The heart, without it, we're dead, and just what it does and how it does it is the feature of an exhibition at the University of Waikato. Called Brave Heart, it has been developed by the Auckland Medical Museum Trust.
Through interactive displays the exhibition explains how the heart works, how we investigate heart disease and tells the largely untold story of New Zealand’s leading role in the evolution of heart surgery.
University of Waikato student ambassadors are hosting the interactive displays, open to the public and to school students across the region.
Housed in two bright-red shipping containers there are models of a human heart, part of an elephant’s heart, and the hearts of a sheep and a chicken, which demonstrate the difference in heart size and shape of different creatures.
The display highlights the research that led to New Zealand being a world leader in heart surgery and the tools that have been used in heart surgery, including rib cutters and spreaders, lung retractors, and operating glasses.
Third-year biology student Genevieve Palmer is one of the student ambassadors working at the exhibition. She says helping out provides a good opportunity to get involved in a community project and it's giving her good practice at sharing the knowledge she’s learning while studying for her Bachelor of Science degree.
The Brave Heart exhibition runs until 29 March and is located through Gate 1 on Knighton Road.