Veins

This parody (written by Greg Crowther) is sung to the tune of "Chains" (written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King and performed by The Cookies).

This is a simplistic overview of the circulatory system, written before I actually had to teach students about it.

Veins -- cells and plasma flow through my veins,
And they ain't the kind that move in the breeze.
Whoa-oh, these veins of blood meet my transport needs, yeah.

Veins -- every organ has its own veins
Where it dumps its waste with a tiny splash.
Whoa-oh, these veins of blood pick up the trash, yeah.

You'd better believe it -- the heart pumps blood around,
And the veins retrieve it so the work done by the heart is not in

Vain -- cells and plasma flow through my veins,
And they ain't the kind that move in the breeze.
Whoa-oh, these veins of blood meet my transport needs, yeah.

Now, when a tissue produces waste,
It's not an issue, because the waste is swept away into the

Veins -- cells and plasma flow through my veins,
And they ain't the kind that move in the breeze.
Whoa-oh, these veins of blood meet my transport needs, yeah.

Veins. Veins of blood. Veins of blood. Veins of blood.

Songs like this one can be used during class meetings and/or in homework assignments. Either way, the song will be most impactful if students DO something with it, as opposed to just listening.

An initial, simple follow-up activity could be to answer the study questions below. A more extensive interaction with the song might entail (A) learning to sing it, using an audio file and/or sheet music as a guide, and/or (B) illustrating it with pictures, bodily poses, and/or bodily movements. The latter activity could begin with students identifying the most important or most challenging content of the song, and deciding how to illustrate that particular content.

(1) How does blood get to the veins?

(2) There are two puns in this song, referring to homonyms of "vein." What are these words and what do they mean?

(3) Blood can be divided into two main components. What are they? How can they be separated?