Teaching about the human body systems and their functions is my absolute NUMBER one favorite topic to teach. I have always been fascinated with the human body, primarily because of how well designed it actually is. We have an amazing creator!
Also, who doesn’t love to talk about themselves? I have always been fascinated with the human body, ever since I read those Charlie Brown encyclopedias. I was like only 8-9 years old, and I would sit at home, or be in the car riding with my parents, and I would read these encyclopedias made for kids. My favorite one was one called Your Amazing Body, from your nose to your toes. Ever since that book taught me ALL THE THINGS, I have been obsessed with learning about the human body.
Does anyone remember these Charlie Brown encyclopedias? Surely I’m not the only one that read them!
Systems of the Human Body and their Functions
Usually when teaching the human body system unit, I give an overview of each system and then delve into many individual systems a little more in depth. I think that its important to teach all of the body systems first as a quick overview, so when you are talking about each system more in depth, you are able to reference the other systems and how they work so well together to make your body work.
Here are the human body systems that are covered.
- The Integumentary System: protects the body from damage
- The Skeletal System: supports and protects
- The Nervous System: helps parts of the body communicate
- The Circulatory System: transports blood throughout the body
- The Respiratory System: absorbs oxygen, releases carbon dioxide
- The Endocrine System: secretes hormones
- The Muscular System: helps you to move
- The Reproductive System: produces offspring
- The Digestive System: breaks down food
- The Immune System: body’s defense
- The Lymphatic System: sweets up leaked fluid and fights infections
- The Urinary System: produces, stores, and eliminates fluid waste
- The Excretory System: excretes (gets rid of) waste
After you give the overview of each of the body systems, you can really dive in to learn about individual body systems, and super importantly, how they work with the other systems. Here is some suggestions on how they can be covered depending on your pacing.
- Circulatory and Respiratory Systems
- Digestive, Urinary, and Executory Systems
- Endocrine and Nervous Systems
- Skeletal and Muscular Systems
How Many Systems in the Body?
This seems like something that everyone cannot agree on, and this is a great conversation to have in your classroom. Why do some sources talk about the 11 human body systems and their functions, but some sources mention the 8 systems, the 10 systems, or 13 systems? This just shows how closely the all work together, and their are systems within systems.
Personally, I want to teach as many as I can so that I don’t miss anything, and if they hear of these systems anywhere, they will know what they are and how they are a part of the bigger picture, so if you counted above, there are 13. There is no right or wrong answer. As long as students are aware of the major systems, which NGSS seems to believe is the circulatory, excretory, digestive, respiratory, muscular, and nervous systems, any way is fine.
Activities to Teach Human Body Systems and Functions
As mentioned, this is my favorite topic to teach! I have SO many ideas to teach human body systems and there are so many out there on the internet.
Life-Size Drawings
This is one of the easiest things to do that will get the students excited, and this allows them to learn about the organs of each system. In the past, I’ve done this activity with the respiratory system because it’s a great introduction to understand how we get the essential oxygen in our body and what organs are needed in order to get it. All you have to do is get some bulletin board paper and pull off pieces that are big enough for your students to lay on and trace.
Students can work in groups to trace each other and research and draw the organs that are involved. This works for all of the body systems! Some may be harder than others, but it just depends on what you think is most important for your students to know.
If you don’t think your students have time to draw out the parts of the body system that they are working on, there are printable versions online that your students can glue on.
Here are some examples that I have found.
Making Your Life Sized Body Model Activity
Anatomy Life-Sized Human Paper Model
Human Body System Gallery Walk
This lesson can be used as a review or lesson notes to go over each of the human organ systems. Tired of getting lectures? Gallery walks allow students to get out of their seats and have fun in their learning. Gallery walks allow students to learn at their own pace and allow for the teacher to be the facilitator.
You just need posters that include information about each of the body system that you want your students to learn and place them about the room. Each student, or students working in pairs, can be given a recording sheet and walk around to fill in a chart.
Because the teacher works as a facilitator in this lesson, it opens up the opportunity to help students that are struggling.
Hands-On Activities
There are so many ideas for hands-on activities for each body system! There are so many resources online and some really awesome activities to get your students hands-on and engaging experience with the body systems. Here are some of my favorites for you to check out!
Working Model Lung – Respiratory System
Bread in a Bag – Digestive System
Edible Skin – Integumentary System
Articulated Hand Activity – Skeletal and Muscular System
Cover that Skull STEM Activity – Nervous System
Circulatory System Lab – Circulatory System
Immune System Game – Immune System and Lymphatic System
Human Body Systems Digital Interactive Lesson
Digital interactive lessons are great lessons to used in your classroom because they include many research-based activities, including graphic organizers and pre-assessments, and they also help decrease cognitive load. If students feel overwhelmed with information, nothing gets stored in their long-term memory, and that is the ultimate goal.
This is a no-prep lesson that’s great for review, distance learning, direct instructions, science centers, small groups and more!
Human Body System Sorts
Categorizing information is a great way to help students understand material better. There are a lot of sorts already available to you such as the Human Body Systems Organs/Parts Sort, the Human Body Systems Vocabulary Matching Cut-n-Glue, and the Human Body Systems Digital Matching Activity.
However, this is also something easy that you can create on your own. Students can draw out their own chart and write in information!
99 Engaging Strategies for Middle School Science
Need more ideas to engaged and motivate your middle school science students? Check out these 99 strategies that can be used in your science classroom to make sure that your students are engaged 100% of the time!
[…] All Human Body Systems […]