Year 6 Science Animals incl. Humans – Block 6AH – The Art of being Human

Session 1:Blood Composition and Function
Science curriculum area: Animals incl. Humans / i. identify and name the main parts of the human circulatory system, and describe thefunctions of the heart, blood vessels and blood
Working Scientifically (UKS2) / i. identifying scientific evidence that has been used to support or refute ideas or arguments
Teaching Objectives /
  • To identifythe components of blood, describe their functions, and notethe different blood groups
  • To noteand name the three types of blood vessel

Other Curriculum areas / Art:
  • Create sketch books to record their observations and use them to review and revisit ideas; improve their mastery of art and design techniques, including drawing and painting

Teaching Objectives /
  • To sketch blood cells, showing texture form
  • To select appropriate paint to create a fine art painting of blood cells showing texture form

Key Vocabulary:blood, blood vessels, arteries, veins, capillaries, heart, pumps, oxygen, carbon dioxide, lungs, nutrients, water
Resources
Blood smoothies recipe, ingredients & blender, blood donation chart, blood component descriptionsfunction cards, fascinating blood facts, paints (variety of types), brushes and paper / Weblinks
- What’s in your blood? BBC; - Painting techniques for effect.
Whole Class:Have ingredients ready for the ‘blood’ smoothies and try to arrange use of a kitchen area. Have an array of painting and drawing materials available as well as a variety of sizes of painting papers.Get chn into 8 gps around tables and explain you are going to be creating human body art over the next few weeks. Explain you will be celebrating the complexity of the body through the beauty of art – combining both worlds. Today,chn are going to start by exploring blood. Give each gp 2 mins to come up with one sentence that defines blood. Get them to write it down, but not to share it yet. Explain to chn that the blood is pumped round the body through blood vessels: arteries (carry blood away from the heart); veins (carry blood back towards the heart); and capillaries (tiny blood vessels that carry blood to the individual cells - they join the arteries to the veins).Chn will explore these further in Session 4. Get chn to look at the ‘blood smoothie’ ingredients and suggest which ingredient represents which component using the component descriptions. Support each gp as theymake their smoothie (see recipe), noting that before blending it is a little like magnified blood while the blended version is how we see blood with the naked eye. Give chn an additional ingredient (see recipe) and explain that in blood these additional ingredients are called antigenswhich help fight infection, and they define what blood group or type we all have. Explain this is important as when we need a blood transfusion (check understanding) we must be given certain types of blood so that our body doesn’t react against it (see chart). Now show chn the blood donation chart and note different blood types, explaining that the +/- refers to whether they have the rhesus antigen or not in their blood.Ask why chn think blood is important – it has many functions: transports oxygen (RBC), hormones (chemical messengers),nutrients and water to the cells; transports waste(e.g.CO2) away from the cells; helps protect the body from infection (WBC); and helps keep the body at ~37ºC. Ask chn how they think scientists know all this - they have observed the structures under a microscope and deduced what it might dofrom this (e.g. RBC have no nucleus which allows more space to transport haemoglobin). (Note - RBC were first observed under the microscope in 1658). They also study and trackblood within the body (using stains) and note how blood ‘behaves’ when a person has specific illnesses or ailments. Watch the video on blood and recap on the key components and their functions.Give chn the electron microscope images and get them to link these with the description cards. Show them Andrew Mason’s art graphic and explain that they are going to create sketches of RBC and WBS(and platelets) and then paint an artist’s impression of blood. Chn write a Haiku poem that explains the function of each part. Before starting get chn to refine their blood definition.
Activities:Blood art: As chn look at the microscopic images of red white blood cells and platelets, encourage them to describe them to a partner (shape, texture, colour, etc.). Get chn to use the images (and their own image research online) to create a few sketches of the form of each component – note the features. Get chn to think about the kind of paint they would like to use (have a range of media available – oils, acrylics, watercolours to select from as well as different sizes of paper). Support chn as they then compose a painting of one of the components, experimenting with their painting to create the textures and colours needed for their subject. If time allows chn can produce three paintings (one of each of the components) to be accompanied by a ‘poem’ describing its function and form. Chn can draw on their experience of Haiku forms of poetry to write this (see example and remind chn that it needs 5, 7, 5 syllables for each line respectively). Support as needed. As chn work, go round and discuss their definition of blood and ensure that any misconceptions are addressed.
Plenary / Look at the paintings, and share methods and techniques for creating the textures viewed under the electron microscope. Share Haiku poems and explore the blood fascinating factsthen ask children if they think scientists will ever be able to make synthetic blood,and if so what would the benefits be?(Already being trialled.)
Outcomes / Children will
  • Identify and describe components of blood and their respective functions, noting the different blood gps
  • Sketch and paint magnified blood cells, using texture and form
  • Be able to name the three types of blood vessel: arteries, veins and capillaries

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