Education

Shelter Island 5th graders human body project wows visitors

COURTESY PHOTO Fifth graders Madison Springer and Angelina Corbett-Rice talk with Jane Richards about their project dealing with the respiratory system, reminding visitors to their demonstration to remember to breathe.
COURTESY PHOTO Fifth graders Madison Springer and Angelina Corbett-Rice talk with Jane Richards about their project dealing with the respiratory system, reminding visitors to their demonstration to remember to breathe.

“Awesome.” “Amazing.” “Impressive.”

That’s how those who viewed the recent Shelter Island 5th grade “Human Body Project” reacted to what amounted to a single class science fair.

“It was a lot of work,” teacher Michael Cox said. But he wanted his students to demonstrate more than book learning as they developed demonstrations about the nervous, respiratory, circulatory, muscular, skeletal and digestive systems and how each interacts with the others.

As more than 30 people — teachers, parents, other students — came through the project on April 15, the 5th graders answered questions and engaged all who attended.

Some of the young researchers were surprised that many adults and older students didn’t know as much they did. They were unanimous in approving the project’s approach to learning. Working in groups of two or three, the students quickly became both engaged and territorial about the particular system they were researching.

Andrea Naploles, Alexandra Burns and Margaret Schultheis touted the nervous system because, Alexandra said, “The brain is the boss of your body.”

Margaret agreed, noting the brain was connected to respiration since it would die if it didn’t get oxygen.“I don’t want that to happen, she added.”

Andrea explained how the team had to learn the various parts of the brain to understand how it controlled the body.
Luca Martinez and Madigan Teodoru knew the circulatory system would carry oxygen to the brain and other organs and that’s why that system was so important.

With everything they learned in creating their project, Madigan said, “I want to know more.”

Thanks to help from art teacher Stephanie Sareyani, students used colored yarn to show how the blood circulates throughout the body.

Too many people don’t know how to take care of their bodies, Luca said. Among the lessons he learned was blood types and the importance of matching donor blood to patients. Luca knows that Type O blood is the most common and those with Type O negative blood are universal donors because their blood can be used by most patients. He also knows it’s the predominant blood type of Latinos, a fact in which he clearly takes pride.

Madison Springer and Angie Corbett-Rice know that the respiratory system is critical to the rest of the body, but were surprised by the number of people who knew nothing about it.

They had so many people clustering around them at times, it was difficult to answer all their questions, Angie said. Madison was able to explain to questioners how the lungs work with the circulatory system and both girls reminded people to breathe.

“I really like food,” was Ben Waife’s explanation for why he wanted to study the digestive system.

“I thought it would be a challenge,” said his teammate, Henry Lowell-Liszanckie.

It’s important to eat on a regular schedule, Henry said, since converts to energy to fuel the entire body, Henry said.
Elijah Davidson and Bazzy Quigley-Dunning found the muscular system the most challenging with Bazzy explaining the importance of the diaphragm in getting oxygen into the lungs. Elijah said he found it easy to answer questions people had and will remember what he’s learned.

“One person got every one wrong,” he smiled as he described his interaction with those who tried to answer questions the boys put to their audience.

The skeletal system is important, said Hayden Rylott, Jeremy Sabatel and Mary Shepherd because everything would collapse without it.

Mary said the project provided a better way for her to learn than a lecture or a reading assignment would have done.

Jeremy and Hayden said they wanted to work together because they’re best friends. The thought the project was, in Jeremy’s words, “pretty excellent.”

As for Mr. Cox, when he talks about the project and thinks about what his students have learned, he admits, “I get chills.”