Egg Cell
Our egg cell would love to be the newest member of your family -- or get donated to someone special! The egg cell, or ovum, is the largest and most important cell in the world-and it's only found in women! Although men produce over a million sperm in an hour, women are born with a lifetime trove of several million eggs. By adulthood, only about 400,000 remain, and over the course of life, most of the rest-nearly 1,000/month-are lost. In fact, only about 450 of the millions of egg cells will ever get even a chance to become a baby. Every day of a woman's fertile life, several dozen eggs begin developing. Normally, only one will complete the development cycle every month-the rest perish. But the mature egg gets to leave the ovary and take a daring journey down a fallopian tube where it has the chance of encountering eligible sperm. Like a princess in a fairytale, an egg cell has only about a single day to survive before finding a mate-though because sperm cells can survive for up to 5 days inside a woman's body, a woman can be fertile for nearly a week. But egg cells are monogamous: after one sperm has gotten into its heart, the egg hardens its outer wall to ward off any additional suitors. There are many obstacle-and fierce competition-to becoming the perfect couple. But if all goes well, and the sperm and egg manage to find each other, it can lead to a miracle and a match made in heaven.
Children, parents and educators will enjoy using these educational plush toys to teach about hygiene, disease and the human body. Each microbe comes with a description of the disease it causes or function it performs. Surface washable, air dry. |
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