What do characters like Spiderman, Yoda from “Star Wars,” Disney’s Ariel the Mermaid and Princess Elsa from “Frozen” have in common? Thanks to students at Churchville-Chili Middle School, they now all share some basic biology – each has been given a digestive system.
Science teacher Paula Hickey’s seventh-grade biology class used life-sized drawings of these characters and others to illustrate how the human body processes food. The basic lesson is a standard part of the science curriculum in the seventh-grade, but these budding scientists took it to an unexpectedly creative level.
“The kids came up with the great idea to combine the hard work of learning biology with some hands-on fun,” said Hickey. “Each character they created is detailed with life-size organs in the correct placement. Some students even measured out 690 centimeters of string and curled it up to represent the actual length of human small intestines.”
The students involved say that the project made the information “a lot of fun; much easier to understand and to remember.” The walls outside Hickey’s classroom have become a gallery, with many younger students stopping to check out the art and learn something about biology in the process.
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