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Lesson: Chapter 6 — Human body processes

6.3. Excretion and the urinary system 3 of 3

Inside the kidney

Activity 6.2 looks at the inside of a kidney.

Activity 6.2 — a kidney cut open

Get a goat's or cattle kidney from the market. Cut it lengthwise with a sharp blade and look at the regions inside, using a hand lens.

Figure to be added

Figure — a kidney in long section: the outer cortex, the inner medulla, the pelvis leading to the ureter, and the renal artery and vein.

The observation

A darker outer cortex, a paler inner medulla, and a hollow pelvis that opens into the ureter.

The nephron

Each kidney holds about a million tiny tubes, the nephrons. A nephron is the kidney's working unit: it filters blood and makes urine.

Figure to be added

Figure — a nephron: the Bowman's capsule around a knot of capillaries (the glomerulus), the coiled tubule, the loop, and the collecting duct, with capillaries wrapped round the tubule.