Organ Systems Vocabulary
Use technical vocabulary for the major organ systems: organ, organ system, circulatory system, digestive system, respiratory system, skeletal system, muscular system, nutrient, oxygen, carbon dioxide, blood vessel, artery, vein, capillary, enzyme. Describe the function of each system using these terms.
What a learner can do afterwards
- Name the main organs in at least two body systems and state their functions using the correct vocabulary
- Recognize correct written descriptions matching the circulatory, digestive and respiratory systems to their functions
- Explain the difference between an artery and a vein using the correct anatomical terms
1 · Read
You have learned that tissues form organs. An organ contains different tissues working together. Organs working together form an organ system. Bones form the skeletal system, which supports your body. Muscles form the muscular system. Many muscles pull on bones to move you.
The circulatory system includes the heart, blood and blood vessels. The heart pumps blood through the vessels. Blood carries oxygen and nutrients to body tissues and carries wastes away. Arteries carry blood away from the heart. Veins carry blood toward it. In tiny vessels called capillaries, materials pass between blood and nearby tissues. In body tissues, oxygen leaves blood and carbon dioxide enters it.
The digestive system includes the mouth, stomach and intestines. Nutrients are substances in food that your body can use. Chewing breaks food into pieces. Digestive enzymes speed up the breakdown of some food molecules. These enzymes work in the stomach and small intestine. Most nutrient absorption happens in the small intestine, where many small nutrients pass through its wall into blood.
These are three places along food's route, not the whole digestive system.
Oxygen is a gas your body needs. Carbon dioxide is a waste gas your cells make. In the lungs, oxygen passes from air into blood. Carbon dioxide passes from blood into air to be breathed out. The respiratory system handles this exchange. The circulatory system then carries oxygen to body tissues. The stomach digests food in the digestive system; the lungs exchange gases in the respiratory system.
Organs work together in organ systems such as the circulatory, digestive, respiratory, skeletal and muscular systems. Each has its own job and vocabulary.
Original lesson, quiz and flashcard text written for this learning dataset.
Readings written for this learning dataset. Video: Why is pneumonia so dangerous? - Eve Gaus and Vanessa Ruiz, TED-Ed.
More to read
Which way does the blood move?
To tell an artery from a vein, check whether blood travels away from or toward the heart. Arteries carry it away. Veins carry it back.
Oxygen content does not decide the name. Blood heading from the heart to the lungs travels in arteries even though it needs more oxygen. Blood returning from the lungs travels in veins even though it has picked up oxygen.
Two gases take different routes
Follow oxygen from air in the lungs. It passes into blood, which carries it to body tissues. Oxygen then passes to nearby cells.
Carbon dioxide travels from body cells into blood. Blood carries this waste gas to the lungs. There, it enters the air that will be breathed out.
The respiratory system exchanges these gases in the lungs. The circulatory system transports them.
Use a system name with its job
The heart pumps blood through vessels in the circulatory system. The stomach and intestines help process food in the digestive system. The lungs exchange gases in the respiratory system.
Bones support the body as part of the skeletal system. Many muscles pull on bones to move them. Those muscles belong to the muscular system.
An organ-system name helps you describe how body parts work together.
Digestion and absorption
Breaking down food and taking nutrients into the body are different jobs. Chewing breaks food into pieces. Digestive enzymes speed up the breakdown of some food molecules.
Absorption happens when nutrients cross into the body from the digestive tract. Most nutrient absorption happens in the small intestine. Many small nutrients enter blood through its wall, and blood carries them onward.
The stomach helps digest food. It is not the main place where nutrients enter blood.
The small vessels between
Capillaries have very thin walls. Small substances can pass between blood and nearby tissues through these walls.
An artery carries blood away from the heart and branches into smaller vessels. These lead to capillaries. After blood passes through capillaries in body tissues, other vessels join to form veins that return blood to the heart.
Capillaries are exchange sites. The heart supplies the pumping action.
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