CECsci.176


TITLE:  USING IMAGERY TO INTRODUCE THE ENDOCRINE SYSTEM

AUTHOR:   Janet Weaver, Rosary School
          Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

GRADE LEVEL/SUBJECT:    5-8, Life Science

OVERVIEW:  This experience uses the students'
imagination to make their body's protective systems go
into action, thereby giving an actual experience of
what the Endocrine System can do.

PURPOSE:
To introduce the Endocrine System to the students.
To involve all the students' senses, including their
    imagination, in the experience.
To introduce the Endocrine System vocabulary.

OBJECTIVE(s):
Students will identify body reactions associated
    with adrenaline.
Students will define Endocrine System and functions.
Students will define glands and hormones.
Provide a basis for: comparing endocrine system to
    other body systems exploring connections between
    endocrine system and other body systems

RESOURCES/MATERIALS:  Chalkboard, chalk

ACTIVITIES AND PROCEDURES:
Ask the students to get into a comfortable position in
their chairs.  Turn off the lights (close shades if
possible). Tell the students that when you begin they
will be told to close their eyes.  They are to keep
them closed until told otherwise.  They should also not
make any sounds (don't answer out loud any questions
that may be asked).  They are to only listen and use
their imaginations.

Say (pausing .... after each suggestion):

Close your eyes....Relax your feet....Relax your
knees....Relax your thighs....Relax your
stomach....Relax your hands....Relax your
shoulders....Relax your chest....Relax your forehead

Imagine yourself in the middle of a beautiful field of
flowers....The smell is sweet....the colors are all of
your favorites....there is no pollen to irritate
you....you are perfectly relaxed....the sky is blue,
with only small puffs of white clouds....

You look around and see a small dirt road leading into
the most beautiful grove of trees....you decide to
follow the road into the trees....As you walk on the
road, the temperature gets cooler....there are still
flowers among the trees....

You see the road makes a sharp turn ahead, and as you
walk around the turn you notice a house at the end of
the road....It is not large, but it is not small
either....The house is not well kept, but it is not
falling down either....You can tell that someone lives
there....

You decide to go up to the house to see if anyone there
could give you a drink of water....You walk up to the
house and up the 3 broken steps to the front
door....The door is standing open a little as you
knock....No one answers your knock, so you knock again,
a little louder....Now you hear a muffled sound coming
from far inside the house....You look into the front
room of the house and see clothes laying around....a
half full glass of milk....and a kitchen in the
back....

You hear the sound again....so you call out....again
you hear a muffled sound from the back of the
house....You walk into the house....looking around as
you go towards the kitchen....

In the kitchen you notice a door, half open leading
into blackness....you open the door and see steps
leading down....you hear the muffled sound a little
louder now coming from beneath the stairs....

You begin walking down the stairs, into the
darkness....your hand brushes up against the cool
wall....At the bottom of the stairs you hear the
muffled sound coming from your right, and as you turn
towards it your hand feels a wetness on the
walls....You walk v e r y  slowly towards the
sound....in the darkness....then A A A A A A A A A  A A
A A A A A   (teacher screams as loudly as possible)

Open your eyes.  What is your body doing right now????

Begin a list of body reactions on the board (shaking
hands, moving out of seat, screams, fast heart rate,
pounding head, etc.)

Listen to what was going on with the students.

Identify systems of the body at work on the list of
reactions.

Then ask:  Why do you think your body was doing this?
List answers.

Introduce the Endocrine System and beginning vocabulary
- glands, hormones, adrenaline.

Explain how the Endocrine System works to protect you
in an emergency.

If time remains ask:  What other ways could you need
protection?  If they don't come up with needing to have
timing for cycles to happen (growth and sexual cycles)
mention them also.  Then the rest of the explanation
and vocabulary of the endocrine system can be done.


TYING IT ALL TOGETHER:  Begin a discussion comparing
how the endocrine system works with how the nervous
system works, and how all the other systems work.
Discuss how the different systems work together.  Ask
students to decide on which system of the body is the
most important and give reasons for their decision.
(don't let them off the hook by saying they are all
important and that none of them can work without the
others - though that should be the conclusion they will
come to).