How do living things heal?

This unit launches with students hearing about an injury that happened to a middle school student that caused him to need stitches, pins, and a cast. They analyze doctor reports and develop an initial model for what is going on in our body when it heals. Students investigate what the different parts of our body are made of, from the macro scale to the micro scale. They figure out parts of our body are made of cells and that these cells work together for our body to function.

Once students have figured out what their bodies are made of and how the parts of their body work together to be able to move, they wonder how the parts of our body heal. They start by watching a timelapse of a knee scrape and notice that over time the part that was scraped is filled in with new skin cells. Students investigate what happens when cells make more cells, what cells need to make more cells, and how cells get what they need to make more cells. Students return to the healing timeline they made at the start of the unit and apply what they have figured out about the interactions between the different systems in the body to explain the various events of healing that took place for the injury at the start of the unit. Finally, they apply their model for healing to explain growth at growth plates in children's bodies as they become adults.

 Participants should create an account with OpenSciEd in order to access the materials. If you are new to OpenSciEd curriculum, we encourage you to watch this webinar to learn more about how to navigate the website and materials.  The Zoom link will be sent out to participants the week before Session 1. Asynchronous course material will be hosted on Canvas, and participants will receive a link to the Canvas course at Session 1.

These courses are focused on Washington State educators' needs and standards, and all session times listed are Pacific Time.