How does the doctor listen to your heart?

In Paris, France, in 1816, Dr. Laennec is shown using a hollow wooden cylinder to listen to a patient’s heart.
Students practice with each other using a Butterfly iQ handheld ultrasound device attached to a tablet during a class at Indiana University medical school. (AP)
Butterfly iQ shows instant images of the heart and other organs, helping doctors diagnose a range of ailments. (AP)
In the early 1900s, a doctor examines a child with a stethoscope. (AP)
A page from an 1869 catalog of instruments and medical supplies shows diagrams of various models of stethoscopes. (AP)

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“Lub-dub. Lub-dub.” A stethoscope helps doctors hear a beating heart.

The very first one was a wooden tube. Then stethoscopes had two ear-pieces. They had a flat “bell” to put on your chest.

New stethoscopes are held in the hand. Some show pictures of the heart and how it beats.

READ MORE: A doctor 200 years ago would put his head on a person’s chest to hear the heart beat. French physician René Laennec invented the first chest examiner. It was a long wooden tube. Scientists today are inventing new ways to listen to and see the heart. Some use a smartphone app. Others use ultrasound. Will doctors stop using traditional stethoscopes? Many say, “No.” Hear good news from Psalm 73:26, “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart.”

Lesson #6. Simple Stethoscope. Let your children make their own stethoscopes (https://www.sciencebuddies.org/teacher-resources/lesson-plans/make-a-stethoscope). Or provide each child with an empty toilet paper tube. These are similar to the very first instruments ever used to hear a beating heart. Pair them with another child. Have them listen to each other’s resting hearts beat. Then ask them to do something a bit more physical (stand up and sit down) and listen to each other’s hearts again. Finally, have them do jumping jacks or run down a hall and back. What do their hearts sound like now? How is what their doctor uses like these simple stethoscopes? How is it different?