons around the severed portion of the spine. The
result was that the spinal cords grew back across the bridges. This
is proof that the central nervous system tissue could grow --in the
right conditions.
9.In one day (14 waking hours) a person blinks about 10,080
times.
10. The structure of the eye is similar to a house because it has a
single, outwardly curved clear bubble window and is mostly
empty.
Answers
Explorers and Their Explorations
Scavenger Hunt
11. Sir Francis Drake was the first Englishman to sail around the
world. He claimed what is now the California coast for his queen.
12. Darwin served as a naturalist aboard the H.M.S. Beagle from
1831-1836. He noticed many variations among plants and animals of the
same general type around the world
13. Doubt has been cast on whether Peary or Byrd actually made it to
the North Pole. Therefore, it is possible Roald Amundsen was the
first explorer to reach the North Pole.
14. On his third expedition to the Pacific, Captain Cook was killed
by natives on the island of Hawaii.
15. Magellan lived from 1480-1521. He was a Portuguese navigator who
commanded the first expedition that sailed around the world,
providing the first positive proof that the world is round. He died
during the voyage, but his crew completed the expedition. He is
considered to be the greatest navigator who ever lived.
16. The Americas take their name from Amerigo Vespucci.
17. Two reasons why Amundsen beat Scott to the South Pole are: 1.
Amundsen used sled dogs, ideal for use in polar conditions, whereas
Scott used horses, which perished in the cold. 2. Amundsen had only
one goal- to reach the South Pole. Scott had two goals: reach the
South Pole and also gather scientific data on Antarctica along the
way. The excess weight from the extra equipment made travel more
difficult for his team.
18. Ponce de Leon was searching for the fountain of youth off the
coast of Florida.
19. Dr. Livingstone's work helped fill in the map of Africa with
carefully plotted records of hills, valleys, rivers and lakes.
20. We associate Sacagawea with Merriwether Lewis and William Clark.
She served as a guide for them on their expedition along the route
that later became the basis of the Oregon Trail.