Of human bodies

I have been teaching the human body with a hands-on approach like this to my kindergartners for as long as I can remember. I spend about a day, sometimes two, on most of the major organs. We learn about the brain, the heart, the lungs, the liver, the stomach, the intestines, the kidneys, the bladder, veins and arteries, the bones and joints and the muscles. We learn about digestion, respiration and circulation. We talk about what flatulence and burps are. We talk about when their bladder is full and why they need to go to the bathroom. We even talked about the words urine, urinal and urinate this year. (They asked.) And things like how scientists now know why mosquitoes like to bite some people more than other people. We talk about transplants and organ donation. We watch a video on open heart surgery. We google images of brains and hearts of other animals. 

My goal is to familiarize my students with what’s inside of their own bodies and to eliminate any fear or apprehension they have early on when learning about science and the world around them – and in this case, inside of them! It’s not gross or disgusting, it’s science! 

Every year I have been able to get everything but the lungs from the meat department at G&G Market in Petaluma near my house. I like to use pig’s organs because the size is so similar to ours. Sometimes I use cow or sheep. And I like to bring in chicken livers and hearts too to compare with the pig’s. Last year I heard from a former parent that Sonoma Market supplied the high school biology class with some lungs, so I have made arrangements with them to get some lungs and intestines this week. 

We usually stretch the intestines out as far as they go outside with everyone holding on. It’s always amazing to me that if I introduce this in a scientific way my students are comfortable enough to fully explore each organ, it’s smell, feel, weight, appearance, every valve and wrinkle, inside and out. And that it’s usually the parents who won’t touch something or even look at it, not the kids!