Blood Flow Experiments!

Our Year Six topic 'Blood Heart' has some great opportunities for terrific Science work - including investigations! Today, our pupils have observed ‘blood’ flowing through tubes to see how the diameter of the tubes affects flow rate. They related this to the flow of blood through real blood vessels and planned their own second investigation about circulatory system health.

Working in groups, children use tubes to represent the body’s three main blood vessels: arteries, veins and capillaries. They inserted each tube into a hole near the base of three different polystyrene cups and sealed the edges with modelling clay. Children added a simulated ‘blood’ sample to the cups and timed how long it took for the sample to flow through the tubes. They did the test three times and calculated average flow times for each tube. Finally, children researched, planned and will soon carry out a second investigation to see what effect diseases and lifestyle choices have on blood flow through vessels.