Body Systems
Project Summary
The goal of this project was for us to work in groups in order to familiarize ourselves not only with the systems that make our body function, but to also guide us to find three different places where said systems overlap. Every group got to choose 2 body systems, and we immediately began researching their individual functions. My group ended up choosing the lymphatic and circulatory systems as the two that we would be focusing on for the remainder of the project. Two of us just looked at the circulatory system and the other two looked only at the lymphatic system. After we had each come up with about a page of notes on our respective systems, we came together and looked for as many bodily functions as we could find in which both systems played a role. After finding, developing, and building two other ideas, we finally settled on an intersection that we felt was both manageable and interesting. We then modeled our ideas on paper, made a prototype, gathered our materials, and then built our final model. About four days before our final presentation, we split up and one or two of us would work on a power point presentation that I will insert below. The final product for this project was a model that represented three intersections of our systems, along with a presentation that described our creative process, explained each of our systems, and described our three chosen interactions.
Presentation
All Body Systems
Circulatory: Circulates blood, moves nutrients toward external organs, and taking waste out
Digestive: Processes of providing nutrients through external energy
Endocrine: Chemical communication through hormones
Excretory: Getting rid of waste
Lymphatic: Carries lymph throughout the body and fights viruses
Muscular: Allows for movement
Nervous: Collects, processes, and uses information to respond to stimuli
Reproductive: Allows for the production of offspring
Respiratory: Intakes, circulates, and dispels oxygen
Skeletal: Supports organs and muscles
Urinary: Filters blood through kidneys
Digestive: Processes of providing nutrients through external energy
Endocrine: Chemical communication through hormones
Excretory: Getting rid of waste
Lymphatic: Carries lymph throughout the body and fights viruses
Muscular: Allows for movement
Nervous: Collects, processes, and uses information to respond to stimuli
Reproductive: Allows for the production of offspring
Respiratory: Intakes, circulates, and dispels oxygen
Skeletal: Supports organs and muscles
Urinary: Filters blood through kidneys
Reflection
As with all projects that we do throughout the STEM program, our 5 points of teamwork (leadership, cooperation, work ethic, attitude, and empathy) during this project all moved up and down throughout the work days, but while we were working, we would be doing good work. First off, our group was very good at checking ourselves even after we had made a decision, and this skill came in handy many times. It happened three times where we had made a decision on what our model was going to be, and then after doing more follow-up research, we realized that said idea was either inaccurate or impractical. While this was frustrating, this prevented us from pursuing any flawed ideas too far. On the other hand, this did have a negative side to it. This brings me to a major flaw in our process, which is that we ended up spending more time thinking about what we were going to do than actually doing it. While this would normally be perfectly fine when working on a large project, this specific project put on a very tight time constraint. This flaw bled into our final project in the form that we knew exactly what was supposed to happen and what our model was supposed to look like, but unfortunately we didn't leave ourselves enough time to fulfill our own expectations. Secondly, as I mentioned earlier in this reflection, we were very effective when we were working, and when we would all come together to either brainstorm or build, we would all do really good work. The only issue was that it happened too often that not all of us would be on task or working with the rest of the group. In terms of the 5 points of teamwork, this means we had really good cooperation, but a very inconsistent work ethic. In hindsight, I should have taken action to organize my team and make sure that we were all working as a unit. I feel that if I had done this, our final product would have been much more refined.