INQUIRY- THE HUMAN BODY

Our Human Body inquiry began with the children working in groups to write down their "wonderings" about our bodies and how they work.  The children had many different wonderings including- what is our brain made of?  Is our heart shaped like a heart?  How does the brain send messages?  What is the skeleton?  Why is your pee yellow?  How do the lungs work?  What is your body made out of? etc...  

Afterwards, we looked at our wonderings and I asked the children how they thought we could set up learning stations in our room. Our "Learning Stations" are inquiry-based stations that have been put together by myself and students based on their "wonderings."  After many ideas, we decided that we would create four learning stations: Heart and Lungs,  The Skeleton,  The Senses, The Brain and Spine.  I gathered as many books as I could find on each of these areas and searched the internet for sites and videos that helped to teach the children about them.  I also looked specifically for sites and videos that helped to answer their inquiries/wonderings about each area.  At each station there were books, posters, QR Codes with links to videos and the list of "wonderings" from the class.

I was amazed (yet again!) at how well my students worked through the stations.  They all had the opportunity to visit the stations and were also encouraged to stay at a station if they needed to continue exploring an idea.  The results were incredible!!  Children were reading together.  Children were sharing information.  Children were sharing their "wonderings" which then led to other "wonderings."  Some students showed their learning just with a picture and labels, some only wrote things down and some did both.  

Here are the four inquiry stations:  

The Senses Inquiry Station

The Skeleton Inquiry Station

The Brain and Spine Inquiry Station

The Heart and Lungs Inquiry Station

One thing I loved with this inquiry on the human body, was that all of the activities came from the children researching and finding activities to do.  For instance, during the first visit to the Heart and Lungs Station, a child started running and had a friend listening to her heartbeat.  This then prompted the student to use paper towel tube to listen to the heart.  This same student also brought in the lung and heart model from her mother's school to share with us.  This discovery led to more friends experimenting with the heart and the beats (I wonder if it beats more when we sit?  Or is it less?).  At the Senses station, the children found activities to do to test their senses.  I could have put out the jars and listed activities (and yes you know which ones...) but instead the owness was on them.  I encouraged the children to think of some activities to try and that together we would find the items they needed to do them.  Students marked their activities found in books with a sticky note.  Some groups did an experiment they found with hot, warm and cold water.  Others made textured art using different things and described the materials.  Another group played the game where they hid different items under a cloth and their friend had to feel each item and guess.  At the Brain and Spine station, students were holding their breath to see how long they could last before their brain sent a message to force them to breathe.  It really was amazing to watch the children research on their own, try different activities,  discover new ideas and then share their findings with one another.  They were excited to share and couldn't wait to get to their stations each day!

Here are some clips of the discoveries taking place...

What does is it?  What does it feel like?

I can see your tastebuds!

Tricking my brain by putting my finger in cold and hot water, then into warm!

This pulls the lung down to fill with air!