Content Area: Health and Physical Education

 

Index: 2.1B Grade 8 CPI 1

 

Standard: 2.1 - Wellness

 

Strand: B - Growth and Development

 

Cumulative Progress Indicator: 1 - The student will discuss how body systems are interdependent and interrelated.

 

Grade: 8

 

Sample Activities:

 

·        THE BODY SYSTEMS GAME - Prior to class, print the names of the body systems and associated organs on index cards. Inform the class they will be playing a game that requires them to associate a body organ with the correct body system. Tape one of the index cards to each student’s back. (Obviously the student cannot know what is on the card.) Students circulate around the room and can ask each student one yes or no question in an attempt to identify the system or organ on their card. When the student correctly identifies the card, the card is removed from his/her back and taped to the front of the student’s body. As students guess their identities, they join other class members associated with the same body system. Finally, when all the cards are guessed, students in each group develop a poem, rap, or song about the body system and ways to keep it healthy.

 

      Variation: Students develop skits that describe the functions of the body systems and perform the skits for younger students. Costumes can be designed to appropriately reflect the characters.

Variation: Students create a diary of a body system or organ entitled “A Day in the Life.”

Variation: Students create a pyramid graph that illustrates the various components of a body system. Cells occupy the point of the pyramid and the systems the base.
 

·        BODY CONTROL CENTER - Ask for two volunteers. Each volunteer holds the opposite end of a piece of string and pulls it taut. Pull one of the students firmly so the string moves. Ask the other student what happened (the string moved and so did his/her hands). Explain that the two students sent a message across the string to each other. Relate this to nerves and the transmission of messages across the synapse. Now cut the string. Ask students what might happen if you pull one of the students now (once the nerve is cut, there is not chance for the message to get across). Explain the role of the central nervous system and how it sends commands to the circulatory system or to the muscles.

Variation: In small groups, students research brain chemicals that help control the transmission of nerve impulses. Using diagrams, graphics, and other media, students present an oral report on their assigned chemical.

 

·        EXERCISE AND BODY SYSTEMS - Students develop an individual exercise plan. As part of the plan, students describe how the plan will benefit the various body systems and correlate the plan with a healthful diet.