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The Human Body Web Trek |
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| Your teacher will assign you to one of the following student teams. Each team will be focusing on one system of the human body, and you and your team will present your corpus of written, visual, performance, and artistic materials to the class. You will need to learn to work as a team, to organize yourselves, and to use the Student Team Project Planner below to keep track of what needs to be done, who is doing it, and what time it needs to be finished. Good luck! | ||
Student Teams 1. SKELETON SCOOBY-DO'S Print out a copy this student planner for each member of your team. You will be using it at your very first meeting. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: |
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1. STUDENT TEAM NUMBER ONE: THE SKELETON SCOOBY DO'S
A. INTRODUCTION You guessed it - you're in charge of the skeletal system. Your job is of the utmost importance, for what would our bodies be without the framework to support them? It's your job to learn about bone structure in the human body; read on! B. PROCESS Be sure you take a good look at the full diagram of a bone. You may even want to print it out to study and refer to. Why, you ask? Because you will be building a bone! There are no directions here, so no easy way out. You will have to use your brains to figure out what materials to use and how it's going to look. And when you have built a beautiful bone, one worthy of a poem written in its honor, then you get to write up a presentation! An ode to a bone too, if you want. But whether or not you wax poetic, you will be explaining the components and layers of a bone, defining the skeletal system (include numbers of bones; it always impresses teachers when you include those details!), talking about the function and anatomy of different bones in the body, and throwing around a few impressive words, like "patella", and "parieto-temporal". But you're not done yet. You thought that was the end of your adventure? No way! You also have to build a skeleton, human please, and no, you don't have to use real human bones. In fact, you could make it out of different kinds of pasta - get inventive. No matter what you use, the hip bone still has to be connected to the thigh bone - or was that the femur, connected to the pelvis? You decide, and you'd better get it right! Here are some additional websites for you to use, because you should never limit yourself to just an overview when you're becoming an expert. C. RESOURCES KIDS HEALTH - THE BIG STORY ON BONES YOUR GROSS & COOL BODY - THE SKELETAL SYSTEM THE INTERACTIVE VIRTUAL BODY QUIZ YOURSELF - GO ON, YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO... Now that you're all boned up on bones (couldn't resist!), you can test yourself on the human skeleton by labeling the bones correctly in this online skeleton quiz. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: |
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2. STUDENT TEAM NUMBER TWO - THE MUSCLE MAESTROS: A. INTRODUCTION Hit the ground! Give me twenty push-ups! Clap your hands in between each push-up while you're at it! You might or might not be able to do twenty push-ups, but one thing is certain: in order to complete even one, you had better have some muscles. Even if you didn't want to do a push-up, you couldn't even move that baby finger of yours without the use of your muscles. B. PROCESS It's your mission, Muscle Maestros, whether or not you choose to accept it, to figure out exactly how your muscles work, and to know what joints, ligaments, tendons, and cartilage have to do with muscles as well. What's more, you will be building a working model of a human muscle - it will need to demonstrate how the human muscle moves, as well as how it is composed and what it looks like. Put on your thinking caps, think "rubber bands", and get busy brainstorming to build your muscles. Oh, while you're at it, think about how we can indeed build muscle tissue, and be sure to include that note in your classroom presentation. For yes indeed, you will be presenting your muscle in class, along with an explanatory poster of the muscular system and a demonstration to go along with your model. Now you need to include what muscles need for nutrition, for in fact, you will also be writing up a day in the life of a muscle. Choose a specific muscle, feed it, overwork it, tell us what happens; use the muscle writing paper below for your assigned writing exercise. Also use the following sites to flex your muscles and gather information for your projects. C. RESOURCES YOUR GROSS & COOL BODY - THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM ACADEMIC KIDS - MUSCULAR CONTRACTIONS ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: |
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3. STUDENT TEAM NUMBER THREE: DIGESTIVE DETECTIVES A. INTRODUCTION What is a bolus? What about an epiglottis? How can a body part, a tiny tube attached to the large intestine that doesn't really do much of anything at all, cause so many problems? You don't know? Well you will soon when you take on the role of Digestive Detective! You'll also learn about the decisive factor of water in your body, how you use it and how you lose it. And that's all good, because you, Digestive Detective, are going to need all that information! B. PROCESS You're going to be taking a slice of pizza and a glass of water for a ride through your body, and showing your class where it all goes on its journey. You'll need a full-scale drawing of a person for this. Don't use a real one; we need the inside view and that just might pose a few problems with a live specimen. Paper will do just fine. So get to know those organs vital to the digestive system, how your body processes food - especially the journey it takes - and how and why we need and use water. You'll need a separate drawing for the pizza, and one for your glass of water. Use lots of arrows to show where your pizza is flowing, step-by-step, and do the same with water, also showing how and where we lose it. You will also be making an illustrated book of the Digestive System. Each two page spread should show the following: on the first page, have an illustration of the organ involved, naming necessary parts. On the page immediately opposite, explain the function of this organ. Do this for each of the organs involved in digestion. The design is up to you; you can make it kid-friendly, formal and scientific, you can use photos or drawings, you can create a story to go along with it - but however you decide to complete this assignment, the information it contains will basically be the same. You may wish to assign different members of your team to the three projects involved here: a.) How a piece of pizza moves through and is digested in the human body; b.) A life size illustration of the body, showing how water moves through, aids, and is lost by the human body; c.) a who's who book of the Digestive System. Use the following sites to gather your information. C. RESOURCES THE REAL DEAL OF THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM YOUR DIGESTIVE SYSTEM AND HOW IT WORKS INTERACTIVE FOOD PATH, DIGESTIVE ORGANS, & BUILD THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM INTERACTIVE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM QUIZZES - TEST YOURSELF! ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: |
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4. STUDENT TEAM NUMBER FOUR - CIRCULATORY CRACKERJACKS A. INTRODUCTION How much blood do you have in your body at any given time (no, not after you've just donated to the blood bank!)? What are the main parts of the system which circulates blood through the body? What is your blood made of? And if we have blue veins, do we have blue blood? By the time you finish this assignment, you will be able to impress everyone by loftily throwing around terms such as "buffy coat", "coagulate", and "interventricular septum". B. PROCESS You will be creating a circulatory board game called Circulation Capers. No, it doesn't have to go around and around in a circle, it simply has to be based upon the human circulatory system, with Did You Know cards for students to gather to gain reference information and points, as well as How Does the... Work cards for students to answer and move ahead in the game. Build your game creatively - the design is up to you! Of course, you could have contestants complete a circuit, measure heartbeats, etc. but it all has to be built into the rules and regulations of your board game. Your actual board must contain visuals of and visits to all major components of the human circulatory system; perhaps you could wind around the board to all the different parts of the system, or make a journey through a tour of the human body, with challenges to get to each stop. That's one idea; it's up to your team to figure it out. You will need enough boards and game pieces in order to have your whole class play. Present your game, explain the rules, and take the students through the board game. You could even create a mini tournament with special prizes for winners, but have a heart (!), make a few prizes for your losers too. The other part of the project (you didn't think you would get away with just one task, did you?) requires your team to create a demonstration station of some aspect of the circulatory system, designed to shed light on understanding that feature. For instance, you could demonstrate how blood vessels work with balloons and pumps, or create a poster illustrating the human heart and how it pumps blood. Use the resources below to learn about the human heart and the cardiovascular system, and then beat a path to the interactive quiz at the last website listed below. C. RESOURCES INTRO TO THE CIRCULATORY SYSTEM THE CIRCULATORY SYSTEM INTERACTIVE CIRCULATORY SYSTEM THE HUMAN CIRCULATORY SYSTEM AND THE HEART LEARN ALL ABOUT THE HEART ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: |
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5. STUDENT TEAM NUMBER FOUR: RESPIRATORY RAPPERS & RACONTEURS A. INTRODUCTION So just why exactly is your team called the Respiratory Rappers & Raconteurs? Is that even cool?? Well of course it is, if you do a good job of it! You'll be just as cool as Shakespeare's troop of actors was, in Shakespeare's day at least. Read on and find out just what you have to do. B. PROCESS Welcome to a journey through the human lungs. You will be learning all about the human respiratory system; in fact, you will have to become an expert, because you are going to pass on your information to other students. You will present a dramatic story to explain the workings of the respiratory system. You will have to perform a skit, tell a story of how we breathe through animated body part characters, or take a breath of air for a walk through the body. Do the research first, choose your plan of attack, and organize, plan, write, practice, and then perform your piece. Now that's the raconteur part. But wait! There's another major part of your assignment. Give your respiratory group a name, find a beat (an exaggerated heartbeat will do very well!), and take one of the major issues related to the respiratory system, such as smoking and your lungs, air pollution, or understanding asthma, and write your own rap song. Dress up as your characters and perform this one to your class as well. It should contain loads of information about your topic - i.e. you should be very well-versed - get it? get it?! Another of your classmates can videotape the performances for you so you can have a record of it, if you like. Use the resources below for your research, and get planning! C. RESOURCES WELCOME TO YOUR RESPIRATORY SYSTEM DIAGRAMS OF THE RESPIRATORY SYSTEM TOBACCO AND SMOKING SMOG AND AIR POLLUTION INTERACTIVE RESPIRATORY ACTIVITIES ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: |
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