You're all so smart that I wanted a place where we can share our brilliant ideas. Email me or post them on the message board, and I'll move them here. Where ever possible, try to keep them inexpensive. Here's the idea that inspired this section:
I wanted to share with you how I'm teaching the human body.
We are doing this as a continuos year long (or longer) project.
We have a 5 foot life size plastic skeleton. We made a weighted pvc pipe
stand for
him. I cut the skull & chest cavity open and hinged them with cable ties.
We are building it from the outside in. Some examples are (so far): muscles
we will pull
out of silly putty and shape, then glue to the bones in the correct areas.
Veins and arteries we will be gluing on red & blue yard. For intestines we
will use accordion tubing (first we will pull it out, squish it back up,
and we must run jello, peanuts, ect.
through it, then hose it out before attaching it in our body. I figure out
what my kids make the parts out of as we go along. When we were studying
the joints, we taped
all of the joints in our fingers straight with masking tape. We practiced
typing this way, using the TV remote, holding our cups, writing, ect. Only
leave the tape on for about 15 minutes, you don't want to impair the
circulation. So far we are having a
great time with this. If anyone is interested I can update how we make
parts or
activities that are corresponding (like taping the joints).
I use worksheets to reinforce what they are learning.
Both of my children love hands on building projects.
I hope this can help someone.
Joya DeVries
When I taught the human body, we traced around the children on butcher paper. They drew themselves onto the ouline, creating huge paper dolls. They made giant paper doll clothes to put on themsleves-tabs and all. Then we drew body parts as we learned them-heart, kidneys and so on, and taped them to the dolls.
Terrie Bittner
My son (age 16) and I are working on American Studies this year. Part of his work is being done through our local historical society. We joined (lowering the average age of membership by probably a decade!) and Andy immediately offered to set up a website for the society. They were VERY favorably inclined to this. Since then, we attended a program which was a visit to two small local cemeteries with graves from the early 19th century and earlier. Andy asked what documentation had been done--turns out the last time the headstones were documented was around the turn of the century. He is now trying to get a group of high school students to do rubbings of all the stones, make a diagram of their locations, and cross-index them with the 1910 listings. The work would all be donated to the historical society. He will probably be doing a workshop on using the internet for historical research for the society later this year (when the local library gets its internet connection installed). He also plans to do a project on a woolen mill which was the major industry in town from the late 1800's till the 1960's. He will visit the site of the mill and do interviews of people who used to work there. These folks are all very elderly, so the work needs to be done PDQ! He will then make a video for the local elementary schools to use when teaching local history, and do a multimedia presentation for the historical society. I'm impressed at how welcoming these folks have been to him, and how interested and energetic he seems to be, thinking up projects!
Lisa
On the paper doll theory, we traced our bodies too, but we got a fridge box and attached one child to each side. Then becuase we all love "pop-up" books, we made "pop-ups" or sliding or folding body parts. The eye was fold back a seperate drawing of the eye and inside they drew the different parts. Same with the ear, you can make it as complex for a 6th grader or simple for 1st grade. Hair was yarn, the children drew all the parts. Ribs opened up to show the heart which they made rock to indicate beating. Intestines were long folded pieces of paper that tucked in. Let your children think the ideas out, they'll come up with lots of good stuff. You can reinforce by buying "MR. or Mrs. Human Body" at the model store and glueing it together. There's also a lifesize punch-out and glue human skeleton you can buy, and finally out of the NASCO science catalogue you can order cow eyes, fetal pigs, dogs and cats for anatomy...if you can handle that! have fun! becky in fl..
Reading the human body ideas made me think of some biology class tricks I've used (I teach high school chemistry). Instead of ordering preserved specimens for dissection, check with the butcher. You can get a cow's heart, and perhaps other organs to dissect, without formaldehyde exposure! (Even the "nonformaldehyde" preserved specimens are often originally done in formalin, then rinsed and stored in another preservative, and they still have some residual formaldehyde). One of the best specimens for showing how muscles work is a chicken wing. You can pull on the muscles to see how they make the parts of the wing move, and take it apart to see the tendons and ligaments. They're cheap, too! and you can make stew afterward.-Lisa
A friend sent this to me ... thought I would share it here!!
Work this out as you read. Don't read the bottom until you have worked it out!!!
**Follow these 6 steps and this will amaze you...
1. First, pick the number of days a week that you would like to go out (or eat pizza, whatever). (Keep the number in your Mind)
2. Multiply this number by 2.
3. Add 5.
4. Multiply it by 50.
5. If you have already had your birthday this year, add 1748. If you haven't, add 1747.
6. Last step: Subtract the four digit year that you were born.
RESULTS:
You should now have a three digit number: The first digit of this was your original number (i.e. how many times you want to go out each week). The second two digits are your age!!! I told you it works. This is the only year (1998) it will ever work, so spread the joy around by mailing this to everyone you know.
Susan Africa
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