Throughout the week, the students applied their science, technology, engineering and math skills as they participated in a variety of hands-on activities to investigate how the body works.
The students constructed life-size maps of the skeletal, muscular, nervous and circulatory systems. They built cell models, 3-D neuron models, conducted simulated surgeries and learned about important medical breakthroughs.
“What is most important for students to take away from any experience in class, especially in science when they’re doing a dissection, is that they’re getting to see things beyond a diagram,” science teacher Jennifer Zopp said. “They get to really feel and see how things look and how things have developed. There’s always this connection between form and function and how things work together, and it’s something you can’t experience on a piece of paper.”
The problem-solving activities allowed students to collaborate and become engaged citizens — skills closely aligned with the dispositions of the Bronxville Promise. As part of the experience, which was made possible through a grant from the Bronxville School Foundation, the students demonstrated how to be engaged citizens as they performed surgeries and discussed how doctors treat their patients with respect.
“They took it seriously like they were actual surgeons in an emergency room,” Zopp said.
i2 Learning, an organization that works with world-class scientific and academic institutions, provided training to all seventh-grade teachers at Bronxville Middle School.
The organization has developed its programs through partnerships with MIT, the American Museum of Natural History and the Museum of Science in Boston, as well as leading STEM organizations such as Stanford, Woods Hole and Harvard.
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