How to Make a Model of the Human Heart Using Paper

Things You'll Need

Construction paper
Scissors
Glue

The blue and red tubes at the top of the heart are the superior vena cava and the aorta, respectively.

Each day, your heart keeps blood coursing through about 60,000 miles of blood vessels throughout your body. In the course of a lifetime, this vital organ may beat more than three billion times. You can create a paper model of the heart to teach students about one of their most important organs, or as a unique craft to display around the home. Use different colors of construction paper, such as red, blue and white, to differentiate among the heart's many parts.

Step 1

Keep a detailed diagram of the human heart near your workspace. Cut out the body of the heart, excluding superior and inferior vena cava, aorta and pulmonary veins.

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Step 2

Label the parts of the heart, if desired. The top left section of the heart is the right atrium, while the opposing side is the left atrium. On the bottom left of the heart is the right ventricle, opposed by the left ventricle. Slightly below the left atrium is the mitral valve. Beneath the right atrium is the tricuspid valve. These valves are intended to keep blood flowing in the right direction during the heart's contractions.

Step 3

Add the aortic valve and the pulmonary valve to the top center of the body of the heart. Use glue to attach these small, extending tubes to the top of the heart. The aortic valve supplies blood to the aorta, while the pulmonary valve sends blood to the lungs.

Step 4

Create the superior vena cava and inferior vena cava. Take a piece of blue construction paper and form a tube that is slightly longer than the body of the heart you created in Step 1. Glue this behind the body of the heart on the far left side. The tube should stick out a little above and a little below the body of the heart. Label the top of the tube the "Superior Vena Cava" and the bottom the "Inferior Vena Cava."

Step 5

Create the pulmonary artery out of red construction paper. This is a red tube that extends farther than the pulmonary valve and aortic valve. Glue it to rest behind the pulmonary valve and aortic valve.

Step 6

Create the aorta, a rounded section that will extend above the top of the body of the heart, out of red construction paper. Three little tubes open up at the top of the aorta. A two-pronged tube extends from the top of the aorta on both its sides. On the right side, the pulmonary veins extend a little past the left atrium on the right. Tape the aorta behind all of the other parts of the heart.

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