Knights Learning About the Digestive System

Submitted by tiffanie.miley on

All eighth-grade health classes at Springville Junior High School have been working especially hard this past week because they are designing a theme park. According to Mr. Ryan Chambers, eighth and ninth-grade health teacher at the junior high, the difference between a theme park and an amusement park is that an amusement park has random rides and attractions that don’t tie into anything, and a theme park all has rides and attractions based on a specific idea. In this case, the theme is the digestive system. Mr. Chambers said, “I have the students do this activity so that they can associate things that they are not familiar with, like the digestive system, with something that they are very familiar with like a theme park. Anytime someone can make connections like that it helps them remember a lot better.”

For this project, students made a poster with at least eight rides featuring a part of the digestive system. They also wrote a portfolio explaining each of the rides and how it connects to the digestive system. “They are learning about the different digestive organs that we have in our body and how they help give us energy through the absorption of nutrients like carbohydrates, proteins and fats,” said Mr. Chambers.

Stacy Stapel, eighth grader at SJHS, said, “It’s fun just because it’s not like sitting in class doing boring things, and you get to talk to friends.”

Annee Lange, another eighth grader at the junior high, also likes this assignment because “You get to come up with different kinds of rides and creations. I’ve learned what each of the parts of the digestive system do and why they’re important.”

It sounds like the students in Health 8 have learned a lot, and they hope to keep it up!

Attributions
Sarah Cheney, SJHS Staff Writer