Introduction

You may have studied the structure of the heart in previous years, but for A Level, you need to up your game! You are now expected to know the names of the valves, and more importantly, the sequence of the cardiac cycle.

While we tend to think of cardiovascular disease as simply ‘heart attacks’, this topic will discuss the different specific diseases that affect the heart and its associated blood vessels.

You will also be learning some key transferable skills; that of designing and analysing scientific studies. The vast majority of questions you get on your exams won’t be about remembering and repeating pure facts. They’re much more likely to give you a graph and some new information based on an investigation and ask you to evaluate the reliability of the data provided or discuss what conclusions can be drawn from that information. While many people find the second part of this topic dry, its importance can’t be overstated, not just for your A Level exams, but for any potential career as a scientist!

Reading

Salters-Nuffield A Level Biology Student Book 1 pages 10 to 21

Read and Make Notes

Read pages 10 to 21, making notes (always include key definitions) and completing the ‘in-text’ questions.

Consolidate

Now consolidate your understanding by working through these additional resources:

COMPLETE – Cardiac Cycle Card Sort

CHECK – Cardiac Cycle Card Sort – Answers

WATCH – Cardiac Cycle (YouTube)

WATCH – Cardiac Cycle (GetBodySmart)

WATCH – Atherosclerosis (The New York Times)

WATCH – Atherosclerosis 1 (Khan Academy)

WATCH – Atherosclerosis 2 (Khan Academy)

REVIEW – CVD Causes (PowerPoint)

REVIEW – Cardiovascular Disease (PowerPoint)

PRINT & USE – CVD Flashcards

Tasks

Complete the following:

Write or draw flow charts for the cardiac cycle, the process of atherosclerosis and the clotting cascade.

Top Tips

Make sure that you understand the following key points:

Be able to name the structures the blood passes through during a cardiac cycle.
Know exactly what is happening in terms of blood movement, muscle contraction and valve position during each stage of the cardiac cycle.
It can help to verbalise what you’re seeing on a graph when you first look at it. Start from the origin (where the two axes meet) and then follow the line or correlation along, noticing that as the value on the x-axis increases, the value on the y-axis changes. How does it change? What are the areas of interest? Is it straight or curved? Are there any particular peaks or troughs?

Key Terms

Add the following key terms to your glossary:

Cardiac cycle
Systole and diastole
Coronary arteries
Semilunar and atrioventricular valves
Atherosclerosis and related terms from page 14
Thrombosis
Myocardial infarction
Angina
Stroke
Clotting cascade and related terms from page 15
Risk
Correlation vs causation
Null hypothesis

Quiz

Complete Quiz 01. If you score less than 90%, try again.

Assignment

When you have completed all the activities and are fully prepared and feel confident with the material, you should complete Assignment One and submit it to your tutor via Canvas for marking and feedback.