LOPC has created a way, to make learning about the human body more interesting and engaging, by using our activities to make learning fun and exciting.
We have 5 X 90minute sessions, which you can pick and choose, and split over how many days you wish.
Sessions include:
Climbing: Digestive System Adventure
Objective: Visualize the journey of food through the digestive system.
Activity:
Use a climbing course to represent different stages of the digestive system. Collect relevant words and create the diagram to relate
Add challenges to represent digestion processes (e.g., solving puzzles for enzymes breaking down food).
Reflection: Students create a diagram of the digestive system, labelling its parts and describing their functions based on their climbing experience.
Bushcraft: Bone Structure and Skeletons
Objective: Explore the role of bones in digestion and overall anatomy.
Activity:
Use natural materials (e.g., sticks, leaves) to construct a model skeleton.
Highlight key bones related to digestion (e.g., jawbones, ribs protecting digestive organs).
Discuss the structure and function of bones and muscles in chewing, swallowing, and peristalsis.
Reflection: Compare student-built models to images or diagrams of human skeletons, noting similarities and differences.
Blind Trail: Understanding Food Pathways
Objective: Simulate how food moves through the digestive system using teamwork and problem-solving.
Activity:
Create a blindfolded trail to represent the journey food takes through the digestive system.
Use rope or markers to guide students through the trail, with stations representing key digestive organs.
At each station, students complete a challenge related to the function of that organ (e.g., chewing motions at the mouth, passing a small object through a tube to represent the oesophagus).
Reflection: Students discuss the importance of each organ in the digestive process.
Paddling: Comparing Carnivores and Herbivores
Objective: Investigate teeth structure and its role in the digestive system.
Activity:
Use paddling sessions to explore areas where animal skulls (or replicas) can be observed and analyzed.
Compare the teeth of carnivores and herbivores, discussing the adaptations for their diets.
Examine how these differences influence the digestive system overall.
Reflection: Students draw and label the teeth of a carnivore and herbivore, explaining their function in digestion.
Archery: Food Chain and Predator-Prey Relationships
Objective: Understand the food chain and its connection to digestion.
Activity:
Set up an archery activity where students "target" different roles in the food chain (producers, herbivores, carnivores).
Discuss the transfer of energy and nutrients through the food chain and how it ties back to digestion.
Reflection: Students create a food chain diagram, identifying producers, consumers, and predators, and explain the digestive adaptations of each group.
Curriculum links include:
Pupils should be taught to:
describe the simple functions of the basic parts of the digestive system in humans.
identify the different types of teeth in humans and their simple functions,
construct and interpret a variety of food chains
identifying producers, predators and prey.
Pupils should be introduced to the main body parts associated with the digestive system, for example, mouth, tongue, teeth, oesophagus, stomach and small and large intestine and explore questions that help them to understand their special functions. Pupils might work scientifically by: comparing the teeth of carnivores and herbivores, and suggesting reasons for differences; finding out what damages teeth and how to look after them. They might draw and discuss their ideas about the digestive system and compare them with models or images.