BEVERLY - Don't try to tell kids who are jumping rope, doing experiments and putting together a life-size puzzle that science isn't fun.
Students at Beverly-Center Elementary got to learn about the human body in a variety of ways Tuesday as COSI on Wheels presented "The Incredible Human Machine" in the school's gymnasium.
"People think that science is this big thing above them that they can't relate to," said Natalie Cooper, outreach educator with the Columbus-based COSI (Center of Science and Industry). "We strive to make science accessible to kids as young as preschool and people as old as 98."
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Video online Beverly-Center kindergarteners dance with the game “Just Dance 3”
Cooper led an assembly dealing with topics about the body, describing it as an engine with the metaphor extending to food as fuel, muscles as belts and more. After some quick training from Cooper, volunteers from the school's parent-teacher organization then manned nine stations around the gym where students could do things like assemble their own healthy meal based on the federal government's new MyPlate standards or test substances with iodine to see which ones had the most starch.
"I think it's really cool," said sixth-grader Brenden Huck. "You can learn a lot, and it's just a neat experience."
Volunteer Amanda Duskey, 31, of Hackney was stationed with another parent alongside a mat featuring an outline of the human body, on which children could assemble a colorful skeletal system.
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EVAN BEVINS The Marietta Times
Beverly-Center Elementary PTO volunteer Amanda Duskey, left, watches as kindergartener Gianna Kasun puts a bone in place on a mat depicting a human body Tuesday during the COSI on Wheels visit to the school’s gymnasium.
"I think ours is the best one, 'cause kids like puzzles," she said.
Fellow Hackney resident Tammy Hall, 49, was showing children slides of various bodily tissues and parasites with a microscope hooked up to a video camera.
"I've been learning also, how to use the microscope and slides," she said.
One of the most popular stops was a table where students could place both hands on a device that would tell them their heart rate. They were then encouraged to jump rope or do other physical activities to see how that affected the number of beats per minute that registered.
"Mine was 112. And then it changed to 184," sixth-grader Alyssa Sergent said.
Each grade's session wrapped up with a group dance with the help of the Wii video game "Just Dance 3."
COSI on Wheels has been coming to the school for several years. The $990 cost was covered by the PTO and the Beverly-Waterford Area Chamber of Commerce.
"They always offer a different program, and it's an opportunity for some of the kids that can't go to Columbus, they can at least have COSI brought to them," said PTO President Kim Brothers.
