Let’s go through this step by step.
The worksheet is about sheep heart dissection, but since you’re not cutting the heart open today (as stated in Procedure Day 1), your job right now is to
identify the right and left sides of the heart using the diagram and real photo provided.
Here’s how to think about it:
- Imagine a person facing you. Their left side is on your right — that’s important!
- The heart inside their body has its own left and right sides — which match *their* left and right, not yours.
- So when you look at the diagram or photo, the “Left Atrium” and “Left Ventricle” are on the side that would be the person’s left — which appears on the *right side of the page* in the diagram.
- In the labeled diagram:
- Right Atrium and Right Ventricle are on the left side of the drawing (because they’re on the person’s right).
- Left Atrium and Left Ventricle are on the right side of the drawing (because they’re on the person’s left).
Also note:
- The aorta comes out of the left ventricle — so if you see the big artery coming from the bottom chamber on the right side of the diagram, that’s the left ventricle.
- The pulmonary vein brings oxygen-rich blood back to the left atrium — so it connects to the upper chamber on the right side of the diagram.
- The vena cava brings oxygen-poor blood into the right atrium — so it connects to the upper chamber on the left side of the diagram.
In the photo on the right, even though it’s not labeled with arrows, you can still tell:
- The side with more muscle (thicker wall) is the left ventricle — because it pumps blood to the whole body.
- The side with thinner walls is the right ventricle — it only pumps to the lungs.
- Coronary blood vessels run along the surface — often visible as tiny red lines wrapping around the heart.
So for your task today:
You need to position the heart in the tray so that it matches the diagram — meaning, the side that looks like the “left” in the diagram (with the thick-walled ventricle and aorta) should be on the right side of your tray (since that’s the person’s left).
Final Answer:
Position the heart in the dissecting tray so that the left side of the heart (which includes the left atrium and left ventricle — the thicker-walled chamber connected to the aorta) is on the right side of the tray from your point of view, matching the orientation shown in the diagram.
Parent Tip: Review the logic above to help your child master the concept of sheep heart dissection worksheet.
