Description
Your students will make a model of the heart using recyclable materials! This is a super fun activity that helps students understand the structure and function of the heart and its parts, and the path that blood takes through the heart.
Students will use recyclables to make a model of the heart that includes twelve heart parts: The four chambers, the four valves, two arteries and two veins. They will then trace the path of blood through the heart.
Printable Instructions will give them some structure and guidance, but the rest is up to them! I recommend having students work in pairs, or groups of three max.
Materials to Make a Model of the Heart:
- Print the instructions sheet – put into a protective sleeve so you can save every year!
- Tape, staples, or hot glue (liquid glue does not dry fast enough to be helpful, stick glue is not strong enough)
- Scissors
- A base to attach the model to – can be as simple as a piece of copy paper all the way to a ¼ of a poster board
- Recyclables! I collect items all year. As it gets closer to time for the project I invite students (even in other classes) to bring in recyclables! Here are some ideas:
- Cardboard boxes (thin cardboard is easier to cut, like cereal and other food boxes) can be cut into strips and the strips used to make the outline of heart parts (this is how the heart model in the Key image was made)
- Water bottles make heart chambers
- Bottle tops are great for valves
- Balloons can be blown up to make chambers, or cut into pieces for tubes and/or valves
- Fingers from gloves can be cut to make tubes
- Larger container tops can represent a heart chamber
- Plastic containers of all kinds can be chambers
- Toilet paper tubes can be cut into circles for vales or used as veins and arteries
- Straws and glue stick tubes can be used as veins and arteries
- Plastic bags and scrap paper can be twisted/rolled and taped into a tube shape
Before beginning the project, show students the Instructions Google Slides. Slide 1 runs through some of the available recyclables and ideas for how to use them. Slide 2 has photos of four model examples to provide some inspiration.
Two methods to label the parts of the heart:
- Print the provided labels – students cut out labels and tape them to their models
- Digital option – students upload a photo of their model to the provided Google Slide. The slide has labels which they drag and drop to the photo. Then they share the Slide with you!
** Stay Curious!**
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