Polson students enjoy science exploration
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POLSON — A kid’s dream — a three-foot high nose to pick and a microscope to look at the booger.
SpectrUM brought the big nose plus other trappings of health care professionals to the Polson grade schools from May 20 to May 27.
Kindergarten through second-grade students could check out real stethoscopes, thermometers and blood pressure cuffs while wearing child-sized lab coats and gloves.
Then there was an anatomy and physiology lesson disguised as an incubator with a dummy of a human body full of anatomically correct plastic organs, sort of like a body puzzle.
A large light table allowed kids to assemble a complete skeleton from x-rays. They could also compare an x-ray of broken bone with one of a normal bone.
Kids also visited the active living/healthy eating table, which dealt with sugar, salt and fat in foods.
One comparison involved fried chicken versus roasted chicken.
“This is a tool for children to start exploring food choices,” Holly Truitt said.
Truitt is the co-director of the Spectrum Discovery Area at the University of Montana.
Officially, kindergarten students through second-graders focused on healthy choices, including nutrition, hand-washing and active living. Third and fourth-graders experienced the guided dissection of an eyeball to understand an eye’s parts and function.
These topics reinforce state and national science standards, also.
Unofficially, these activities are tremendously fun for students.
The programs are part of spectrUM’s Hands on Health traveling, interactive exhibition about the health sciences and health careers. The exhibition was created by spectrUM in partnership with the Western Montana Area Health Education Center, through funding from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana.
Polson students are among 7,000 students statewide who have explored the exhibit.
One critic, a first-grader, said the x-rays were the most interesting, but she also liked taking her friend’s blood pressure.
