Organ Systems

scroll down

Organ Systems Objective

Provide examples of different organ systems, including the hierarchy of organ system, organ(s), tissues, and cells.

Start Your 2A Media Assignment here

We are starting the final human biology portfolio now to make sure everyone has time to produce a substantial and quality end product.

This video begins the assignment with a portfolio overview.

Portfolio Plan

This media assignment introduces the final portfolio. Your final portfolio will have two features:

A. demonstrates your mastery of the nine course learning outcomes.

B. constructed so you can use it beyond this course.

So this media assignment has two parts.

Part A, become more familiar with the nine course learning outcomes, and

Part B, select a possible final portfolio format that you can use beyond this course.

Summary of Assignment:

You are turning in together Part A (your list of work matching four of the nine outcomes) and Part B (your portfolio format and how it will effectively display mastery of the outcomes and be something you can use beyond the course).

Details of Assignment:

Part A: Course Outcomes

1. Watch the video below that introduces the nine outcomes.

2. Look over the outcomes, they are listed in more detail at the link provided below.

3. Think of examples of work you can use to demonstrate achievement of the nine outcomes. For the final portfolio due at the end of this course, you will need substantial examples of your work for each of the nine outcomes. Each outcome will have two examples of personal work. For example, the Science Skills outcome could include your 1B safety checklist media piece and quiz answers related to the outcome. For this assignment you will only need to provide one example of work for four of the nine outcomes. You will be accumulating more work as the term progresses to fully populate all nine outcomes.

4. Select four different outcomes from the list (any four of the nine).

5. List one example of your work you could use to partially represent achievement of each of these four outcomes. List the name of the outcome (for example “biology connections”) and the example you could use (like labeled sketch of a human cell’s structures). These examples could be work you have completed in this course, previous courses, or from your other life experiences.

6. To summarize: in part A you are listing four of the nine outcomes and providing an example of a piece of your work (past or current) that would fit the outcome.

Part B: Portfolio Format

1. Watch the video below that previews portfolio format considerations.

2. Brainstorm possible portfolio formats to display your work. Consider:

what will best display your achievement of the nine learning outcomes?
what format will be something you may want to use in the future?

3. Be creative. For example, you could arrange your work in a space and give a video tour of the two pieces you have representing each outcome. Or you could make a presentation with different slides showing your work. Or you could plan your own “Human Biology” museum with different galleries representing the outcomes and displaying your work.

4. Submit to Canvas (along with Part A, your list of four outcomes) the format you are thinking of using. Include why you chose this format, including (1) why you think it will be an effective format to display your achievement of the course outcomes, and (2) why you think you may use the selected portfolio format into the future.

5. To summarize, you are turning in together Part A (your list of work matching four of the nine outcomes) and Part B (your portfolio format and how it will effectively display mastery of the outcomes and be something you can use beyond the course).

Note: You can alter your portfolio format as you construct it if you come up with a better idea. This assignment gets you started on the process.

Part A Video.

This video provides an overview of the portfolio, including how to use the course outcomes.

Examine the course outcomes in more detail

Outcomes List

Part B Video

This video provides ideas about different possible portfolio formats.

The sky is the limit! For example, you could do an entire slide show about your own body, a “natural history of you.” Or you could provide different observations about humans in a journal about our species. As long as you substantially address the nine course learning outcomes, you have room for creativity.

Are you thinking of featuring COVID-19 in your portfolio?

We shot this video in the spring of 2020 when Covid-19 started weighing heavily in our minds.

We are beginning this guide with an overview of organ systems.

One of the earliest things we learn about the human body is that we have different organ systems made up of organs. For example, the urinary system has kidneys and a bladder; the cardiovascular system includes the heart and blood vessels, and the skeletal system is made up of bones.

Organ systems are made up of organs, and many of those organs are generally familiar. What is less familiar is that organs are made up of tissues, and tissues are groups of cells.

The integumentary system we covered in the last module was pretty straight forward, an organ system with one basic organs (skin) and it’s appendages (hair and nails). The skin organ is made of tissues: epithelial in the epidermis, loose connective in the dermis, and adipose connective in the hypodermis. We also met some of the cells in the tissues: keratinocytes in the epithelial tissue of the epidermis, fibroblasts in the connective tissue of the dermis, and adipocytes in the connective tissue of the hypodermis.

Organ System

Integumentary System

Organ

Skin

Tissues

Epithelial, Connective, and small amounts of Nervous (sensory neurons)

Cells

Wide variety, including melanocytes, keratinocytes, fibroblasts, and adipocytes

This week we start building off of the basics you learned last week. For example, we will be back to skin when we discuss the impacts of aging on organs.

Check your memory of skin basics with this video.