African American History Anatomy Lab

Budding physicians and kids fascinated by health and the human in late-elementary or early middle school that want a fun, hands-on first experience with anatomy, physiology, and kinesiology this class is for you!

Week 1 -  Musculoskeletal system | James McCune Smith 

-How Does the Musculoskeletal System Work?
-Parts of the Musculoskeletal System
-Students will learn the muscles are bundles of fibers that are attached to your bones. 
-Students will learn that bones are hard structures that make up your skeleton, which is the framework of your body. 
-Students will learn that joints are the places where bones come together. There are many different types of joints in your musculoskeletal system.
-Students will learn about the life and legacy of James McCune Smith, MD, the first African American to earn a medical degree. 

 Lab/Project: Bendy Bones

Week 2 -  Respiratory System | Jane Cooke Wright 

-What Is the Respiratory System?
-Parts of the Respiratory System
-How Breathing Works
-Students will learn that the diaphragm is a large, flat muscle found between your chest and belly that tightens and moves down, pulling oxygen-filled air into your lungs. 
-Students will learn about Jane Cooke Wright who with her father, also a physician, at the Cancer Research Foundation at Harlem Hospital. Together, they researched chemotherapy drugs that led to remissions in patients with leukemia and lymphoma.

 Lab/Project: Measure Lung Capacity Human Body Science Experiment

Week 3 -  Heart and Circulatory System | Daniel Hale Williams

-What Does the Heart Do?
-What Does the Circulatory System Do?
-What Are the Parts of the Heart?
- What Are the Parts of the Circulatory System?
-How Does the Heart Beat?
-Students will learn about how Daniel Hale Williams founded the first black-owned hospital in America, and performed the world's first successful heart surgery. 

 Lab/Project: Heart Map Game 

Week 4 - Digestive System  | Rebecca Crumpler 

-What Is the Digestive System?
-How Does Digestion Work?
-Small & Large Intestines
- Chew-Swallow-Burp!
-Rebecca Crumpler devoted her life to improving health in the black community through research and clinical work. After a full career of helping patients, she published a book designed to help a broader audience of women and children.

 Lab/Project: Eating Iron For Breakfast ?

Week 5 -  Skin, Hair, Nails | Charles Richard Drew

-What Does Skin Do?
-What Are the Parts of Skin?
-What Does Hair Do?
-What Are the Parts of Hair?
- What Do Nails Do?
-What Are the Parts of Nails?
- Charles Richard Drew, MD, is regarded as the “father of blood banking,” thanks to his pioneering of blood preservation techniques that allowed him to establish the first large-scale blood banks. 

 Lab/Project: Giant Fingerprint

Week 6 -   Kidneys and Urinary Tract | Marilyn Hughes Gaston, M

- What Are the Kidneys and Urinary Tract?
-What Are the Parts of the Urinary Tract?
- What Do the Kidneys Do?
-How Do the Kidneys and Urinary Tract Work?
-What Can Help Keep the Kidneys and Urinary Tract Healthy?
- Her 1986 study led to a national sickle cell disease screening program for newborns and in 1990, Dr. Gaston became the first black female physician to be appointed director of the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Bureau of Primary Health Care.

 Lab/Project: Extract DNA

Week 7- Review and Game Day