A comprehensive course that teaches the fundamental concepts in human physiology and anatomy. Students will discover how to build a working robotic hand, measure their lung capacity, filter blood, detect genetic traits, chemically fingerprint their friends, and make a frog totally disappear.

Step 1. Click Here to download your copy of the Ultimate Science Curriculum Life Science Vol. 2 Student Guidebook. To download the Parent/Teacher Guidebook, Click Here.

Step 2. Watch the videos that go with it below.

Introduction

Greetings and welcome to the study of Human Anatomy. This unit was created by a mechanical engineer, university instructor, airplane pilot, astronomer, robot-builder and real rocket scientist… me! I have the happy opportunity to teach you everything I know over the next set of lessons. I promise to give you my best stuff so you can take it and run with it… or fly!

To get the most out of these labs, there are really only a couple of things to keep in mind. Since we are all here to have fun and learn something new, this shouldn’t be too hard.

One of the best things you can do as the student is to cultivate your curiosity about things. Why did that move? How did that spin? What’s really going on here?

This unit on Human Anatomy is chock full of demonstrations and experiments for two big reasons. First, they’re fun. But more importantly, the reason we do experiments in science is to hone your observational skills. Science experiments really speak for themselves much better than I can ever put into words or show you on a video. And I’m going to hit you with a lot of these science demonstrations and experiments to help you develop your observing techniques.

Scientists not only learn to observe what’s going on in the experiment, but they also learn how to observe what their experiment is telling them, which is found by looking at your data. It’s not enough to invent some new kind of experiment if you don’t know how it will perform when the conditions change a bit, like on Mars. We’re going to learn how to predict what we think will happen, design experiments that will test this idea, and look over the results we got to figure out where to go from there. Science is a process, it’s a way of thinking, and we’re going to get plenty of practice at it.

Good luck with this Life Science: Human Anatomy unit!

Lesson #1: Robotic Hand

Overview: Your body moves with the muscles pull on the bones through ligaments and tendons. Ligaments attach the bones to other bones, and the tendons attach the bones to the muscles. If you place your relaxed arm on a table, palm-side up, you can get the fingers to move by pushing on the tendons below your wrist. We’re going to make a real working model of your hand, complete with the tendons that move the fingers! Are you ready?

Materials

flexible straws (5)
scrap of cardboard (at least as big as your hand)
rubber bands (5)
string or thin rope (5 feet total, and a lighter with adult help if you’re using nylon rope)
hot glue with glue sticks
scissors
razor
pen

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Lesson #2: Chemical Fingerprinting

Overview: Did you know that the patterns on the tips of your fingers are unique? It’s true! Just like no two snowflakes are alike, no two people have the same set of fingerprints. In this experiment, you will be using a chemical reaction to generate your own set of blood-red prints.

Fingerprints are unique to each person and there is a sophisticated classification system for identifying all those lines and curves on your fingertips. This lab will teach you how to reveal your own fingerprint using a chemical reaction.

Materials

baking soda or sodium carbonate (washing soda)
water
sheet of goldenrod paper
paper towel
magnifying lens
cup

Lesson #3: Detective Boxes

Overview: In addition to looking pretty neat with all those loops and whirls, your fingertips are great at multitasking. The skin on them has a ton of receptors that help us to gather a lot of information about our environment such as texture, movement, pressure, and temperature.

This experiment will test your ability to determine textures by using touch receptors. You will use shoeboxes with holes cut into them to make texture boxes. Each box will have a textured surface that you can feel, but not see. Through the receptors in your fingers, you will determine whether the surface is rough, waxy, soft, or smooth.
Materials

shoeboxes with lids (4)
soup can
pencil
scissors
sandpaper (1 sheet)
wax paper (1 sheet)
flannel fabric (1 piece)
plastic (1 sheet)
glue gun
gloves
partners

Lesson #4: Detecting Temperature Changes

Overview: This experiment has two parts. For the first half, you will mix two chemicals that will produce heat and gas. The temperature receptors in your skin will be able to detect the heat. Your ears will detect the gas as it vibrates and escapes its container. In the second portion you will demonstrate a characteristic in a chemical reaction. For this experiment, it will be an endothermic reaction, which is the absorption of heat energy. This type of reaction is easy to notice because it makes things cold to touch. The chemical you will be using, ammonium nitrate, is actually used in emergency cold packs.

Thermoreceptors are the skin receptors that can detect changes in temperature. They’re a type of free nerve endings (remember the ones that can sense pain?). Thermoreceptors are located in the dermis, or second layer of skin. Two types of thermoreceptors are cold receptors and warm receptors. They’re found all over the body, but cold receptors being more prevalent. You have lots of these around our face, which is why it feels cold so quickly. Scarves and ear muffs are a good way to lessen the impact of our cold receptors!

Materials

measuring cup
calcium chloride
ammonium nitrate
baggies (2, re-sealable)
water

Lesson #5: Rubber Eggs

Overview: Did you ever think it would be ok to bounce an egg? In science class, anything is possible! Learn how in today’s experiment. After this bouncy experiment, you’ll know one way to spot a chemical reaction. You’ll also see how solid calcium carbonate and stinky liquid vinegar can combine to produce carbon dioxide gas.

Materials

hard-boiled egg
glass or clean jar
distilled white vinegar
Optional: regular egg
Optional: chicken bones

Lesson #6: Foggy Hands

Overview: Skin has another function that it vital to your survival: temperature regulation. Being exposed to high temperatures causes your skin’s pores to open up and release sweat onto your body. This helps cool us off by the resulting process of evaporation.

Your pores will close in extremely cold temperatures. Also, the body stops blood flowing to the skin in order to conserve heat for the important vital organs and their processes. In this lab, we study the moisture that your skin produces.

Materials

baggie, gallon size
string, 12 inches long
pencil
clock

Lesson #7: Finger Thermometers

Overview: Your fingers have receptors which perform various jobs. In addition to touch, they can detect pressure, texture, and other physical stimuli. One specialized type of receptors is called Ruffini’s receptors. They are good at identifying changes in pressure and temperature...most of the time! In this experiment, we will test their ability to distinguish between hot and cold temperatures. We are actually going to try and trick your Ruffini endings. Do you think it will work?

Materials

Glasses (3)
Celsius/Fahrenheit thermometer
hands
clock with second hand
water, hot
water, cold
ice cubes (optional)
water, room-temperature

Lesson #8: Cooling and Heating

Overview: In this experiment, we will continue to explore Ruffini’s endings in your skin. We also look at your body’s ability to detect temperature and regulate its own temperature. You will study how the body cools and warms itself to achieve temperature equilibrium, a state of constant balance.

Materials

rubbing alcohol
cotton ball
liquid crystal thermometer strip
glove

Lesson #9: Testing Muscle Strength

Overview: Did you know that you have over 600 muscles in your body? They help you do everything from lifting, to walking, and even pump blood! Those would be your cardiac muscles, and they’re involuntary, which means you can’t control them. The ones you can control are voluntary, or skeletal muscles. Some groups of voluntary muscles are stronger than others because each group is designed for a different and specific function. It just makes sense that the muscle groups in our legs would need to be stronger than the ones in our toes. For this experiment, you will use a bathroom scale to test the strength of various muscle groups.

Materials (per lab group)

bathroom scale
pencil
partner

Lesson #10: Inside Bones

Overview: Bones and muscles work together to provide a structural framework for movement. The skeleton is your body’s internal supporting structure. It holds everything together. In addition to providing support, bones act as shock absorbers when you jump, fall, and run. Bones have big responsibilities, and so they must be really strong. They also need to be arranged properly for the best support and shock absorption. In this experiment, we will look at the internal arrangement of the bones holding together your body.

Materials

toilet paper tube
50-100 straws
tape
book

Lesson #11: Tendon Reflex

Overview: Involuntary responses are ones that you can’t control, but they are usually in place to help with survival. One good example is when you touch something hot. Your hand does not take the time to send a message to your brain and then have the brain tell your hand to pull away. By then, your hand might be seriously hurt! Instead, your body immediately removes your hand in order to protect it from further harm. Today, you will test an involuntary reflex by using the tendon reflex test, which is in place because our knees are sensitive and vulnerable parts of the body.

Materials

knee
partner

Lesson #12: Detecting Plaque

Overview: The buildup of things like food and bacteria where your gums and teeth meet, and also between your teeth, is called plaque. Where plaque lives is also where the bacteria turns the sugar in your mouth into harmful acids that attack your teeth’s enamel and can lead to gum disease. Regular brushing is a great way to remove plaque and keep your mouth healthy. Materials

red disclosing tablets
clear plastic cup
mirror
red crayon
water

Lesson #13: PTC Testing

Overview: Stick your tongue out and look in a mirror. What do you see? Those tiny bumps all over your tongue aren’t really your taste buds. They are papillae, and most of them do contain taste buds, which are the tiny sensory organs on your tongue that allow you to taste food. More specifically, they help you to distinguish between sweet, sour, salty, and bitter flavors. It’s tiny microvilli (hair-like protrusions) on the papillae that have the taste receptors which send the sweet, sour, salty, or bitter messages to the brain.

Today, we will check to see if you have a dominant or recessive gene for a distinct genetic characteristic. We’ll do this by testing your reaction to the taste of a chemical called phenylthiocarbamide (or PTC, for short). The interesting thing about PTC is that some people can taste it – and generally have a very adverse reaction. However, some people can’t taste it at all.

Materials

PTC paper
family members

Lesson #14: Testing Spit Samples

Overview: Digestion starts in your mouth as soon as you start to chew. Your saliva is full of enzymes. They are a kind of chemical key that unlock chains of protein, fat, and starch molecules. Enzymes break these chains down into smaller molecules like sugars and amino acids.

In this experiment, we will examine how the enzymes in your mouth help to break down the starch in a cracker. You will test the cracker to confirm starch content, then put it in your mouth and chew it for a long time in order to really let the enzymes do their job. Finally, you will test the cracker for starch content and see what has happened as a result of your chewing.
Materials

soda crackers
paper plates (2)
craft stick
iodine ( 0.5 oz. bottle)
plastic pipette (1 mL)
water
latex gloves
marker

Lesson #15: Mapping Your Tongue

Overview: The tongue has an ingenious design. Receptors responsible for getting information are separate and compartmentalized. So, different areas on the tongue actually have receptors for different types of tastes. This helps us to separate and enjoy the distinct flavors. In this experiment, you will be locating the receptors for sweet, sour, salty, and bitter on the tongue’s surface.

The tongue has an ingenious design. Receptors responsible for getting information are separate and compartmentalized. So, different areas on the tongue actually have receptors for different types of tastes. This helps us to separate and enjoy the distinct flavors. In this experiment, you will be locating the receptors for sweet, sour, salty, and bitter on the tongue’s surface.

Suggested Time 30-45 minutes

Materials cotton swabs (4)

cups (5)
black tea (1 bag)
red vinegar
sugar
salt
microwave
water
spoons
partner
blindfold

Lesson #16: Tasty Taste Buds

Overview: Did you know that your tongue can taste about 10,000 unique flavors? Our tongues take an organized approach to flavor classification by dividing tastes into the four basic categories of sweet, sour, salty, and bitter.

For this experiment, you will need a brave partner! They will be blindfolded and will be attempting to guess foods. Relying only on their sense of taste, they will try to determine what kind of foods you are giving them.
Materials

partner
blindfold
water (one cup)
plate
lemon
toothpicks (2)
sugar cube (or some sugar)
salty cracker
piece of dark or bitter chocolate
pencil

Lesson #17: Stethoscope

Overview: Stethoscopes are instruments used to amplify sounds like your heartbeat. Your doctor is trained to use a stethoscope not only to count the beats, but he or she can also hear things like your blood entering and exiting the heart and its valves opening and closing. Pretty cool!

Today you will make and test a homemade stethoscope. Even though it will be pretty simple, you should still be able to hear your heart beating and your heart pumping. You can also use it to listen to your lungs, just like your doctor does.

Materials

rubber hose (3, 12-inch lengths)
“T” connector
funnel
stopwatch or clock with a second hand

Lesson #18: Heart Rate Monitoring

Overview: When you exercise, your body requires more oxygen in order to burn the fuel that has been stored in your muscles. Since oxygen is moved through your body by red blood cells, exercise increases your heart rate so that the blood can be pumped through your body faster. This delivers the needed oxygen to your muscles faster. The harder you exercise, the more oxygen is needed, so your heart and blood pump even faster still.

Materials

stopwatch or clock with a second hand
pencil

Lesson #19: Whats Your Lung Capacity?

Overview: Did you know the right lung is slightly larger than the left? It’s true! The left lung is slightly smaller to make room for the heart. Lungs are among the largest organs in your body. They are a part of the respiratory system, whose main function is gas exchange between our body’s circulatory system (our blood) and the environment (more specifically, the air around us). Through respiration we receive oxygen to help fuel our bodies, and dispel carbon dioxide and other wastes.

Materials

2-liter soda bottle
black marker, permanent
rubber hose (12” long)
large plastic bowl
liquid measuring cup (cups or millimeters)

Lesson #19: Working Lung Model

Overview: Did you ever wonder how the air that you breathe and the food that you eat both go into your mouth, but end up in two very different places? Food and air can both enter through the mouth, but they diverge when reaching the esophagus and trachea. Food goes to the gastrointestinal tract through your esophagus and air travels to your lungs via the trachea, or windpipe.

You will be making a model of how your lungs work in this lab. It will include the trachea, lungs, and the diaphragm, which expands and contracts as it fills and empties your lungs.

Materials

2-liter soda bottle, emptied and cleaned
scissors
razor (with adult help)
drill (with adult help)
”Y” valve hose connector
balloons (3 round, 9-inch)
#3 one-hole stopper
hose (8-inches)
rubber bands (2)
petroleum jelly

Lesson #21: Detecting Carbon Dioxide

Overview: An oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange takes place in your bloodstream. When you breathe air into your lungs it brings in oxygen, which is carried from your lungs by red blood cells in your bloodstream. Cells of your body use the oxygen and carbon dioxide is produced as waste, which is carried by your blood back to your lungs. You exhale and release the C0₂as waste. You will study this exchange in today’s lab.
Materials

bromothymol blue
straw
resealable baggie
ammonia
pipette
water
goggles, gloves, ventilation, and adult help!

Lesson #22: Scent Matching

Overview: We now know that odor molecules are diffused throughout a room by the motion of air molecules, which are constantly moving and bumping into them. These tiny odor particles can get caught in our nose and dissolve into the olfactory epithelium, which is responsible for detecting odors so that your brain can interpret them. Today we’ll test how well your olfactory epithelium and brain work together to distinguish between smells.

Materials

small containers with lids (10)
cotton balls (10)
lemon juice
black coffee (1 cup)
vanilla extract
cinnamon oil
soy sauce
marker
toothpick (optional)
assistant

Lesson #23: Swallowing

Overview: Peristalsis is the wavelike movement of muscles that move food through your gastrointestinal tract. The process of digestion begins with chewing and mixing the food with saliva. When you swallow, the epiglottis closes up to keep food from going into your respiratory system and the hunk of chewed food (called bolus) goes into your esophagus – this is the tube that runs from your mouth to your stomach. Since the esophagus is so skinny, the muscles along it must expand and contract in order to move food down. In this activity we will examine that process.

Materials

several different balls the size of a tennis ball or smaller (and including a tennis ball)
pair of old nylon stockings
scissors

Lesson #24: Diffusion

Overview: Everything living produces some sort of odor. Flowers use them to entice bees to pollinate them. We know that the tastes of foods are enhanced by the way that they smell. As humans, each of us even has own unique odor. In this lab, we look at the diffusion of scents. They start in one place, but often end up spread around the room and can be detected by many people. Materials

onion
lemon
ground cinnamon
garlic (fresh, one clove)
garlic press
coffee grounds (fresh)
kitchen knife (with adult help)
cutting board
fan (variable-speed)
stopwatch or clock with a second hand
assistants

Lesson #25: Consuming Oxygen

Overview: This experiment not only explains how your body uses oxygen, but it is also an experiment in air pressure circles – bonus! You will be putting a dime in a tart pan that has a bit of water in it. Then you will put a lit candle next to the dime and put a glass over the candle with the glass’s edge on the dime. Once all of the air inside the glass is used up by the candle, the dime will be easy to pick up without even getting your fingers wet!

Materials

aluminum tart pan
votive candle
matches
drinking glass, (clear, 12 or 16 oz.)
dime
water
goggles
Adult supervision!

Lesson #26: Eye Balloon

Overview: In this lab, we are going to make an eyeball model using a balloon. This experiment should give you a better idea of how your eyes work. The way your brain actually sees things is still a mystery, but using the balloon we can get a good working model of how light gets to your brain.

Materials

biconvex plastic lens
round balloon, white, 9 inches
assistant
votive candle
black marker
book of matches
metric ruler
Adult Supervision!

Lesson #27: Water Lens

Overview: Waves of light enter your eyes through the pupil, which is the small black dot right in the center of your colored iris. Your lens bends and focuses the light that enters your eye. In this experiment, we will study this process of bending light and we will look at the difference between concave and convex lenses.

Materials

washer (3/8 inch inside diameter)
microscope slide
petroleum jelly (or lip balm)
newsprint with small type
pipette (1 mL) or eyedropper or spoon
pen
paper towel
water

Lesson #28: Disappearing Frog

Overview Your optic nerve can be thought of as a data cord that is plugged in to each eye and connects them to your brain. The area where the nerve connects to the back of your eye creates a blind spot. There are no receptors in this area at all and if something is in that area, you won’t be able to see it. This experiment locates your blind spot.

Materials

frog and dot printout
meter stick
scrap piece of cardboard

Lesson #29: Visual Reflex

Overview: Voluntary nerves are the ones that are under our direct control. Others, called involuntary nerves, are under the control of our brains and create involuntary reactions.

Materials

ruler
assistant
pen

Lesson #30: Camera Eyes

Overview: Your eyes have two different light receptors located on the back of the eyeball. These are the rods, which see black, white and grays, and the cones, which see color. In order to adapt to the dark, our eyes make a chemical called visual purple. This helps the rods to see and transmit what you see in situations where there is little light.

Your pupils also increase in diameter in the darkness. This allows for a slight increase in the amount of light entering your eye. This combination of visual purple and more light makes it possible for you to see in darker situations.

Materials

dark room
light switch
partner
pencil

Lesson #31: Human Levers

Overview: Levers are classified into three types: firs- class, second-class, or third-class. Their class is identified by the location of the load, the force moving the load, and the fulcrum. In this activity, you will learn about the types of levers and then use your body to make each type.

Materials

can of soup
meter stick
rubber band
lemon

Lesson #32: Sound Speed

Overview: Sound has the ability to travel through the states of matter: solids, liquids, and gases. Generally, solids are the densest, liquids are next, and gases are the least dense. In this experiment we will study the movement of sound through these three states to see if density affects what we hear.

Materials

3 baggies (re-sealable)
sand
water
air
desktop
spoon
partner

Lesson #33: Sound Matching

Overview: You know that sound comes from vibration of sound waves as they travel through materials. These vibrations are picked up by the pinna (external part of the ears). Then the vibrations vibrate your tympanic membrane, which in turn vibrates the ossicles and then the cochlea. The cochlea sends information through the auditory nerve and sends it to the brain, which recognizes it as sound. In this lab, you will test your ability to sort and match different sounds.

Materials

film canisters (10)
beans
rice
sawdust (or pencil shavings)
paperclips
pennies
marker
assistant

Lesson #34: Sound Whackers

Overview: Have you ever held a ruler over the edge of a desk or table and whacked the end of it? If so, you would notice a funny sound. This sound changes if you change the length of the ruler that is hanging over the edge. The sound you hear is made by the ruler’s vibrations. Materials

desk (or table, or countertop)
metric ruler

Lesson #35: Big Ears

Overview: How do you think animals know we’re around long before they see us? Sure, most have a powerful sense of smell, but they can also hear us first. In this activity, we are going to simulate enhanced tympanic membranes (or ear drums) by attaching Styrofoam cups to your ears. This will increase the number of sound waves your ears are able to capture.

Materials

Styrofoam cups (2, small)
Styrofoam cups,(2, large)
scissors
kitchen timer

Lesson #36: Nerve Tester

Overview: Our sense of touch provides us with information that helps us to process and explore our world. Nerves play an important part in the sense of touch by being the wires that carry signals from the skin to the brain. But the body has a plan in place so that our brains don’t get overwhelmed with too much information. This plan is a lot like a blueprint for wiring a house. Just like a house has light switches and electrical outlets in strategic locations, our bodies have touch receptors of various numbers based on their location. In this lab, we will explore an arm to determine where the highest concentrations of nerves are in that limb.

Materials

paper clip, large
ruler
partner

Lesson #37: All About Kidneys

Overview: Your kidneys remove waste material, minerals, and fluids from your blood and put it in your urine. Although urine is sterile, it has hundreds of different kinds of wastes from the body. All sorts of things affect what is in your urine, including last night’s dinner, how much water you drink, what you do for exercise, and how well your kidneys work in the first place. This experiment will show you how the kidneys work to keep your body in top shape.

Materials

1 liter of water per student
1 can of soda per student
1 sports drink, like Gatorade, per student
Red food dye
Chalk (or a handful of sand)
Coffee filter or cheesecloth
pH paper strips
Disposable cups
Clean glass jar
Rubber band
Measuring cups

If you are doing the optional Third Bonus Experiment:

solution your teacher has prepared for you
pipe cleaners
cleaned out jar or bottle (pickle, jam, or mayo jar)
water
borax

Want More Science Activities?

These videos are samples from my online eScience Learning program. Its a complete science program for K-12. Plus, its self-guiding, so they can do it on their own.

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Thank You!

Thanks for the privilege as serving as your coach and guide in your science journey. May these videos bring you much excitement and curiosity in your learning adventure!

~Aurora

Supercharged Science

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