Muscles, Lungs, Blood, and Guts
July 12, 2007
The following article was originally published in Hands On! magazine, Spring 2007.
Week after week, afterschool centers are filled with cries of "There's the pulmonary artery!" and "I found the gills!" As curriculum developers, we are thrilled by the level of enthusiasm for science learning. These young people are learning to create and conduct their own investigations, and they are thinking and acting like scientists.
In the fall of 2004, United Way engaged TERC to develop a curriculum for their "Math, Science, and Technology initiative" (MSTi). The program kicked off when 50 students at three agencies signed up for the Muscles, Lungs, Blood, and Guts curriculum. By the next fall, the program had grown to include close to 300 middle school students. Gaining comfort and experience teaching hands-on science, the afterschool staff are helping students see how science is a part of their life and their future.
Beyond the Classroom
Developing an afterschool curriculum poses a unique set of challenges and rewards. As curriculum developers, we keep in mind that our science and math activities are competing with homework, tutoring, and sports. Not surprisingly, the most successful units include hands-on activities.
The program takes kids beyond the walls of the center and introduces them to careers in science through visits to museums and biotech labs, and meetings with science professionals in the community. In developing the curriculum, we wanted students to understand how science is done and to engage them in scientific processes. We designed activities that allow them to create their own hypotheses and investigations, so they begin thinking and acting like scientists.
"Opening hearts and minds to science at a young age makes it more likely that they will continue their learning in the field. We are excited by this partnership with TERC, and we look forward to continuing and expanding this effort. Most of all, we hope to see these young people graduate from college with a science-related degree in hand."
CHRIS O'KEEFFE, VICE PRESIDENT FOR COMMUNITY IMPACT AT UNITED WAY
In Muscles, Lungs, Blood, and Guts, students explore the four systems of the human body: the musculoskeletal, respiratory, circulatory, and digestive systems. This approach complements several existing programs that focus on health, fitness, and nutrition. The students begin each investigation by discussing what they already know. Using their own physiology gives students the chance to connect the material to their everyday experiences and to hypothesize. They take these brainstorming sessions very seriously. When asked, What do muscles do?, some answer in the form of a metaphor: "Muscles move your hand and your arms. Without muscles we are like sponges." Others relate to their experiences: "Muscles help your joints move. They grow as you exercise. They help you to frown or smile." These discussions are a jumping-off point for students' questions and predictions. Later, they engage in investigations and record their data, and finally share their findings through a group discussion.
Showing What They've Learned
The first activity in the Muscles unit asks students to build a model of the arm from their prior knowledge. This introduces a 10-week unit exploring the structure and function of the arm's musculoskeletal system.
One of the ways students learn about the arm is by dissecting chicken wings, observing tendons and ligaments. One student reported, "Dissecting the chicken wings was great! We saw the relationship to our own arm." They discover, for example, that contracting the muscles in the upper arm (simulated by tugging on the biceps) moves the lower arm and hand. They are astonished to find that 35 muscles are used in gripping, and that those muscles are located not in the hand, but in the forearm.
At the end of the unit, the students repeat the initial model-building activity, pulling together everything they've learned through web-based activities, dissections, discussions, and field trips. Using popsicle sticks for fingers, balloons for muscles, and fuzzy pipe cleaners for tendons, students fashion radius and ulna, biceps and triceps.
The staff have noticed that the activity takes much longer the second time because the students want to include so much detail. One staffer pointed to students' models, saying "I'm really surprised to see the difference. They really have the structure and function. Their models show what they've learned."
The arms the students build at the conclusion of the unit include ligaments, veins, and additional joints. When presenting their models and comparing them to their first efforts, teams reported, "We forgot the wrist, all the muscles, and the two bones," "There was only one bone for the top, the bottom and the hand. It failed," and, "The models are more accurate this time. It's easier to build it after all the activities."
Demonstrating Comprehension through Questions
Participating in hands-on activities only adds to the students' curiosity about the functions of the body, and their understanding of the material is apparent in their questions. For example, during the Blood unit, students found the dissections of the fish and cow hearts especially compelling. They asked: "How is the fish heart like a frog heart?" "How does the spinal cord relate to the gills and heart?" and "Is the fish heart more hollow than the cow heart because the fish lives in the water?" Through their questions, kids demonstrate that they are developing scientific thinking and a comparative approach to understanding body systems.
Designing Investigations
As fledgling scientists, the students pose questions and then design and conduct investigations. During the Lungs unit, one group studied how long smokers can hold their breath compared to nonsmokers. Another group wanted to know if being upside down would impact lung capacity.
During the Blood unit, students examined changes in heart rate due to sugar consumption or to various exercise machines. Another group investigated whether a person suffering from a headache has an elevated heart rate. The students found that holding their breath and going out into cold weather raised their pulse rate, while eating hot sauce got mixed results.
Analyzing Data
Data analysis skills are necessary for scientific study. The curriculum helps students develop those skills by allowing them to interact physically with the data. For example, during the Guts unit, youth at one center used segments of rope to predict the length of the small intestine. In another classroom, students were graphing their data on lung capacity, so their teacher created an oversized x-y axis on the floor with masking tape. Students wrote their data on paper plates and moved around the room "plotting" their data on the axis—a lively activity that captures their interest. In an activity on lung capacity, students calculated how many miles of lung bags they could fill in a year and plotted the distances on a map. One teacher commented, "Guesses and results were totally different, but that helped the kids see differences between what they thought and the results."
Teachers as Learners
To prepare afterschool staff to teach the Muscles, Lungs, Blood, and Guts units, we engaged them as learners themselves. The curriculum is designed to create opportunities for inquiry, but teaching through hands-on exploration can be daunting, even for trained teachers in the formal classroom. TERC supported 41 teachers from 19 centers through professional development sessions that familiarized teachers with each activity. The teachers had in-depth discussions about the science content as well as some of the difficulties they might encounter during implementation. Like their students, the afterschool teachers found the hands-on activities the most compelling. For example, the staff most enjoyed building a model of the lungs and using lung bags to measure breathing capacity. Also, teachers who were afraid of science were surprised by how much they enjoyed the work and how much they learned.
Meeting the Needs of Afterschool
While the informal structure of afterschool programs provides unique learning opportunities, it also poses some challenges. Staff turnover is a common problem, and many centers lack dedicated space. Using shared space can mean a shortage of computer access and the distraction of multiple activities in a single room. To facilitate the program's hands-on activities, we have supplied kits that include inexpensive, but durable, materials. We are working with United Way to develop a cost-effective system for delivering fresh dissection materials because many centers do not have cold storage.
Because of the lack of predictability in afterschool settings, we are creating a variety of ways to conduct each activity. This includes detailing alternatives that could take shorter or longer amounts of time and creating substitutes for web-based activities. We are also creating options for structuring whole group discussions—a difficult format for inexperienced teachers to manage. We encourage teachers to have students share their ideas and opinions as a way to end each activity. The teacher then has the opportunity to summarize what the group has learned, while these young people feel their thoughts are valued.
We saw our own goals realized through the words of LaCasha Wilburn, a participating teacher. She reflected on her time with the curriculum by saying, "When I first got introduced I was apprehensive. Because I hated science in school, I thought I would hate it. [Then] I got the hang of it." She found that her students also developed more confidence and understanding through the course of the program. "You can tell by looking at the posters… that they learned. They may not be able to verbalize it, but… they are enthused. They say, 'I can't wait until science every week.' That's all you can ask for."
Funding for the Muscles, Lungs, Blood, and Guts curriculum provided by the Math Science and Technology Initiative at United Way Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley. Find more information at www.uwmb.org/mst.
Gilly Puttick is project director for the Muscles, Lungs, Blood, and Guts project at TERC, gilly_puttick@terc.edu.
Judy Storeygard is director of evaluation for the Muscles, Lungs, Blood, and Guts project at TERC, judy_storeygard@terc.edu.