importance of a healthy body

Goals:

  • Understand the ways that alcohol affects a growing body
  • Understand the keys to a healthy body through a study of organ systems

OBJECTIVES:

  • Students will research organs and systems to understand their importance and ways to stay healthy
  • Students will apply their knowledge of organ systems to illustrate the meaning of a healthy body
  • Students will organize their research to create a visual representation of their learning
  • Students will communicate through spoken, written and visual language to teach others about how to maintain a healthy body

NATIONAL STANDARDS:

  • Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts.
  • Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
  • Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
  • Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.
  • Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).
  • Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems.
  • They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and nonprint texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.
  • Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).

SCIENCE GOALS:

  • Describe how healthy lifestyle choices affect the functioning of organ systems.
  • Compare and contrast factors that can affect growth and development which one can alter, enhance, or adapt.

RESOURCES:

Ask, Listen, Learn Protect Your Body worksheet

ADDITIONAL WEBSITES AND INFORMATION:

Body Organs video

How the Human Body Works

BBC Human Body

Kids Health

National Geographic Health and Human Body

Kids Biology

Online tour of the human body

MATERIALS:

  • Protect Your Body worksheet from Ask, Listen, Learn
  • Computers or devices with internet capabilities (consider bookmarking some of the websites in advance)
  • Construction paper, crayons, colored pencils, markers and something to bind the book (if making a book)
  • Video camera or device for recording (if making a video)

TEACHER GUIDE:

  • This lesson can follow a unit on the major organs of the body or be done in conjunction with a study of the body. Ideally, students already have a basic knowledge of organs and this lesson and project can serve as a wrap up to a unit.
  • The lesson can be modified to allow for independent study, pairs or collaborative group work based on your class. Depending on the number of students in the class, time and interest levels – students can work to study and share one organ or system to be joined to a larger classroom book or project or can focus on the whole body.
  • The lesson can be modified to be low tech (create a picture book as a class or as smaller groups) or as a multimedia project using computers and cameras to create a video or presentation.

day1

Introduce the idea of mentors and trusted adults as a strategy to cope with difficult situations. Before handing out the Protect Your body worksheet, have students count to 30.

Discuss how alcohol affects various internal organs. Talk about how – in just that small amount of time – alcohol is absorbed through the stomach, travels through the body in the blood and impacts every single part of your body. It even reaches the brain, the most important organ of your body.

Students will read Protect Your Body to develop an understanding of the impact that alcohol has on the brain, heart, liver, stomach and immune system.

Lead a classroom conversation about the impact of alcohol. Draw a chart titled “Impacts of Underage Drinking” on the board with three columns: Physical, Social/Emotional, Academic/Athletic Performance. Students should be able to identify eight to 10 consequences of alcohol use into one of the three categories.

Create a book, multimedia presentation or video to teach younger students about the importance of a healthy body. Teachers may also want to find a first or second grade class to pair with where students will be able to share their finished products.

day5

Students will then work individually, in pairs or groups to research one organ or system (Alternatively, each group can be responsible for the entire body). They should be able to answer these questions:

  • What does the organ do in the body?
  • Why is it important?
  • What are ways to keep that organ or system healthy?
  • How does alcohol negatively affect the entire body?

Students will assemble their research to create the page of a book, a whole book, a presentation or video to teach younger students about what they learned.

For questions about this free, downloadable material contact asklistenlearn@responsibility.org.

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