Curriculum Integration at its Best
A virtual presentation in the Presence of COVID
February 12, 2021
Dotty Corbiere(Math) and Sue Fisher(Makerspace)
Bill Richard (Behind the Scenes Science)
The Meadowbrook School of Weston
From Beginning to End - a Learning Journey
This is a visit to a class of fifth-graders learning about:
Bones, Muscles, Joints, and Cells
THROUGH
Science, Technology, Reading, Library Skills, Art, and Music!
THE BEGINNING
Students were introduced to the unit by viewing a video on bones and muscles by Bill Nye the Science Guy.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bones+and+muscles+bill+nye+the+science+guy
For all videos we watched, students were required to take notes. They used their notes as the basis for a class discussion identifying important information and vocabulary after each video. They were responsible for that information for quizzes and tests.
Make Your Own Skelton.
Label the Parts.
A Little Bit Of Art And Making!
Students started with a template of skeleton bones which they mounted on oaktag, cut out, labeled each bone and assembled with paper fasteners. As a review of a unit we did in grade 4, each skeleton had a model of the digestive system on the back! This exercise proved to be great fun as well as a solid learning tool. Many named their skeletons, and as they could be folded up to fit inside a folder or notebook, they were used as a reference in lessons to come.
LOTS OF READING
KIDS DISCOVER
Much of our reading came from a platform that we use in many subjects and in many grades.
Kidsdiscover.com is a link to the home page.
But this link will take you to the discovery map that shows all the things they offer.
https://online.kidsdiscover.com/discover
They have many free resources. After really taking a close look at the site, you may well want to subscribe to the full platform as we have found it an invaluable resource.
morgan@kidsdiscover.com questions@kidsdiscover.com 212-677-4457)
Included with all Units are many resources: Readings, Questions, Worksheets, Assessments.
It is very easy register a class and then assign specific readings and assessments.
LASER CUT BONES - Some Tech with Math and Making!
The class of 35 was divided into 7 groups with 5 members in each group. The task was to use Adobe Illustrator to design 20 bones to be part of a skeleton that was to hang, with bones proportional to size, and moveable joints. We started with a class period devoted to a tutorial where the kids learned the tools of the design program before they could start on their own.
The directions:
PROPORTIONANLITY
Figure a is proportional to a 1 ½ year old child.
Figure b is that of an adult.
Some Submissions! Adobe Designer
https://helpx.adobe.com/pdf/aem-forms/6-2/designer-quickstart.pdf
RIBCAGE
ARM BONES
ARM BONES
A Change in Course
School closed at about this point in our Unit, BUT we were able to adjust our expectations for what would have been seven skeletons of varying sizes, comprised of cardboard laser cut bones, and whatever materials the group could find in our Eureka Lab. Now the assignment was to create a skeleton of any size but parts all proportional for the size. Students could not purchase any materials but had no restrictions in terms of what they could find in their house. They had to send us a picture of their skeleton hanging with the student in the picture as well. Seeing these pop up made the whole experience worthwhile.
Individual Project
Individual Essay On Topic Of Your Choice
This was assigned simultaneously with the laser cut bone project.
We are sure that some particular topic piqued your interest in all the readings we have done and will continue to do. What would you like to know more about?
Bones and Muscles Reading Passages - Simply STEAM Sarah Barnett
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Browse/Search:bones%20and%20muscle
The Hard Stuff - All About Bones
https://www.readinga-z.com/books/leveled-books/book/?id=151&langId=4
The Human Skeleton
https://www.visiblebody.com/learn/
Interesting Facts
https://www.disabled-world.com/medical/human-body-facts.php
An additional video
https://kidshealth.org/en/kids/msmovie.html
Kids Discover
Some Additional Reading And Resources
FINAL PROJECT
You have a choice of project.
Your game will have 5 categories - Bones, Muscles, Joints, Skin and Cells, Miscellaneous
You will save your game and then play the game with your family. You must keep score.
Play with parents and age appropriate siblings.
Send us a link to your game! https://jeopardylabs.com/
As you can see, the reading that you do this week is important in order to do a good job with the above assignment. Take notes as you read and keep a copy of your notes as we may ask to see them. These notes will be about facts you will use in your game or in you 30 fill in the blank questionnaire.
If neither of these ideas is something that interests you, let us know what does that you feel is comparable to our ideas in terms of effort and learning.
Science Paper Topics
Examples Of Student Work
Vertebrae in infants
Infants are born with a spine that is shaped like a C, it stays like that for 6 months. Then at approximately 6 months they can lift their neck and that creates a curve. The curve is created by the developing siliquial fluid. Infants still have a lot of siliquial fluid and cartilage in them, that gives them the ability to adjust their spine.
By the time infants are nine months there spine is mostly in its normal healthy shape. They can crawl and they can stand up and their lumber is curved. Babies are more flexible than adults. Their whole body starts out like cartilage that is what makes them so flexible. If you did not know that it’s ok because babies figure out for themselves how each of their joints move.
If you have ever seen a baby twitching in it’s sleep that means it is saying to itself “oh that is how my vertebrae work” to babies, it is a process. That is why newborns are shaped like a C, and we are not. They have not figured out how to move their body yet. So babies are really flexible but they don't know it until they figure it out.
All of this has to do with the spinal cord which happens to be the organ the vertebrae protect. The reason it has to do with the spinal cord is because it carries all the nerves. When the brain wants the baby to try to move it’s vertebrae, the nerves go and help it move and if it hurts the nerve signals the brain and then the baby now knows that trying to move my neck right now hurts so I will try it later. The vertebrae are very important for two reasons, especially in a baby. Babies vertebrae are made up of mostly cartilage and can get damaged very easily, so that is why you need to give babies their own time to figure things out themselves.
Sources
https://www.slideshare.net/moramora555/18-anatomy-of-the-spine-d3
Documentary on netflix called babies
What Makes a Bone a Bone?
Your bones are what help support your human body, in the form of the skeletal system. They also help protect important organs. Bones have similar characteristics, even between the axial and appendicular skeletons. But what makes something classified as a bone? Does it have to be hard, or strong?
Bones also have a multilayered inside. Bones have a fibrous tissue that is filled with blood vessels that nourish the body. Under that there is the hard part of the bone, the cortical. Made up of osteons. This layer of the bone contains blood vessels and nerves. It also protects the parts of the bone below. Underneath the hard bone is a spongy bone called the cancellous bone. It is light with many holes and absorbs shock, and carries the body’s weight. Lastly in the middle, is the bone marrow, a jellylike inside. There are different kinds of bone marrow, red bone marrow makes red blood cells, and some white blood cells, and yellow bone marrow stores fat. Bone marrow is what makes bones different from other things. These are the layers that a bone has.
Bones have jobs. They protect vital organs, help with movement, and/or produce red, and white blood cells, as well as plates. Bones that protect vital organs are your skull, and ribs, they protect your brian, heart, and lungs. Bones such as your femur, arm bones, and phalanges help with movement. Your skull, hip bone, and veterbate produce red blood cells that carry oxygen to your body, and at the end of your arm and leg bones have yellow bone marrow that stores fat. Bones are busy living parts of the human body.
The biggest thing that classifies a bone is that it can heal itself back together. Since bones have bone marrow, that form plates, that make blood clots, called a hematoma, then healing cells make a callus around the broken bone and soon new hard bone takes the place of the callus. Having bone marrow, makes bones one of their distinctions.
Teeth have been questioned about being a bone or not. Teeth turn out not to be bones because they do not have bone marrow, and can not heal themselves back together. So if you break your teeth you will have to go to the dentist to get it fixed. This is why bones have to have bone marrow or they are not a bone.
After sending a form to the fifth grade of the nine people who filled it out most people knew that bones needed bone marrow, but only ⅔ knew that bones needed marrow to be able to heal themselves. When I started learning about bones I did not know it either. But being able to heal is a big part of bone because bones have bone marrow.
The main thing that makes a bone different from anything else is the fact that it needs to have bone marrow, the jelly like inside of the bone. The bone marrow makes it so the bone can heal. Bone marrow and being able heal itself is what classifies a bone.
Sources:
“How Bones Work.” Kids Discover, online.kidsdiscover.com/classroom/37C7FA/tpoic/how-bones-work Acessed 30 Mar. 2020.
“The Human Skeleton.” Kids Discover, online.kidsdiscover.com/classroom/37C7FA/tpoic/the-skeloton Acessed 30 Mar. 2020.
“Movie: Bones & Skeletal System” Kids Health, kidshealth.org/en/kids/ssmovie.html?WT.ac=p-ra. Accessed 30 Mar. 2020.
“You Bones.” Kids Health, kidshealth.org/en/kids/bones.html?WT.ac=p-ra. Accessed 30 Mar. 2020.
Delawareonline.Com, www.google.com/search?q=are+teeth+bones&oq=are+teeth+&aqs=chrome.0.0j69i57j0l6.3117j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8. Accessed 30 Mar. 2020.
“Bone Marrow and the Immune.” About Kids Health, www.google.com/search?ei=IP6BXrOmENCOggf35JnoAg&q=do+all+bones+have+marrow&oq=do+all+bones&gs_lcp=CgZwc3ktYWIQARgAMgIIADICCAAyAggAMgIIADICCAAyAggAMgIIADICCAAyAggAMgIIADoECAAQRzoFCAAQkQI6BQgAEIMBOgQIABBDUPt3WJGRAWDInQFoAHABeACAAXqIAcUJkgEDNi42mAEAoAEBqgEHZ3dzLXdpeg&sclient=psy-ab. Accessed 30 Mar. 2020.
How Bones Heal Nemours KidsHealth. How Bones Heal From Nemours KidsHealth. www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxEkk7rMCf4. Accessed 30 Mar. 2020. . Accessed 30 Mar. 2020.
Jeopardy Projects
For Your Viewing Pleasure
Fill in the Blank
1. You can flex and move your _____skeletal_________ muscles.
2. Skeletal muscles are also called ______voluntary____ muscles.
3. There are more than _____600_______ muscles in the human body.
4. Your skeleton gives your body its ______shape___________ .
5. Without bones you wouldn’t be able to _______stand up_________ .
6. A joint is where two bones ___meet____________.
7. Some bones protect your ___internal__________ organs.
8. The ______ribs_____ bones in your body protect your heart and lungs.
9. Your _____cranium______ protects your brain.
10. The _________knee joints ____ joint in your leg helps your body run, jump, and play sports.
11. Your cardiac and smooth muscles are both ____involuntary_____ muscles
12. When you want to move, your ___brain______ sends a message through your ___vertbrae______ to your _____nerves_____ .
13. _______abdominal ____ muscles are found in your stomach, intestines, and bladder.
14. ______protein____ can be found in things like tofu, eggs, meat, milk, and peanut butter.
15. You can make your muscles ___stronger_________ by playing sports like basketball or soccer and eating a nutritious diet.
16. Your body can’t _____move_____ without bones.
17. Your body has many _____skeletal_____bones.
18. The ___bicep_____ muscle is a flexor and the ______tricep________ muscle is an extensor.
19. The elbow is an example of a ______hinge_____________ joint.
20. Cardiac muscles keep your heart _____beating_______ .
20. Cardiac muscles keep your heart _____beating_______ .
21. There are about ___300__ bones in the body of an infant.
22. Name one of the bones in your foot. ________talus____________
23. The _____femur_____ is the longest and strongest bone in your body
24. Birds’ bones are ____hollow______
. 25. Name the 2 bones in your arm. _____radius__________ and _______ulna________.
26. Only __0__ (number) animals are known to show fear when they stumble upon bones of their kind.
27. Your skin is ____an organ____________________ .
28. Name one of the bones in your ear. ______the stapes____________
29. The _____gluteus maximus______ is the biggest muscle in your body.
30. What are the 2 types of bones in your body? __cortical___________ and trebecular
WHAT ABOUT THE MUSIC?
Reflections
The last step in the journey was to submit a three-paragraph reflection including:
What I learned.
What worked and what didn’t.
What was my effort like.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WiHko7GiaiI4Hrr2xSdTaASwcIiGJO395EjdR9yA7ko/edit?ts=5eaaeadb#
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1l75jJqyaPj3aRrVZl2eAITqWwZiYhUbF883cWi9bVfE/edit?ts=5eaada00
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1etd7lJVd5FfQJoagp2_jTI1iB9C7g39FZa3RMQ2N5mE/edit?ts=5e81f5a1
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YqS8EXy62xyzT7txvACmpUaKITKT7LhmPWSa8W-HP8M/edit?ts=5eac6bcb
Reflections
Bones and Skeletons seem to be a very simple mechanism in the body, yet it is not. I have learned this in science class. Not only have I learned about just the skeletal system, but I learned about different muscles, parts of the body, skin, cells, and much more. We did a paper of our choice, I did bone marrow and was particularly interested in it. We designed bones on the laser printer for a short amount of time, I wish we could’ve done more, but we all had to go home because of COVID-19. I think that most everything worked out well, but some things that could improve is that when we were doing online learning, you were giving us either too much work or too little work. Of course, this is not your fault, I just wish it could have been more organized. Another thing that could be improved is the packets that we have to read. Sometimes, they can be boring and too long to read for homework. The skeleton that we made with recycled materials was very fun and I hope that the next 5th-grade class will be able to do it as well. I think in terms of effort I was challenged sometimes, but not always. It was inconsistent. Overall, science was a fun class!