Nicole Miller

12/01/05

MSET 353L

Science

ScienceLearningCenter

I decided to do my ScienceLearningCenter on the Human Body. While having the theme of the Human Body, I will include the body parts and all five senses. My learning center is geared for a kindergarten and/or first grade classroom learning about the human body. This learning center meets:

Strand 2: Standard II (Life Science): Understand the properties, structures, and processes of living things and the interdependence of living things and their environments.

K-4 Benchmark III: Know the parts of the human body and their functions.

Kindergarten--Performance Standards:

  1. Use the senses (e.g., sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch) to observe surroundings, and describe the observations.
  2. Identify the parts of the human body (e.g., legs, arms, head, hands) and the functions of these parts.

My learning center meets these requirements by giving activities on learning body parts and learning all five senses. I offer many activities in my learning center for children to interact with hands-on and gain the knowledge they need about the human body. My first activity involves reading literature/trade books on the human body. After reading “Knock Knock” by Jan Wahl and other books, the children are required to label each other’s body parts with the labels available in the learning center. This is a fun, hands-on activity that involves new vocabulary and peer-help. My second activity involves mathin a fun way. The children will measure each other with a measuring tape and then compare each other’s heights. They will be asked to find the difference between their heights. This meets the New Mexico Standards:

StrandNumber and Operations: Standard: Students will understand numerical concepts and mathematical operations.

K-4 Benchmark: Understand the meaning of operations and how they relate to one another.

1st Grade--Performance Standards:

  1. Use a variety of models to demonstrate an understanding of addition and subtraction of whole numbers.
  2. Solve addition and subtraction problems with one and two-digit numbers (e.g., 5 + 58 =).

My third activity involves the senses of Sight and Sound. The activity includes the Penny Cup Game and the String Telephone Game. The Penny Cup Game is where the children will “see” how important both eyes are. The String Telephone Game is where they will sense vibrations through string. My fourth activity will be my “tired” activity where I will use a tape recorder for the instructions for the “non-readers,” reading instructions with vocabulary highlighted and explained and also pictures of each action for the “middle-readers,” and regular instructions for my “high-readers.” It involves the senses of Touch, Taste, and Smell with “Feely Bags.” Feely bags are bags with mysterious items in it. The children will close their eyes and place their hands in the bag. They will feel, smell, and taste the objects (different types of candy, with wrappers on them to stay sanitary) in the bag and have to guess what it is before they can eat it.

I will use a sign in sheet to act as a record-keeping system to monitor what students do at the center and the quality levels. The children will mark down what activities the completed next to their name. My assessment includes labeling the human body with the correct body parts and labeling which body parts are used for the five senses. The student’s success on this assessment will let me know who learned with my Human Body learning center.

I learned a lot from this learning center project. I really think that learning centers are interactive and fun for children…and adults. I will definitely use them when I teach for my students in my future. I had a great time completing this assignment.