Heart and Circulation

Heart and Circulation is a free GCSE biology game about the heart diagram. Each round shows a drawing of the heart with four lettered spots, A to D. A label sits above the drawing. Tap the label, then tap the spot where that part of the heart belongs. On a keyboard, press 1 to 4 for spots A to D.

A game has ten rounds. In the first three you label chambers: the right atrium and the right and left ventricles. The next four cover the blood vessels, which are the aorta, the vena cava, the pulmonary artery and the pulmonary vein. The last three rounds ask where blood goes next on its trip. You choose from the right side of the heart, the lungs, the left side of the heart and the rest of the body.

The wrong spots always sit on parts close to the right one, so look carefully. Choose Challenge start to mix chambers and vessels in any order. The coronary arteries join the labels, and the last two rounds ask where the blood goes next.

A right answer earns 10 points, plus 5 bonus points if you answer within 35 seconds. When the clock reaches zero, you can still answer. On the Challenge start, a round that runs out of time scores nothing. Switch on practice mode to stop the clock. Your best score is kept on this device. The Challenge start has a separate best.

The heart is an organ that pumps blood around the body. AQA calls this a double circulatory system. It means blood passes through the heart twice on each full trip. The right side of the heart pumps blood to the lungs, where gas exchange takes place. The blood comes back to the left side of the heart, which pumps it round the rest of the body. From the body it returns to the right side, and the loop starts again.

The heart has four chambers. In the game's drawing, the two atria sit at the top and the two ventricles sit below them. AQA names the right ventricle as the pump for the lungs and the left ventricle as the pump for the rest of the body. A group of cells in the right atrium works as a natural pacemaker. These cells control the resting heart rate.

AQA limits the blood vessels you need to five: the aorta, the vena cava, the pulmonary artery, the pulmonary vein and the coronary arteries. The coronary arteries supply blood to the heart muscle. In coronary heart disease, layers of fatty material build up inside them and make them narrower. Less blood flows through, so the heart muscle does not get enough oxygen. The body has three types of blood vessel in all: arteries, veins and capillaries.

AQA covers the heart in section 4.2.2.2 of Biology 8461 and Combined Science 8464. Coronary heart disease is in section 4.2.2.4 of both 8461 and 8464. AQA says you do not need the names of the heart valves. Edexcel 1BI0 and 1SC0 cover the heart in 8.8, which includes the job of the valves and how thick the chamber walls are. OCR J247 covers the double circulatory system in B2.2c and heart structure in B2.2d, and that includes the names of the valves. OCR J257 covers heart structure in B5.1. The game keeps to the chambers and vessels and leaves the valves out.

• Find the sides first. In the drawing, the right side of the heart is on your left. Check this before you place any chamber.
• The atria sit at the top and the ventricles at the bottom. Side and height together tell you each chamber.
• Blood never goes straight from one side of the heart to the other. It passes through the lungs or the rest of the body first.
• For the flow rounds, say the loop out loud: right side, lungs, left side, body, then back to the right side.
• In the Challenge start, look for the amber line across the bottom of the heart. That line is the coronary arteries.

Before you tap, read the label once more. Your streak goes back to zero after a wrong spot. On the Challenge start, it also resets when the clock runs out.