Deer Valley PhUn program
Lauren Pate and Elle Jenkins examine a pig’s heart. Photo courtesy of Betty Wilson.
Deer Valley students participated in hands-on activities as part of the Physiology Understanding (PhUn) program presented by the students and faculty of the University of Alabama Birmingham’s Cell, Developmental and Integrative Biology Department.
Dr. Carmel Bevensee and her staff worked with all of Deer Valley’s kindergarten and first-grade students to promote healthy living and to get the students excited about science. Sponsored in part by a grant from UAB’s Pulmonary Injury and Repair Center and the American Physiological Society, students participated in lung function experiments, used medical equipment and examined actual tissue from a pig’s heart and sheep’s lung.
After watching a video of how the heart and lungs function, students were able to listen to their own hearts using a stethoscope. They checked their lung function by displacing water or levitating a ping pong ball with a straw.
Students were excited about the opportunity to use real scientific tools and to think like a scientist. Some students even dressed as scientists by putting on goggles, gloves, lab coats and masks. They learned about making healthy choices like eating five fruits and vegetables a day and getting at least one hour of exercise. When asked about what they learned, students in Patti Sisk’s class said, “We learned we have two lungs, and we got to touch a real heart.”
-Submitted by Betty Wilson