ESC - Module Overview

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IntroductionPublic speaking, spiders, and heights are some of the top fears people in the United States have.

Close your eyes and visualize an image of something that makes you afraid. The pictures to the right depict some of the top fears in the United States including public speaking, heights, and animals (including spiders). Even though you are comfortable and safe as you are reading this, just visualizing images such as these will trigger a response on some level in your body as if you were in danger. Heightened attention, tensed muscles, your mind focused--all of these ingredients combined together to produce a recipe for the body to respond to situations, whether the situation is real or not. Just like the nervous system, the endocrine system helps our body to respond to stimuli using a chemical messenger called a hormone. This module explores how and why the body produces substances such as hormones and their subsequent effect on the body.

Essential Questions

  • What are the physical, chemical, and biological properties of the endocrine system?
  • Where are the glands of the endocrine system located?
  • What are hormones?
  • How are hormones classified?
  • How do glands and hormones work together?
  • How does the endocrine system work in conjunction with the nervous system?
  • What is the function of each gland of the endocrine system?
  • What disorders/conditions affect the endocrine system?

Key Terms

  1. Adrenal glands: Either of a pair of complex endocrine organs near the anterior medial border of the kidney, consisting of a mesodermal cortex and an ectodermal medulla
  2. Endocrine system: The glands, and parts of glands, that produce endocrine secretions, and help to integrate and control bodily metabolic activity. Includes the pituitary, thyroid, parathyroids, adrenals, islets of Langerhans, ovaries, and testes.
  3. Gland: An organ consisting of cells that secrete materials into other regions of the body
  4. Hormones: A natural substance produced in the body that influences the way the body grows or develops
  5. Ovary: One of the typically paired essential female reproductive organs that produces eggs and, in vertebrates, female sex hormones
  6. Pancreas: A large, lobulated gland that, in humans, lies in front of the upper lumbar vertebrae and behind the stomach. It is somewhat hammer-shaped and firmly attached anteriorly to the curve of the duodenum, with which it communicates through one or more pancreatic ducts.
  7. Parathyroid gland: Any of usually four small endocrine glands that are adjacent to or embedded in the thyroid gland
  8. Pineal body: A small body that arises from the roof of the third ventricle of the brain and is enclosed by the pia mater
  9. Pituitary gland: A small, oval, endocrine organ that is attached to the infundibulum of the brain. It consists of an epithelial anterior lobe joined by an intermediate part to a posterior lobe of nervous origin.
  10. Placenta: The organ in mammals that forms inside the mother's uterus, nourishes the unborn baby, and is pushed out of the mother after the birth of the baby
  11. Target cells: Cells with a receptor, specific to a particular hormone
  12. Teste: a typically paired male reproductive gland that produces sperm and secretes testosterone. In most mammals, it is contained within the scrotum at sexual maturity. 
  13. Thymus: A glandular structure of largely lymphoid tissue that functions especially in the development of the body's immune system. It is present in the young of most vertebrates, typically in the upper anterior chest or at the base of the neck, and tends to atrophy in the adult.
  14. Thyroid: A large bi-lobed endocrine gland of vertebrates, lying at the anterior base of the neck

 

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