Human Body Camp Day 3

Some quick notes and resources for our third day's topic, which was The Digestive System and The Teeth.

Remember that all of my notes for this main lesson block can be found in much more detail on my website.

We began today by reviewing The Respiratory System and doing a few additional activities:

• look at and feel dehydrated beef trachea (available at the pet store in the dog treats section)
• read During an Asthma Attack article
• do Drops on a Penny experiment for surface tension (this relates to one of the Amazing Facts on page 64)
• use a candle and a funnel and a plastic bag to try the Lung Exhaust activity on page 65
• review all vocabulary using the Respiratory System three-part cards from the ETC Montessori material for Human Physiology
• look at The Cardiovascular system and The Respiratory system pages in the Wall Chart of Human Anatomy
• add new information to our giant web

The Drops on a Penny experiment for surface tension was really interesting! The girls tried it, and several variations of it, over and over. They were able to fit 21 drops of water on a penny each time for their first three times, but by the fourth time they had fine-tuned their pipette technique and fit 37 drops on (pictured above)! Then I showed them my fruit fly trap and explained that detergent breaks surface tension (which is why our lungs secrete a detergent substance, reducing the surface tension of the fluid lining and allowing air in). They heaped water on their penny and then put a drop of dish detergent on it. Bam! Surface tension broke and water cascaded everywhere. They also tried putting detergent directly on the penny before adding the water, to see if this would affect how many drops would fit on it.

The Digestive System

read "Digestion: Down the Food Tube" chapter from Blood and Guts: A Working Guide to Your Own Insides, stopping as follows:
• in the middle of page 76, do the "How Does Food Move through the Body?" activity on page 74 of Easy Genius Science Projects with the Human Body: Great Experiments and Ideas
• farther down on page 76, before you get to the small intestine, stop and ask the children, if we know that the food tube is 30 feet long, and I'm 5 foot 6 inches tall, what does that tell us about the food tube? (it's not straight!)
• at the bottom of page 76, draw a quick sketch of the Charting the Food Tube illustration (from page 77) up on the chalkboard
• at the top of page 77, do the Keeping Track activity and use a stethoscope to listen to your body busily digesting your lunch
• look at the small intestine cross-section under a microscope, #22 from our set of 25 prepared microscope slides
• at the bottom of page 79, do the Test for Fat from the Kitchen Chemistry activity
• at the bottom of page 81, discuss antibiotics and probiotics (it is helpful to have a soup can and a thimble)
• read food labels and compare live active cultures in two different brands of plain yogurt
• add the yogurt cultures to warm milk in the crockpot and wrap in two bath towels to culture overnight
• at the bottom of page 82, use a 2 cup measuring cup to show the amount of saliva your mouth makes daily

The Teeth

read "Teeth: Nippers, Chompers, Grinders" chapter from Blood and Guts: A Working Guide to Your Own Insides, stopping as follows:
• in the middle of page 31, talk a walk around the house and look closely at the teeth of our resident carnivore (Leah's dog Archie) and herbivore (Becca's rabbit Mystery)
• look at cast of human teeth (Leah's from when she got her retainer)
• do the "Teeth Are for Chewing" activity on page 77 of Easy Genius Science Projects with the Human Body: Great Experiments and Ideas
• at the bottom of page 33, look at my collection of baby teeth from my own children -- imagine this incisor in an adult mouth! -- and especially look at Natalie's baby tooth which was knocked out with the complete root still intact

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