The students of Goodrich Medical School (also known as my 3rd & 4th grade science students) have been busy studying the systems of the human body. They have been watching videos, researching, reading, and having fun participating in hands-on activities to learn about how the different systems of the body work. On Tuesday, the students began learning about the circulatory system. They were introduced to this system by building a hands-on demonstration of the heart. This demonstration was used to help students develop an understanding of the function of the heart and the importance of it's job.
Each group received 3 empty water bottles. They filled two of the bottles with 75% of water. The first bottle represented the left and right atria. The blood returns to the left and right atria from other parts of the body. The second bottle represented the left and right ventricles that pump blood from the heart to the body. The last bottle represented the human body. The students pinched the straws connecting the atrium and ventricle and then squeezed the middle bottle. Our fingers represented the valves of the heart. As the students squeezed the "blood" moved from the ventricle to the body.
The students then figured out that if you pinched the straw connecting the ventricle and body, and squeezed the middle bottle the "blood" moved from the atrium to the ventricle.
It was a fun way to engage the students in learning about the circulatory system, and to build background knowledge of the system in order to soon read higher level text about the circulatory system.
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