Organs of the Human Body

To start the lesson, I tell students that today they will begin work on a model of the human body. We briefly discuss how models are useful to scientists an why it might be preferable to use a model instead of a real object.

I split students into groups of three or four for this activity. To begin work on their model, each group must choose one student to serve as the model. The chosen student lays down on butcher paper. The remaining group members trace around the chosen student's body to create a human body outline. Then all students in the group work together to cut out the human body outline. The outline will serve as their human body model. A video of my students engaging in this task can be found here.

Next, I use the organ chart to help students build knowledge about the organs of the human body. For each organ, we discuss the function, body system to which it belongs, and the organ's appearance. I ask students to record this information on their graphic organizer so that they can summarize their understanding in an easy-to-use format. A sample of a student's complete chart can be found here.

For the culminating activity, I ask students to use their body outlines to create a diagram of the human body. I ask students to work together to add organs to their body outlines. Samples of student work can be found here and here.