Science Scribe Post For April 2nd
White Blood Cells
Today in science we mainly focused on the lymphatic system so we made a graphic organizer on it. The organs included in this system are the spleen, tonsils, adenoids, thymus, and the lymph nodes. There are 3 types of white blood cells that fight of pathogens which are germs, viruses, diseases, and bacteria. They are the leukocytes, lymphocytes, and the macrophages. The macrophages are very special because when bacteria is sent to the macrophages in the lymph nodes, they swallow them up and kill any foreign particles. The thymus gland in the sternum area is sort of like a computer because when you get a pathogen(bacteria) in your body that it has never seen before, your body sends the white blood cells to the pathogen to fight it off. When your body does fight it off the thymus keeps a memory of the pathogen so that the next time you are exposed to the same germ, your body can kill it easily. Since your body works that way, scientists create vaccinations which are small bits of a certain bacteria that has been killed already that is injected into your body. When your body sees the new pathogen, it rushes the white blood cells to the dead pathogen to fight it off. When its done fighting the bacteria off, your body now has a memory of the pathogen so that the next time you get it your body can fight it off easily and you don’t get sick. After you get injected with the vaccination, you may have a small fever. This is because your body is rushing the white blood cells to fight off the already dead pathogen and the body is working very hard. That is all a fever is.
