Trace the pathway of blood through the heart and the body. Make sure and include every structure and valve it passes through in the heart. Include in your answer, what is taking place with gas exchange inside the lungs and inside the systemic capillary beds while the blood is outside the heart.

Start and finish your response with the Right Ventricle.

1.Blood enters the heart through two large veins, the inferior and superior vena cava, emptying oxygen-poor blood from the body into the right atrium of the heart.As the ventricle contracts, blood leaves the heart through the pulmonic valve, into the pulmonary artery and to the lungs where it is oxygenated.

2. Blood enters the right atrium from the superior and inferior venae cavae,

and the coronary sinus. From right atrium, it goes through the tricuspid valve to the right ventricle. From the right ventricle, it goes through the pulmonary semilunar valves to the pulmonary trunk

3. From the pulmonary trunk it moves into the right and left pulmonary

arteries to the lungs. From the lungs, oxygenated blood is returned to the heart through the pulmonary veins.

4. From the pulmonary veins, blood flows into the left atrium. From the left atrium, blood flows through the bicuspid (mitral) valve into the left ventricle. From the left ventricle, it goes through the aortic semilunar valves into the ascending aorta. Blood is distributed to the rest of the body (systemic circulation) from the aorta