Technology and the Human Body

I wanted to have a project that my students could work on as we learned about the different systems that make up the human body.  A traditional approach (and commonly used one) is using a life-sized cutout that is created by tracing a student who is lying on a piece of paper.  Then organs are printed or drawn and glued into place.

So I gave the cutout a try.  It was a disaster. The projects are huge and difficult to store.  Students were always losing pieces and one group never finished their skeleton. So I needed to make a change. How could I accomplish the same goal with less mess, wasted paper, and wasted time?

Enter technology.  I realized what I was really after was for the students to recognize the size and location relationships between themselves and their organs. So I used Comic Life and iPads.  I had the students take pictures of themselves and then gave them images of the various organs, so they could place the images above their torso. They can stretch, rotate and resize the organs to fit their own body size.  In the end, they end up with a picture that can become part of a "my body" ebook or portfolio.

Compared to the paper endeavour, I found that my students were overall more engaged in the process.  It was much easier, and took way less time, for a greater degree of learning!