Our daughter was born with a heart murmur. Today, we visited the pediatric cardiologist. I think we had the first doctor who frightened us a little bit about her condition. He still believes it will resolve itself, but he wants to watch a little more closely. So we had a chest x-ray, EKG, and electrocardiogram. What amazing technology.
In reading Disrupting Class, the authors talked about virtual science labs. In my mind, I always thought about chemistry experiments. As I was sitting watch the screen of my daughter’s heart. I thought about biology and anatomy & physiology. This is so much better than a picture. The program could show different so many different parts inside us and give comparison and contrast of healthy and unhealthy conditions. I am curious if anyone has comments about this idea. It was my aha moment in a stressful day.
New Dad at 40 
Joel,
Heart murmers can be scary, they found my oldest daughter’s when she was three. She has a cleft valve that allows blood to flow backward to the lower chamber. The only way this condition ever slowed her down was it kept her out of the Naval Acadamy. She was a distance runner junior high and high school and is still going on 10 mile runs. We took her to Iowa City about once every three to five years and I believe she will go one more time now that she is 25, I was always a little worried that all her activity would cause her some kind of heart problems but the doctors always said she had no restrictions on her activities. I guess it is just a parent’s place to worry.
I always found the equipement in the doctors office to be extremely interesting. I saw my daughters heart a couple of times and when I was pregnant with my now five year old I was in awe of the ultra-sound technolgy. (It had changed quite a bit during the 16 year span between children). It would be an awesome learning tool, so many possibilities.
Good luck with your beautiful little girl