Biology, One Bite at a Time

Science co-op is over. I had a great time! I hope the kiddos had a great time and learned lots of stuff. I have to say that we started out a little rough. We started with plants. Honestly, I was as bored as the kids, but we got through it! Once we got to animals and human, things picked up.

I am not a research project kind of gal. That is not my style. I do, however, like to eat. The kids had a few projects to do, but they were all of the edible variety. We made edible replicas of plant cells, nests, and, as a final project, the kids could pick any of the pictures of the chapters we had covered and make an edible representation. They all did an amazing job! Here's some pics:


These were the plant cells. I was a very bad teacher and only got this one pic! The good thing is that I got 2 projects in 1 shot. There's the cookie at the bottom of the pic. It's chocolate cookie and candy representing the various parts. At the top of the pic is R's representation using chicken enchiladas! His mom, K, knew that there would be LOTS of sweets (and there was), so she encouraged something else. Yea for K! It was so super yummy!!

These are the birds' nests. I really liked this project. We used pretzel sticks for sticks, crushed shredded wheat for grass, m&m's for stones, string cheese for string, and chips for paper and fabric, and almond butter for mud. Again, a fun project that will hopefully help them remember about nests and their purpose. And the fact that a bite of pretzel, cheese, and m&m is super good together.

And our final projects. You want to talk about a bunch of sweets! And some amazing projects!

This is the integumentary system. Skin to you and me. Chocolate cake...mmmm...

I tried to turn this, but apparently, it didn't work. This is Rice Krispie treats posing as a skull and the various lobes. Great job!!

 This would be DNA. Also known as marshmallows, licorice, and toothpicks. Love it!

Blood vessels! Celery as the vein, peanut butter as plasma, red candies as red blood cells, yellow candies as white blood cells, and banana chips as platelets. I could have eaten them all!!

I'm very proud of the kids. There was much, much conversation, lots of tangents to talk about, and learning, learning, learning! I'm going to miss the class even though I see the kids all the time.

Have a great day.