Highlights From Our Body Systems Unit

My Year Three move is great because I can experience new units and see how concepts and topics are built throughout the school. I have already written about the Year Three Conflicts unit. Click here for that post. Our second unit, a Who Areunit on body systems, has just been completed. Because it was filled with rich learning engagements, the unit brought science to life.

The Central Idea: Understanding the body's systems can help you make better choices for your health and wellbeing.

Lines of inquiry:

How the body works

Interdependence between body systems

How to ensure our bodies' health and well-being

Related Concepts: Systems, Interdependence, Choices

These were the most popular lessons students learned, according to post-unit feedback.

Pre-assessment

To start the unit, we did a very simple pre-assessment task. This was to check what the students knew about the human body. We provided a sketch of the body to them and asked them for their thoughts on the inside. This was a fun activity that the students enjoyed, mainly because they were already very knowledgeable and eager to share their knowledge with us. While most students were able to identify key parts, they were not able to explain how they work or what their functions were. It was useful as it revealed some common misconceptions. You can make a copy the template.

Virtuali–Tee

Curiscope's VirtualiTee allows students to view inside the human body and explore it using augmented reality (AR). To bring the body systems to life, simply download the app and point the camera at the special shirt! It was my first experience with the Virtuali-Tee. Although I knew about AR, I did not know about the interactive features such as immersive 360 videos and informative voiceovers. These would have been ideal for students, but due to hygiene restrictions they could not. This one was perfect for my partner in teaching and we mirrored it on the big screen. The student engagement was high and it led to many more questions.

MRI scans

Ryan Krakofsky was one of our Technology and Innovation Coaches. He was involved in a very serious car accident just before we started this unit. We were able to take advantage of this opportunity. Ryan shared the MRI graphics he had seen from that experience. This made the content more tangible and real. Students asked a lot of thoughtful questions about the vulnerability of the human body, and how it can recover. Ryan deserves a huge thank you for sharing this difficult experience. One student described the lesson as "epic."

Mystery Science

Mystery Science has been a favorite resource for science lessons. It is easy to understand and the videos have rich, practical follow-up activities. A few Mystery Science lessons were connected to the unit, including an interesting Halloween special about skulls. The Mystery about muscles and their interaction with bones to create movements was our favorite. This was explained in a clear and concise manner. Students began to consider the interdependence between body systems. The Mystery Science resources were used to create fingers (as seen above). They were able explain the meaning of each component in their model. The string, for example, was a tendon that connected the muscle and the finger bone.

Just Dance

Just Dance is a favorite brain-break activity (videos are available on YouTube). This is a great way to get students moving even if social distancing has been put in place. This was not a brain-break, though. Students were able to see how exercise affected heart rate and breathing. This led to an inquiry into the circulatory systems. Although jogging would have been sufficient, dancing is much more enjoyable.

Sketchnoting

My students learned a lot using information books and videos in this content-rich unit. I taught them some techniques and explained the advantages of visuals in their notes. My students have become more skilled at quickly adding sketches to their notes while they are watching a video. They know that sketchnotes should not be considered finished works of art. They enjoyed drawing more polished illustrations, as shown in the photos.

Ozobot

My friend, Kirsty, and I collaborated to develop a model for the circulatory system using Ozobots. We wanted to see if it could work and what we could do with it to show the big ideas behind this system. We decided to get coders on the job to solve our problems. Our creation is shown in the video. Students could have collaborated as well as us, but they had to work individually due to restrictions. They enjoyed it, however. It was a great way for students to simultaneously learn about the circulatory and Ozobot colour codes. Some students went on to code additional body systems with their Ozobots at-home after this lesson.

Scratch animations

My students worked with Fred Yue (another one of our Technology and Innovation Coaches) to create Scratch animations. To learn with my students, I also joined them. Fred did a great job scaffolding learning and building upon coding concepts. This led to the final project. To help Fred with his lessons, I created the animation. Students were proud of their final creations and had a better understanding of the body systems through coding.

This unit has been a blast to teach. I've learned so much about the body from my students. This post should help you to plan your teaching, especially if it is a unit on the human body.