Introduction
Introduction
Hello class,
Today you have been given the awesome responsibility of putting together a handbook that outlines the eleven major organ systems of the human body. You will work in groups of two or three and become experts for one of these organ systems. Your work will then make up one section of an informative and useful resource for anyone wanting to learn about how the human body works.
I have prepared a section on the Integumentary System (one of the major organ systems) to include in the handbook. This will act as a guide for what you will be wanting to produce. You can find this example up at the front of the classroom, so please feel free to come up and have a look.
Task
Task
The class will be divided into eleven groups of two or three that will be responsible for researching:
-
Where the assigned organ group is located.
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What function(s) it serves in the body.
Each organ system will include:
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A full diagram of its components.
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A page dedicated to a full description of each organ's role in the system.
Resources will include your textbook, the internet, websites, articles, pictures and any other resource that can assist the group in contributing to the final product.
Below is a video that briefly outlines ten of the organ systems. Watch carefully as it will give you a good starting point for your research.
Process
Process
Let's get started!
Your groups will be determined by a random selection from standard playing cards. Since there are 10 organ systems left to be featured in the handbook, the cards you will be choosing from will be marked Ace to 10 (the suits of the cards don't matter). The number of the card that you pick determines your group number.
The next step is to identify the organ system that matches your card number from the following:
- Skeletal
- Muscular
- Cardiovascular
- Nervous
- Endocrine
- Lymphatic
- Respiratory
- Digestive
- Urinary
- Reproductive - Male or Female
Once you know what organ system your researching, you're ready to begin!
Here are the steps that you will take in completing your portion of the handbook.
Step 1: With the diagram provided, add only your organ system to the outline of the human body. Draw carefully and use plenty of colour so others will be able to distinguish the different parts.
Step 2: Write a one-page summary of your organ system. Please include:
- A description of each organ and its function.
- How the organs work together to function as a system.
- How the organ system functions to serve the human body.
- Any other interesting facts about your organ system.
Here are some helpful internet links to help you in your research:
Step 3: Present your organ system to the class! Here's how:
- Stand tall and with confidence, remember your the expert!
- Speak loudly so everyone can hear you and speak clearly so everyone understands.
- Everybody in the group gets a turn (approximately 1 minute each), so plan out the time for each member well.
Evaluation
Evaluation
This is how your work will be evaluated.
| Beginning 1 |
Developing 2 |
Qualified 3 |
Exemplary 4 |
Score |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Diagram is accurate and thorough. | The diagram is incomplete and inaccurate. | The diagram is mostly complete, accurate with some mistakes. | The diagram is complete and accurate with few mistakes. | The diagram is complete and accurate with no mistakes. | |
| Good use of color in the diagram to identify organ parts. | No use of color, or use of the same color. | Use of color doesn't adequately show the different organ parts. Color is applied sloppily. | Good use of color, but it is either too light, or the chosen colors are too similar. | Excellent use of color. Bold colors show the different organ parts vividly. | |
| Written report is accurate and grammatically correct. | Written report is inaccurate with numerous grammatical errors. | Written report's accuracy is questionable with several grammatical errors. | Written report is mostly accurate with limited grammatical errors. | Written report reflects an expertise on the organ system with no grammatical errors. | |
| Oral report supports research and written report in a well-organized time frame. | Oral report is short without any facts to support research or written report. | Oral report is limited in its support of research and written report and isn't well-organized. | Oral report supports research and written report, but is too short. | Oral report is well-organized in a timely manner, while supporting all of the research and writing. |
Conclusion
Conclusion
Congratulations! You and your classmates have completed The Human Body Handbook. You should be proud of all your hard work. Now that we know the basics of how the human body works we are going to look at each system in more depth and see how these systems work together.
Credits
Credits
Websites:
Images:
Videos
Author Biography
TeAna Riddell
I am currently a student teacher at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. My passion is teaching the sciences and math in a fun, interactive way. I like to incorporate ICT into my lesson plans as much as possible as it allows the students to work at their own pace and revisit material if needed. It also allows me as a teacher to to expose students to information that would be difficult to do without technology.
Teacher Page
Rational
In a classroom where there are now so many opportunities for educators to create and use materials that will excite and engage students, how do you choose what to use in your classroom? There is currently a large amount of emphasis being placed on integrating ICT into lessons, but unfortunately most of the time adding ICT is an afterthought and doesn’t add any value to the lesson. WebQuests are a great way to base your lesson around ICT use rather than make ICT fit into your lesson. WebQuests allow students to achieve higher-order thinking such as analysing, evaluating and creating through the use of inquiry-based learning. This paper will look at what a WebQuest is and what inquiry-based learning is. It will then discuss the WebQuest “The Human Body – Year 8 Science” and look at how the WebQuest makes pedagogical advances for learners.
Bernie Dodge, the originator of the WebQuest concept believes that a WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity in which most or all of the information used by learners is drawn from the Web. They are designed to use learners' time well, to focus on using information rather than on looking for it, and to support learners' thinking at the levels of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation ("What Is A WebQuest? Creator Bernie Dodge explains.", 2016). But in simple terms a WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from the web (Dodge, 2017). In the year 2018, it has become increasingly easy to access information on the internet with schools having computer labs and implementing Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Programs and many students having some type of device that has access to the internet. But what sets a WebQuest apart from other internet-based research? QuestGarden believes there are four characteristics that make a WebQuest unique, with them being that they are classroom-based, they emphasize higher-order thinking, the teacher preselects the sources, emphasizing information use rather than information gathering and most WebQuests are group work with the task frequently being split into roles (Dodge, 2016). WebQuests also encourage critical thinking, student motivation, cooperative learning, authentic assessment and technology integration (March, 1998).
Inquiry-based learning is a form of learning which is initiated by asking questions or posing problems or scenarios. This differs from the more common type of teaching, where established facts are presented and there is a smooth path to knowledge. The use of inquiry-based learning has been gaining support from educators and education systems over the past decade due to its broad pedagogical approach ("Approaches to Learning – Inquiry Based Learning", n.d.). This approach of learning gets students to ‘seek the truth’ and to better understand what they are learning. The meaning of ‘knowing’ has shifted from being able to remember and repeat information to being able to find and use it (National Research Council, 2007). These skills will benefit students in all phases of life as the specific processes of inquiry have become central to knowledge building in a range of domains (e.g. scientific method) and professions (e.g. criminal investigator). When applying inquiry-based learning to a WebQuest you are getting students to engage with the material they need to learn by getting them to research and discover relevant information. By allowing them to follow avenues of information that interests them, the learning will become more meaningful.
The WebQuest “The Human Body – Year 8 Science” is developed to fit in with the biological science strand ACSSU150 from the Australian Curriculum. This strand looks at how multi-cellular organisms contain systems of organs carrying out specialised functions that enable them to survive and reproduce ("Science", n.d.). This WebQuest would be in one of the early lessons on this topic as it involves groups of students to research one organ system and produce a diagram and report to go into a handbook, as well as give a short oral presentation on their system. This strand of the science curriculum allows students to investigate, communicate, create with ICT as well as letting them learn how to manage and operate ICT all while applying social and ethical protocols and practices ("Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Capability", n.d.). This WebQuest applies many of these capabilities including identifying the legal obligations regarding the ownership and use of digital products and applying some referencing conventions, using ICT effectively to record ideas, represent thinking and plan solutions, and selecting and using appropriate ICT tools safely to share and exchange information and to safely collaborate with others ("General Capabilities ICT Learning Continuum", n.d.).This WebQuest also allows student to reach some of the higher levels on Bloom’s Taxonomy such as create and analyse as well as encouraging inquiry-based learning.
In conclusion, WebQuests are a great tool for educators of all year levels as they can be designed to fit the needs of the class. The WebQuest “The Human Body – Year 8 Science” allows students to make pedagogical advances as learners through inquiry-based learning. The activity gets the students to engage with the content and create something new, which benefits their overall learning. As Confucius, a Chinese philosopher said “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand”, and this is what I believe a well-planned WebQuest can help a student achieve.
References
Approaches to Learning - INQUIRY BASED LEARNING. Australiancurriculum.edu.au. Retrieved 24 January 2018, from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/media/1360/lutheran-education-queensland-inquiry-based-learning.pdf
Dodge, B. (2016). QuestGarden. Retrieved 24 January 2018, from http://questgarden.com
Dodge, B. (2017). WebQuest.Org: Home. Webquest.org. Retrieved 26 January 2018, from http://webquest.org
General Capabilities ICT Learning Continuum. Australiancurriculum.edu.au. Retrieved 23 January 2018, from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/media/1074/general-capabilities-information-and-communication-ict-capability-learning-continuum.pdf
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Capability. Australiancurriculum.edu.au. Retrieved 29 January 2018, from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/general-capabilities/information-and-communication-technology-ict-capability/
March, T. (1998). Why webquests. An introduction.
What Is A WebQuest? Creator Bernie Dodge explains.. (2016). YouTube. Retrieved 25 January 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9dRIIQDk70