Heart model and EKG
Open your materials, follow the steps, then turn in your work.
Build a heart-flow model and record an EKG and pulse to relate structure to function.
1. Open your materials
Use the materials named in the first step below. Open lesson resources.
2. Start the work
Assemble or label a working heart model.
Show all 5 required steps
- Assemble or label a working heart model.
- Demonstrate blood flow through chambers and valves.
- Record a resting EKG trace and identify the heartbeat waves.
- Measure pulse and estimate blood pressure.
- Connect the EKG pattern to the cardiac cycle phases.
Lost your place? Lost your place? You should have a labeled heart-flow model and a resting EKG trace with the P, QRS, and T waves marked. If you have both, move to measuring pulse and blood pressure; if not, finish labeling the model first.
Check your work before submitting
- Model correctly shows one-way flow through valves.
- EKG waves are linked to cardiac cycle phases.
Before lab work: read the safety rules
- Do not apply EKG electrodes over broken skin, rashes, or wounds; inform the teacher if this applies to you.
- Blood-pressure cuffs should not be inflated above the recommended maximum; follow teacher instructions.
- Students with known cardiac conditions should check with the teacher before participating in EKG recording.
- All electrode pads are single-use and personal; do not share between students.
- Treat all equipment carefully; report any damage to the teacher immediately.
3. Turn in your work
DueCheck Schoology- Hand in
- Annotated EKG trace with P, QRS, and T waves labeled and linked to cardiac cycle phases, plus a data table recording resting pulse and blood pressure with units.
How to submit and name your file
Use the submission route shown on today's page.
In Schoology, open your course and the assignment for this lesson. Attach your file, select Submit, and check that it appears in the submission.
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Check the section number beside Human Anatomy and Physiology in Schoology.
Assignment: Wk14 Lab report: Heart model and EKG
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How this lesson connects
Keep using what you learned last class: Donor organs are scarce, so allocation systems must rank patients by competing criteria, which means every choice trades urgency, equity, and likelihood of success against one another. Today: An electrical wave triggers each heartbeat, so the P, QRS, and T waves on an EKG map directly onto the chamber-and-valve sequence, letting you read the cardiac cycle from outside the body.
Unit 3 guide: what to keep and use nextOptional: listen or watch a unit review▸
Need help? Warm-up, timing, and directions▸
💡 Big idea: An electrical wave triggers each heartbeat, so the P, QRS, and T waves on an EKG map directly onto the chamber-and-valve sequence, letting you read the from outside the body.
- 0-10 and equipment orientation: EKG leads, blood-pressure cuff, oximeter
- 10-22Assemble or label heart model; demonstrate one-way valve flow
- 22-42Record resting EKG trace; identify and label P, QRS, and T waves
- 42-55Measure resting and ; record with units
- 55-68Connect EKG wave sequence to phases in notebook diagram
- 68-80Cleanup; submit annotated EKG trace and
- • Today you will connect the you mapped yesterday to real electrical and mechanical data from your own body.
- • An EKG is not just a squiggly line; each peak maps onto a specific event in the .
- • You will also measure and , the two most commonly recorded vital signs in clinical settings.
- • Record all measurements carefully; you will use them in your CER tomorrow.
- • The P wave represents atrial depolarization; the QRS complex represents ventricular depolarization; the T wave represents ventricular repolarization.
- • is expressed as systolic ( contracting) over diastolic (ventricle relaxing) in mmHg.
- • Heart rate and are vital signs that clinicians use to assess cardiovascular health.
PLTW connection and today's work
Complete any EKG or heart-model lab check-in prompt in Activity 3.1.1 Go With the Flow and Activity 3.1.3 Stayin' Alive? (Lesson 3.1 Cardiopulmonary Connection) on myPLTW that accompanies today's lab; finish it after labeling your EKG waves.
Today's stopping point: Cardiac-cycle task is done; today the lab check-in should show complete.
PLTW activity titles identify the course connection. If your account will not open, use the posted materials for today and tell Mr. Mendoza. Do not mark an online activity complete unless you completed it.
Course connection
- Activity 3.1.1 Go With the Flow
- Activity 3.1.3 Stayin' Alive?
Use the turn-in directions at the top of this page. Do not create a second submission unless your teacher asks for one.
Show another explanation or a smaller first step
Need help? Choose a starting point
Finish the assigned lab safely before starting extra practice.
Lesson resources: reading, slides, and vocabulary▸
The deck carries the prior idea forward, lets you inspect an analogy, maps the rule to biology, and ends with the same evidence decision and exit ticket used on this page.
Generated from this lesson's canonical data with a red-team citation check.
Donor organs are scarce, so allocation systems must rank patients by competing criteria, which means every choice trades urgency, equity, and likelihood of success against one another.
An electrical wave triggers each heartbeat, so the P, QRS, and T waves on an EKG map directly onto the chamber-and-valve sequence, letting you read the from outside the body.
A library keeps a master plan protected while working copies guide production at different stations.
- Why protect the master copy?
- What information moves?
- Where can an error change the final product?
Stored information can be copied, read, and converted into a functional product.
Genes are regulated biological sequences, not conscious instructions, and one gene rarely determines a whole trait alone.
- • Master plan maps to DNA.
- • Working copy maps to RNA.
- • Production output maps to or a regulated cell function.
Driving question: You just recorded your own resting EKG. Which bump on the trace is your ventricles firing, and how does that bump line up with the moment your spikes?
What you already know: Donor organs are scarce, so allocation systems must rank patients by competing criteria, which means every choice trades urgency, equity, and likelihood of success against one another.
New idea: An electrical wave triggers each heartbeat, so the P, QRS, and T waves on an EKG map directly onto the chamber-and-valve sequence, letting you read the from outside the body.
Visual or model: F1. F1. A lesson illustration or teaching diagram for Heart model and EKG. Use it with E1-E3; it is a model or context image, not experimental or patient data. What to notice: Trace the labeled structure, movement, or system relationship that connects form to function.
- Observe or measure the relevant feature in today's lesson.
- Organize the observation with a stable evidence ID.
- Apply this rule: Stored information can be copied, read, and converted into a functional product.
- Choose the option the evidence supports and state the limit of the conclusion.
Real biomedical example: You just recorded your own resting EKG. Which bump on the trace is your ventricles firing, and how does that bump line up with the moment your spikes?
What the evidence supports: E1-E3 and F1 support the daily take-home when the response meets the stated success criteria.
What it cannot prove: The package does not support claims beyond this lesson's or any real patient diagnosis.
- • : A thick, muscular blood vessel that carries blood away from the heart to the body, handling the high pressure of each heartbeat.
- • vein: A blood vessel that carries blood back toward the heart, usually at lower pressure and equipped with valves that keep blood from flowing backward.
- • : The smallest blood vessel, with walls one cell thick, where oxygen, nutrients, and wastes are exchanged between blood and body tissues.
- • : One of the two upper chambers of the heart that receives incoming blood and pushes it down into the below.
- • : A lower pumping chamber of the heart that pushes blood out to the lungs or to the rest of the body with each beat.
- • EKG: A recording of the heart's electrical activity over time, used to check rhythm and detect problems with how the heart beats.
- • : One complete heartbeat in which the chambers relax and fill with blood, then contract to pump it out to the lungs and body.
- • : The rhythmic expansion of an you can feel as the heart pumps blood, used to measure how many times the heart beats per minute.
Use it now: Choose one decision option. Cite E1 and E3, then explain how the rule connects the evidence to your choice.
Go further, optional: The source links below are optional enrichment. Every fact required for today's local evidence decision appears in this lesson package.
Cardiovascular structure, pressure, electrical activity, and blood flow are related, so measurements must be interpreted in the context of the system and the limits of the instrument.
Limit: A classroom tracing, model, , or single measurement cannot diagnose a cardiovascular condition.
Stored information can be copied, read, and converted into a functional product.
Limit: Genes are regulated biological sequences, not conscious instructions, and one gene rarely determines a whole trait alone.
Model correctly shows one-way flow through valves.
Limit: E3 defines the classroom product or success criterion. It is not independent scientific evidence and cannot justify a clinical or causal claim.
PLTW-HAP-2027-04-21 · Simulated classroom evidence scenario
Your role: anatomy and physiology consultant
Decision: Your team must decide what the evidence from today's lesson supports before submitting the lab report named on today's page.
- • Record your timing beside the trace first, because the EKG alone never shows when blood actually moves.
- • Label the QRS as the electrical trigger that fires an instant before the ventricles squeeze and pressure spikes.
- • Mark the tall QRS spike as the squeeze itself, since that is the thump you hear and feel.
Response: State one choice, cite at least two evidence IDs, explain the rule that connects them, and add one limitation. Submit it as the lab report.
Claim ceiling: Today's evidence supports a classroom claim about today's lesson. It cannot prove causation, diagnose a real patient, or justify action outside this room.
Reason for review: Your team must decide what the evidence from today's lesson supports before submitting the lab report named on today's page.
Context: The heart's mechanical squeeze is triggered by an electrical wave, so a tracing of that electricity (the EKG) lets you see the hidden order of chambers and valves from outside the body.
- • T1: Assemble or label a working heart model.
- • T2: Demonstrate blood flow through chambers and valves.
- • T3: Record a resting EKG trace and identify the heartbeat waves.
- • T4: Measure and estimate .
- • T5: Connect the EKG pattern to the phases.
- • E1: Cardiovascular structure, pressure, electrical activity, and blood flow are related, so measurements must be interpreted in the context of the system and the limits of the instrument.
- • E2: Stored information can be copied, read, and converted into a functional product.
- • E3: Model correctly shows one-way flow through valves.
Measurements: Use only the measurements, units, graph, or counts supplied in today's task. No additional patient measurement is implied.
Figure finding: Teaching diagram for Heart model and EKG. Trace the labeled structure, movement, or system relationship that connects form to function. This is a teaching model, not patient or experimental data.
Uncertainty: This is a composite classroom scenario. Missing history, measurements, or confirmation tests remain unknown and limit the conclusion.
Rate or percent = part / comparison total x 100%. Percent change = (new - comparison) / comparison x 100%.
If 18 of 60 records meet a condition, the frequency is 18 / 60 x 100% = 30%.
Name the comparison total. A percent describes the supplied group and does not automatically predict an individual's outcome.
Use today's supplied counts to calculate one rate, risk, frequency, or percent change. Show the denominator and interpretation.
Students often think Students often think the EKG is a picture of blood moving or of the heart's sound, so they expect the spikes to be the actual squeeze or the thump they hear.. The trap: That is a trap: the EKG records electrical signals, not motion or sound, and the electrical wave comes an instant before the muscle actually contracts, because the electricity is the trigger that tells the muscle to squeeze. So the QRS fires just before the ventricles push blood out.
Wave labels and what each one means:
- P wave: atrial depolarization, the signal that makes the atria contract.
- QRS complex: ventricular depolarization, when the ventricles contract and pump (systole).
- T wave: ventricular repolarization, when the ventricles reset and relax (diastole).
Link to the cardiac cycle: the QRS lines up with ventricular systole (pumping), and the period after the T wave lines up with diastole (filling). My heart model shows the one-way valves keeping blood from flowing backward during each beat.
Vitals I recorded: resting pulse 72 bpm, blood pressure 118/76 mmHg. Both are inside normal resting ranges.
This model shows the level of evidence and organization needed to complete: Completes the structure-to-function lab target: an EKG trace with P, QRS, and T waves labeled and linked to cardiac cycle phases, plus a pulse and blood-pressure data table.
- State the question and method.
- Present the observations and data with units.
- Explain the result, limitations, and next investigation.
Keep the structure. Replace the question, facts, measurements, and evidence. Then recheck units, vocabulary, and whether the conclusion goes beyond the evidence.
Also due today: Submit your annotated EKG and data table on Schoology.
- CER:
- Claim, Evidence, Reasoning: make a claim, back it with evidence, explain your reasoning.
- SOP:
- Standard Operating Procedure, the exact steps to follow (especially in a lab).
- Tracker:
- Your PLTW progress log where you record completed evidence.
- myPLTW:
- The PLTW course site where you do the online activities. Find it in Clever with your Microsoft sign-in, right next to Schoology.
Tap the speaker to hear a term. Add two of these to your notebook glossary with a definition and an example in your own words.
Pick just 2 or 3 words from today and make them yours: write what each one means in your own words, name the context clue or evidence that helped, then give one example from what you actually did in Heart model and EKG. Try your own words first; the glossary is there if you get stuck. This is voluntary and counts as extra credit, so keep it short.
Saved on this device. Show Mr. Mendoza or add these to your notebook glossary to claim the extra credit.
Play the cold open at the start of the unit to set the scene. Each recording is AI-generated and simulated (fictional callers, no real people or student data).
Hand-picked readings, videos, and interactives for this lesson, all free and from authoritative open organizations (NIH, CDC, OpenStax, Khan Academy, PhET, HHMI, and more).
A fillable, Cornell-style notebook for Unit 3: Adventure Awaits. Type your notes, cues, and summaries right in the PDF, or print it and write by hand. Each lesson page has a cue column, a notes column, and a summary box, plus dated lab-record pages you can turn in.
HBS Unit 3 notebook: Adventure Awaits Fillable PDFCornell notes + lab recordsOpenVetted readings and references for this unit. Use them to prepare, to catch up if you were absent, or to go deeper on today's target.
Practice: try a question, then check your answer▸
Claim ceiling for this check: Today's evidence supports a classroom claim about today's lesson. It cannot prove causation, diagnose a real patient, or justify action outside this room.
On an EKG, what does the QRS complex represent, and does it happen just before or just after the ventricles physically contract? Explain the order.
Write an answer and pick a confidence to unlock the key.
Fast retrieval with instant answers, not the commit-then-reveal check above. Try each from memory first: write what you remember about the earlier units, then check yourself here.
Missed class or ready for more?▸
Run this before you touch the bench. It is built from the real lab procedure, so the decisions you make here are the ones you will make with the equipment in your hands.
I can name the procedure's purpose and the evidence I will record. I can name today's hazards and the control for each: Blood-pressure cuffs should not be inflated above the recommended maximum; follow teacher instructions. My data table is ready before materials are handled.
Finish the checklist before you handle any material.
- • Do not apply EKG electrodes over broken skin, rashes, or wounds; inform the teacher if this applies to you.
- • Blood-pressure cuffs should not be inflated above the recommended maximum; follow teacher instructions.
- • Students with known cardiac conditions should check with the teacher before participating in EKG recording.
- • All electrode pads are single-use and personal; do not share between students.
- • Treat all equipment carefully; report any damage to the teacher immediately.
- 1Before materials are handled, identify the purpose, variables or comparison, controls, measurement units, and stop-work condition.
- 2Assemble or label a working heart model.
- 3Demonstrate blood flow through chambers and valves.
- 4Record a resting EKG trace and identify the heartbeat waves.
- 5Measure pulse and estimate blood pressure.
- 6Connect the EKG pattern to the cardiac cycle phases.
- 7Record each result in the prepared table before interpreting it. Mark missing, repeated, or invalid results truthfully.
- 8Complete the named cleanup and waste route, remove PPE safely, wash hands when required, and confirm the station is ready for the next group.
| Trial or sample ID | Independent condition | Measured result with units | Observation before interpretation | Quality-control note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Before the procedure, predict the result and cite the rule behind the prediction.
After the procedure, compare the result with the prediction and name one limitation or source of uncertainty.
What today's skills lead to. These are real health-science careers this course builds toward. Tap one to see, on the US Department of Labor's O*NET site, what the job actually involves, what it pays, and how fast it is growing.
Record a resting EKG and , then label the heartbeat waves and tie them to chamber in your heart model.
MedlinePlus: Heart DiseasesUse the submission route shown on today's page.
Class still runs. Complete the online activity above (it's self-guided). Need the concept taught without a teacher? Use this authoritative explainer:
MedlinePlus: Electrocardiogram (EKG/ECG)You've passed Unit 2, so the optional extra-credit track is open. Complete reserved-unit work from home, including virtual labs, for extra credit. Each item shows its correct submission route.
Open the extra-credit track- CompleteEvery required part of the artifact is present, nothing left blank.
- AccurateThe science and the data are correct and match the evidence.
- Scientific reasoningYou explain your claim with evidence and reasoning (CER), not just an answer.
- Professional communicationClear, organized, labeled, and written the way a clinician or scientist would.
- SubmittedGo to Schoology to turn this in. Submit one PDF. Put your first and last name in the document header. Name the file: FirstName LastName - Assignment Title - YYYY-MM-DD.pdf. If you cannot get in, see Mr. Mendoza. Do not skip the work.
- Error analysis and method · counts doubleName a specific limit of the method and how it moved your result, and compare what you predicted to what happened. "Human error" does not count; say what about the procedure or instrument caused it.
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