General Biology

The Complexity of Human Organs

Your organs are composed of the four tissue types; epithelial, connective, muscle, and nervous tissues. Organs are wondrous things, each one with a different function vital to the homeostasis of your body. While it is easy for us to view a particular organ as a single item, it is in fact comprised of many different types of cells and structures, each one unique and yet each one working together to perform the functions of the organ.

In this Assignment, you will research an individual organ and its complexity. Your APA-formatted essay should:

• Provide a general description of your assigned organ in the introduction. In the general description, you will include the following: a brief description of the primary functions of this organ, its general shape, and the location of this organ in the human body.


• Describe in detail the importance of this organ to the function of the body as a whole. What are the functions of this organ and how is it critical for survival?


• Identify and describe which of the four tissue types (epithelial, connective, muscle, and/or nervous tissues) are present in the organ.


• Describe any organ-specific cell types that are present and if these cell types have any special structures (e.g., presence of microvilli and/or abundance of particular organelle such as mitochondria).


• Discuss in detail how these different cell-types work together to provide the overall function of the organ.


• Include a discussion of why each organ requires the different tissue types as well as unique cell types to function. Why can the organs not be comprised of just one cell type? What is the advantage of having so many different types of cells?

The organ assigned to you for this essay is listed below and is based on the first letter of your last name:

First Letter of Last Name

Organ

A-D

Heart

E-H

Lung

I-M

Kidney

N-R

Spleen

S-V

Liver

W-Z

Stomach

Basic Writing Requirements:

• Essay should be APA formatted.


• Should include a cover page, an introduction, and a conclusion.


• The body of the essay should address the different topics and questions described above.


• All statements of fact should be included in an APA reference list at the end of the essay.


• The essay should be a minimum of 750 words in length not counting the cover page and reference list.

Submitting Your Assignment

Save your copy of the APA-formatted Assignment in a location and with a name that you will remember. Be sure to use the "Save As" option to include your first and last name in the title of the document. For example, your Assignment might be called Shawn_Edwards_Assignment4.doc

When you are ready, submit your work via the Dropbox.