All About Our Body

1. All About Our Body By: William Mesnick

2. Dedication Page I would like to thank both my parents for inspiring me and teaching me about the body.

3. Did you know… Are you aware of how important your body is? If your answer is no, you should know that our bodies are EXTREMELY important. In fact, our bodies help us everyday. I should know this because I am from a family of doctors. This is how I became interested in the human body: On one Monday night my dad turned on the television. It was the first show of the new show on the National Geographic channel called “Brain Games.” As you can tell by the name, this show is about how your brain works, but it also talked about other parts of our bodies like our eyes. I was mostly watching the show because my dad wanted me to, but after a few minutes I got interested in the show too. The show inspired me to learn more about our bodies. I looked for a new fact about the human body whenever I could. Since both of my parents are doctors, finding those facts were pretty easy, but I still want to learn about our bodies even now. After all, that day I learned that our bodies help us in our everyday lives. Now, I will tell you about some major parts of our body.

4. Muscles One very important part of our body is our muscles. Our muscles are important because they are what make our body move. Dr. Debra Mesnick says, “One of your most important muscles in your body is your heart, which pumps blood throughout your body. Also our diaphragm is important because it allows your lungs to inflate and deflate. Lastly our skeletal muscles allow our voluntary movement.” Also, when your muscles move they give off heat. As you can now see, our muscles are very important.

5. Heart Another part of our body that helps us everyday is our heart. As Dr. Mesnick said before, our heart pumps our blood. But blood is not the only thing our heart pumps! Dr. Mesnick says, “Your heart pumps blood which supplies oxygen to all the tissues in your body. Oxygen is the central nutrient in our lives.” Also, our heart clears away harmful waste mater and is located in the center of your chest. Your ribs protect your heart, too. Your heart speeds up or slows down in response to nerve signals your brain gives it. With each beat our heart pumps a fresh round of blood. This is why our hearts are so important and how it helps us with our everyday lives.

6. Our Way of Experiencing the World You have probably heard of the 5 senses, but did you that they are our way of experiencing the world? One of our senses that we use the most is our sight. Our pupils in our eyes can get bigger in the dark and smaller in brighter areas so our eyes take in just the right amount of light and send the image to your brain so you can see. Our ears are also a very important part of our bodies. There are three different parts of your ear, your outer ear, your middle ear, and your inner ear. Sound waves travel through all three parts in order to reach your brain. Our tongues have taste buds in different areas so you can taste different flavors like sweet and bitter. Also, our sense of smell helps us experience the world around us. Dr. Mesnick says, “Scent molecules travel up your nose in the air where they travel in the mucus in your nose, which sends the message to your brain.” Lastly, our sense of touch/feeling is our fifth sense. There are tons of sensors in your skin. When you feel something they send the message to your brain. These are the ways that we experience the world.

7. Our Joints, Hair and Nails Our joints are another part of our body that helps us every day. They are in between our bones. They help us every day because, along with the help of our muscles, they are the reason why we are able to bend our body. Our hair and nails are also very important. They are both made of Keratin. Our hair and nails are mostly dead, but the roots are the only part that is alive. You have around 100,000 hairs on your head. Our nails are meant to protect the tips of your fingers and toes. This is how they help us everyday.

8. The Mind Our mind is one of the most important parts of the body. The Franklin Institute (or F.I.) says, “The brain is the most extraordinary and complex creation in the universe.” Also, Dr. Mesnick says, “ Our brain gives us our personality as well as controls all executive functions in the body. It also controls basic functions that are necessary for life like your breathing.” The brain is made out of tissue and cells and weighs 2.9 lb. Our brain has evolved to help us do the things that we do everyday. As you can see, our brain is one of the things in life that helps us everyday.

9. We use our bodies when we hug one another to show affection. As you can now see, our body is very important. This means it is important to take care of your body. You can do this by keeping a balanced diet and sleeping at least 9 hours each night. After all, our bodies are what allow us to do the things that we do like hug one another. I hope you learned a lot just now about how important our bodies are. Even though the Photo Essay is over you can still do research on your body and how important it is. Bye for now!

10. Photos