Health Education

––Create a script of an interview with the human heart.  Include the questions that the interviewer would ask and the answers that the heart would give.

Barbara Walters:	Ms. (or Mr.) Heart, it’s a pleasure to meet you.  I have a few questions about how you work.  What is that wall of tissue down the middle of you?
Heart:	That is my septum.  It acts as a divider between my chambers. It divides my right side from my left side.
Barbara Walters:	Speaking of chambers, how many do you have, and what is their purpose?
Heart:	I have 4 chambers.  My upper chambers on both of my sides are called atria.  Blood comes into my atria through veins from the body.  At this point, the oxygen from this blood has already been distributed throughout the body. So I pump the blood to my lower chambers which are called ventricles. My ventricles pump the blood to the lungs so that they can gather more oxygen.  It then goes through the arteries out to the body.  It’s one big cycle.
Barbara Walters:	Wow.  Don’t you ever get tired?
Heart:	No.  I just keep going and going.  I really enjoy my work.

There are types of folktales that are called pourquoi tales.  Pourquoi is the French word for why.  Pourquoi tales are stories that explain why something is as it is.  For example, there is a pourquoi tale about how leopards got their spots.  There is a pourquoi tale about why chameleons change colors.  These are fanciful tales—not factual tales.  Have you ever heard about your funny bone?  It’s a place on our arms near our elbow.  Sometimes if we bump that particular spot, it maked a strangle little feeling surge down our arm.  There is a factual reason for that funny bone feeling.  But we are dealing with fanciful pourquoi tales.  Use your imagination and write a pourquoi tale about why we have a funny bone.  At the very end of your story, include a paragraph that includes factual information about funny bones.

–With a group of students, develop a quiz about a major body system.  Write good, thoughtful questions and be sure and include the answers.  Transfer your quiz to an online quiz maker.  ­­­­ Take your own quiz to make sure that your questions and answers are in good order.  Then take the quizzes of the other groups in your class as well.

–Create a digestive system board game.  Game pieces can be a piece of broccoli, an apple, a twinkie, a hamburger, etc.  Have each game piece make their way through the human digestive system by answering digestive review questions.  The goal of the game could be to be the first game piece to end up at the Enamel Palace (the toilet).

Produce a video about a body system of your choice.  Include the script and the storyboard as well as the final video masterpiece.

–Start a blog about body systems.  For example, write a blog post about the muscular system.  Have other students respond to the blog post and include further muscular details or ideas about how their muscular system helps them in their daily activities.

Riddles!  Riddles are fun!  Working with a partner, create 3 riddles about one of the body systems you have been learning about in class.  Share the riddles with the class.

Riddle:	I am a part of the digestive system that is lined with tiny, fingerlike villi that help break down food into simple nutrients.
Answer:	Small intestine

Write a narrative in 1st person from the viewpoint of a big breath of fresh air.  Include every part of the respiratory system that the air travels through and how the air benefits its human host.  “Without even being aware (because breathing is an involuntary process), Sam inhaled me through his nose.  His nose slightly warmed me before I continued on my journey.  The small hairs in his nose called cilia removed a few particles of dust that I had picked up from the air in the back yard.  Thankfully for Sam, the cilia also removed some bacteria that might have made him sick.” 

Design a poster that contains information about smoking, the negative effects that smoking has on all body system, and the positive effects of being tobacco-free.

–Everyone loves songs about the digestive system.  With a partner, write a song about a body system of your choice.  Make sure that the song includes plenty of factual, informative detail as well as catchy rhyming verses.

––With the help of your teacher, create a Twitter account for a brain.  Have the brain send out informative tweets about its daily activities, its purpose, and functions.