How does the heart work to pump blood around the body?

Firstly, I would ensure that the student understands the basics concepts of atrial systole, ventricular syotle and diastole and the pathway of the blood around the heart. Then I would further explain the concepts of electical activity in the heart including the sinoatrial node, atioventricular node, the Bundle of His and the Purkinjie fribres. I would encourage the student to attempt to formulate an answer to a past paper using their understand of heart function and help them to put key words that examiners are looking for in their answer. I have written an example of how I would answer an exam question of this nature below: The heart is myogenic meaning that the electircal impulse,which stimulates the heart muscle to contract, originates from the muscle tissue itself in an area called the sinoatrial node (SAN). The SAN is located in the right atrium of the heart. From here the electrical impulse spreads across the right atrium, causing it to depolarise, contract and force blood into the right ventricle, until it reaches the atioventricular node (AVN). At the AVN, the electrical impulse is delayed from entering the Bundle of His so that the atria can fully contract. Once, this has occured the electrical impulse passes down the Bundle of His and into the Purkinjie fibres which spread through and cause depolarisation of the ventricles and hence cau the ventricles to contract. Blood is forced into the pulmonary artery and the aorta, where it may travel to the lungs and the rest of the body respectively.