An Ode to the Dung Mill

Our family treats homeschooling as a joint expedition into the marvels of the life. One of our most successful experiments has been to base our science curriculum around a video course from The Teaching Company. We chose their course on human anatomy and physiology for this year. The course has been a blast. We try to watch the lecture for each week on Fridays as a family, and then the during school time I've been enriching the lecture with experiments and projects culled from resource books. I'll add a list with mini-reviews at the end of this. Currently we are studying the digestive track to the great embarrassment of my girly-girls. I'm afraid it's about to get worse today, I was inspired to write a "jingle" to help them remember the anatomy we are studying. The resultant masterpiece awaits you.

The Digestive Track, The Digestive Track
Food, hop in the mouth and don't come back
Grind it up teeth, swallow it tongue
It's on its way to becoming dung
Down the esophagus squeeze, squeeze, squeeze
Even swallowing upside down's a breeze
Dump it in the stomach to squish around
Add pepsinogen and acid from the pits we're in a rush
To get this chyme ready to go
Open the pyloric sphincter and let it roll
Liver and pancrease, send the bile down
Gall bladder stand by in case there is too much
On to the duodenum, last stop before the ride
Miles of intestine all coiled up inside
Nutrients absorbing all along the way
Villi keep it moving while they groove and sway
Dump it in the colon, pull the moisture out
It's headed for the rectum, make sure no one's about
Have a seat and push it through the anus, Man!
Take my advice and turn on the fan.

I'm sure that was wildly uplifting. We have three doctors in the family, if any of you are reading this, feel free to pass on corrections/additions.

Useful books if my art has inspired you:
Blood and Guts by Linda Allison
This has been one of my favorites since childhood. The presentation is excellent and the experiments are killer.
The Human Body for Every Kid by Janice Van Cleave
The experiments are good though the information has a random feeling to it and the author's voice is rather dogmatic.
Human Body by Martyn Page
I found this little book full of handy illustrations. The size makes it easy to carry around for on the spot information.
The Incredible Human Body by Esther Weiner
We like the terrific exercises and handouts. The game to illustrate blood circulation has been our favorite part of the whole course.
Health, Hygiene and Nutrition
This is a teacher's workbook with reproducible worksheets that I'm using to tie the information we are learning to personal hygiene and food choices. The format is most successful with the younger kids, but the older ones get the point.
The Human Anatomy Coloring Book by Margaret Matt
I love the way the book uses colored pencils to tie together the illustrations of an organ. When you are using light blue you are coloring the diaphraphm in several different pictures so you understand that this is a variety of perspectives, not a variety of organs. The kids just like to color. The text is a little over their heads, but the text isn't the point.

We also picked up some great visual aids and software, but these are harder to find. I recommend being flexible and exploring the options available at your local teacher store. Delta Education is a terrific source for these kinds of supplies and also for math manipulatives. I'm learning not to be a supply snob. Toys R Us had a nice model of the human body including a working stethoscope at a very reasonable price. Just keep your eyes open.

I hope I've inspired you. Even if you aren't interested in homeschooling, a family adventure of this kind could really perk up your summer.