Designing Classes that are Challenging with out Losing Creativity

This year was my second year teaching a weighted Anatomy & Physiology class.  Now, before I share what I found that worked - you need to understand what class structure/difficulty level when I imagine when teaching a weighted course.  (weighted = an extra point gets added to student's GPA to compensate for choosing to take a challenging class)  I designed my A&P course to be a lot like a college course with more enrichment activities.  I wanted to help my junior/seniors develop then note taking skills, study skills and have a foundation of A&P that would help them when they got to college.  The majority of my students were the top of their class, incredibly intelligent, and willing to work (although some were more stubborn than others).  :D

Not only did I want to help my kids learn the information and be challenged, but I also wanted them to enjoy the class. I am a firm believer that the kids learn more when they are interested in what they are learning.  Most of my ideas have stemmed from an online resource from various websites and then I took what I found and melded it into what I thought would work for my group of kids.  Normally - this turned into a craft project.  I am a selectively crafty person - meaning when I have a good idea, I am all gung-ho about it but I don't just do it to do it.

Some of my favorite projects are these listed below.   I have only included activities that I have pictures for - but if you want ideas/instructions/lesson plans just email me (mrs.weiss1213@gmail.com) and I will be happy to share anything you need.

Pipe Cleaner Neurons

Bone Paper Mache

 

Planes of the Body Model

 

Transparency Man

 

Vege People (for body cavities/body landmarks)

 

 

Flip Man Digestion
 

And my personal favorite that we did this past week (thus inspiring the blog :) )  Floor Path of Blood.  To start out this activity, I have the students take notes over the path of blood through the heart.  I purposely don't go slow, the goal is to get it on paper to serve as a reference for later.  Then I give them the path of blood worksheet and ask them to come in the following day with it labeled the best that they can - just try.


So they come in confused - so the next goal is to unconfuse them and have them walking out the door (in a 50 min class period) able to relay the path of blood with out any resources!  We start out by checking their labeling.  I do this on my iPad via the doceri app.  Then we color code the path of blood, blue for unoxygenated blood, red for oxygenated blood.

Then its time to move to the floor.  This is a picture from college at an NSTA meeting where I first attempted this activity.  I tape down a VERY ROUGH outline of the heart and the four chambers. Since college I have adapated it - there are not veins/arteries connected to the heart, we have to 'imagine' them.  I also make sure that the size of the walls in the ventricles are more realistic with the left side being thicker than the right.

Then I walk through the heart via the path that blood would take.  I do this multiple times and have the kids recite the following with me.

Superior Vena Cava -> Right atrium -> Tricuspid Valve -> Right Ventricle -> Pulmonary Valve -> Pulmonary Arteries -> Lungs to drop off CO2 and pick up O2 -> Pulmonary Veins -> Left Atrium -> Bicuspid -> Left Ventricle -> Aortic Valve -> Aorta -> Rest of the body

Then each student takes a try.  We make it a little more interactive with the whole class because the other students provide the student walking a body landmark that the blood is coming from (so they have to decide inferior/superior vena cava or the coronary sinus)  and a body landmark for where the blood is going (ascending/descending aorta)  Each students has to be able to do it all the way through with out making a mistake, or they do it again.  Of course we make this a very light hearted atmosphere.  By no means is my intention to make them embarrassed - just to make sure that when they walk out the door, they know the path of blood.

This activity is by far my favorite out of the year.  I look forward to doing it every time we start the cardiovascular system. I promise you - it works!  I also have it as an essay question on the test and I rarely have a student not get it 100% correct.  I normally see mini drawings of what was on the floor that they drew on their test as a reference.  Definitely an activity to keep doing for years to come!

As you can see, I love being creative in my classes.  I think that you can cover challenging material with your classes as long as you provide a way to remember all the key information in a creative way.  Not only does it make the class more enjoyable for the students - but they remember it!  As a side note, normally all the craft activities that I do with the kids have some sort of writting assignment that goes with it.

I have had numerous students from last year (seniors that have already graduated) that have contacted me saying that their experience in A&P has really helped them be successful in college!  Some say that when they took A&P outside of high school, they knew so much of it and it was a great starting place vs their classmates who had no background knowledge. 

Nothing is better as an educator when a former student comes back to say how much you helped them be successful after high school.  All the effort/work/creative lesson design suddenly seems like a piece of cake.