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The Lub-Dub Club
A 3D ride round the body with one little blood cell, for children about five to eight. Free, with no ads and no sign-ups.
What your child will learn
- Your heart is a pump about the size of your fist, with two sides.
- The right side (blue in the tour) sends blood to the lungs; the left side (red) sends it round the body.
- Blood picks up oxygen in the lungs and drops it off in tiny vessels called capillaries.
- Valves are one-way doors, and the lub-dub of a heartbeat is them snapping shut.
- You can feel your heart working: your pulse, on your wrist.
How it works
Story. A wombat tells it in nine short chapters, and the camera follows one blood cell (it wears an orange ring) from a vein, through the heart, to the lungs, back through the heart, out to the legs and home. Every word is spoken and shown.
Explore. Turn the heart, open it like a book, pick a heart speed (a sleepy koala, a walking wombat or a running emu), ride along with a blood cell, or tap any part to hear what it does. What's this? shows the parts one at a time.
Quiz. Five picture questions, read aloud, so it works before your child can read. A wrong answer greys out and they have another go; nothing is ever lost. Finishing brings a new animal for their My mob book.
Things to try together
- Find your pulse: palm up, two fingers on the wrist just below the thumb. Count the bumps.
- Do twenty star jumps and find it again. Faster? That's the running emu.
- Put an ear to each other's chest and listen for the lub-dub.
- Make a fist. That's about how big your heart is.
What's simplified, and why
- Blood is drawn blue and red, the way picture books do; the tour says once, out loud, that real blood is always red.
- The heart is drawn bigger than life, and upright with its sides left and right, so a child can see inside it.
- The lungs are drawn above the heart, as in the picture book, rather than on either side of it.
- Two squeezes are shown for each beat (top rooms, then bottom rooms), both sides together.
Where the facts come from
Every fact the tour states was checked against the page linked beside it.
- Your heart is a muscle about the size of your fist, in the middle of your chest.
In the tour: It's about as big as your fist.
British Heart Foundation — How your heart works - The heart has a left side and a right side, separated by a wall (the septum), each with a room at the top (atrium) and one at the bottom (ventricle).
In the tour: Each side has a room at the top and a room at the bottom. A wall down the middle keeps the two sides apart.
British Heart Foundation — How your heart works - The right side pumps blood to the lungs; the left side pumps it to the whole body through the aorta, the largest artery.
In the tour: The blue side sends blood to the lungs. The red side sends it round your body.
Better Health Channel (Victorian Government) — Circulatory system - Valves keep blood flowing one way and stop it flowing backwards.
In the tour: That's a valve. It's a one-way door.
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute — How blood flows through the heart - The 'lub-dub' of the heartbeat is the heart's valves closing.
In the tour: Lub-dub! That sound is your valves snapping shut.
Better Health Channel (Victorian Government) — Heart murmur - In the lungs, blood gives up carbon dioxide and picks up oxygen; in the capillaries, oxygen passes to the body's cells; veins bring blood back to the heart.
In the tour: Our cell grabs some oxygen… drops its oxygen off for your muscles… back to the heart we go.
Better Health Channel (Victorian Government) — Circulatory system - The left ventricle has the thickest, strongest wall, because it pumps blood at the highest pressure, all round the body.
In the tour: The strongest room of all… The red side has the thickest wall.
Ventricle (heart), Wikipedia, and NHLBI (the left ventricle generates the high pressure needed to pump blood to the whole body) - Blood is always red: bright red with oxygen, darker red without. It is never blue; veins only look blue through skin.
In the tour: We colour it blue, but real blood is always red. It's just darker when it needs oxygen.
Live Science — If blood is red, why do veins look bluish? - The heart beats around 100,000 times a day.
In the tour: Your heart beats about a hundred thousand times every day.
British Heart Foundation — How your heart works - At rest the heart pumps about the body's whole blood volume each minute, so blood goes round in about a minute.
In the tour: Your blood goes all the way round your body in about a minute.
The Naked Scientists — How quickly does a blood cell circulate? - You can feel your pulse on the thumb side of your wrist, palm up.
In the tour: Turn your hand palm up, and put two fingers on your wrist, just below your thumb.
healthdirect — Resting heart rate
Every word it says
The whole script, for reading along, or for a child who'd rather read than listen.
1. Meet your heart
- Hello! I'm Wombat, and this is you, on the inside.
- Right in the middle of your chest is your heart.
- It's about as big as your fist. Make a fist and have a look!
- Your heart is a pump. It squeezes blood all the way round your body, all day and all night.
2. Two sides, one beat
- Let's peek inside!
- Your heart has two sides: a blue side and a red side.
- Each side has a room at the top and a room at the bottom.
- A wall down the middle keeps the two sides apart.
- Both sides squeeze at the same time. Lub-dub, lub-dub!
3. Back from the body
- See the blood cell with the orange ring? That's our friend. Let's follow it!
- It's coming back from your body, and it has given away most of its oxygen.
- We colour it blue, but real blood is always red. It's just darker when it needs oxygen.
- In it goes, to the top room on the blue side.
4. Through the one-way door
- See the white flaps? That's a valve. It's a one-way door.
- When the top room squeezes, the door swings open.
- Then snap! It shuts behind us, so blood can't go backwards.
5. Off to the lungs
- Squeeze! The bottom room pushes us up, up, up to your lungs.
- Every time you breathe in, your lungs fill with fresh air.
- Look, bubbles of oxygen! Our cell grabs some and turns bright red. Ta-da!
6. Back to the red side
- Full of oxygen, we zoom back to the heart.
- This time we go in on the red side.
- Through another one-way door, into the strongest room of all.
7. The big push
- The red side gives a mighty squeeze!
- Out we shoot, into a great big tube called the aorta.
- Its walls stretch with every push. That's your pulse!
- Turn your hand palm up, and put two fingers on your wrist, just below your thumb. Can you feel it going bump, bump?
8. Tiny roads
- The big tube splits into tiny little roads called capillaries.
- Here our cell drops its oxygen off for your muscles, so you can run and jump and climb.
- Now it's blue again. Back to the heart we go, to do it all again!
9. Lub-dub!
- Listen. Lub-dub! That sound is your valves snapping shut.
- Your heart beats about a hundred thousand times every day.
- And your blood goes all the way round your body in about a minute.
- Thanks for riding with me. Welcome to the Lub-Dub Club!
The quiz
Quiz time! Let's see what you remember. The right answers are in bold.
- Which side of your heart sends blood to your lungs? (The blue side / The red side)
- Where does your blood pick up oxygen? (In your lungs / In your head / In your legs)
- What does a valve do? (It makes blood red / It's a one-way door / It breathes in air)
- Which side of your heart gives the strongest squeeze? (The blue side / The red side)
- What makes the lub-dub sound? (Blood splashing / Your tummy rumbling / Valves snapping shut)
For every child
- Every word is spoken and written, so it works with the sound on or off.
- It works with a keyboard: the arrow keys turn the heart in Explore, and What's this? steps through the parts.
- If your device asks for less motion, the camera cuts instead of flying, the heart beats more calmly and the confetti stays still.
- On a slower phone or tablet it quietly draws fewer blood cells, so it stays smooth.
What it needs, and what we collect
A recent browser on a phone, tablet or computer. The first visit downloads about 5 MB, and after that it keeps working with no signal. Nothing about your child is collected: the My mob card and the sound setting are kept on your own device. The privacy page has the whole story.