In your professional development, have you come across the importance of fostering resilience? The activities below certainly lend themselves to that end! Model enjoyment of the cold time of year.
Curriculum expectations are always based on the Ontario Ministry of
Expectations. Many of the activities will reinforce, rather than teach,
those expectations. As such, no assessment ideas or rubrics are
included.
Understanding Life Systems: Human Organ Systems
Understanding Structures and Mechanisms: Forces Acting On Structures and Mechanisms
Overall Expectations:
- analyze the impact of human activities and technological innovations on human health;
- investigate the structure and function of the major organs of various human body systems;
- demonstrate an understanding of the structure and function of human body systems and interactions within and between systems.
Overall Expectations:
- analyze social and environmental impacts of forces acting on structures and mechanisms;
- investigate forces that act on structures and mechanisms;
- identify forces that act on and within structures and mechanisms, and describe the effects of these forces on structures and mechanisms.
First, fifth grade can collaborate with first grade on their structure building. See First Grade Science Field Trips at School II.
Winter Survival Skills on the School Grounds*
Students can learn about winter survival skills in order to learn experientially about vital signs and their body systems. They will be split in two teams:
Team A will build a stick shelter and learn about first aid for hypothermia.
Nutshell
In this lesson, students will use human anatomy and physiology concepts to understand hazards to the human body during outdoor recreation in cold, snowy winters. Research will allow students to learn more about severe conditions brought on by spending too much time in the cold weather, first-aid responses to those conditions, and how to construct survival shelters.
Students can learn about winter survival skills in order to learn experientially about vital signs and their body systems. They will be split in two teams:
Team A will build a stick shelter and learn about first aid for hypothermia.
Team B will build a snow cave quinzee and learn first aid for a sprained ankle. Here is how to build a quinzee.
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| Wikipedia |
Nutshell
In this lesson, students will use human anatomy and physiology concepts to understand hazards to the human body during outdoor recreation in cold, snowy winters. Research will allow students to learn more about severe conditions brought on by spending too much time in the cold weather, first-aid responses to those conditions, and how to construct survival shelters.
Learning
Objectives
Students will...
Students will...
- demonstrate skills that will be useful to them when they are out of doors during the winter.
- construct a winter shelter and demonstrate how to build the shelter to their peers
- demonstrate first-aid techniques to winter recreational injuries
- understand the anatomy and physiology concepts within the human body that allow the body to survive in cold-weather conditions
- Clipboards
- Copies
of student worksheets (worksheet suggestion below)
- Writing utensil
- Computer
- First-aid kit
- Check with students to see what materials they need for demonstrating their survival shelters or first aid response techniques (probably many straight branches as well as pine boughs).
Teacher Preparation
- decide whether you will have one or two Team A, and one or two Team B; each team will need to assign roles to each team member
- keep an eye on the weather and plan this activity when there is enough snow
- notify the main office when you will be going outside
- be sure that students are appropriately dressed for the weather
- gather all needed materials for the activity
- remind students that classroom behavior guidelines are expected to be followed outside
This lesson is designed to be done on multiple days. The students need background information presented in class, time in the library or computer lab for research, and then a field trip to the school grounds.
1. Concepts such as ecology of the temperate deciduous forest ecosystem, cold weather animal adaptation, hypothalamus response, the integumentary system (I know, I didn't know either: it's the outer protection system. It includes hair, nails and of course skin), and circulatory system. Students should have a good understanding of each of these.
2. You may want to invite a nurse or someone with wilderness first aid in as a guest speaker to present information on cold-weather survival issues. Discuss hypothermia, frost-bite, and other first aid measures that would be beneficial when spending long times outdoors.
3. Allow students library and computer lab access. Students will research the shelter designs and first aid practices assigned to their team for peer teaching on the school grounds: see Handout Text below.
4. Take a Field Trip At School. Outside, students will use the research and information that they have collected about shelter designs to build a shelter. They should use the information collected about first aid to explain to the other team how to be safe outdoors and demonstrate first aid safety techniques to the other team as if those hazardous conditions had presented themselves to someone on that team.
5. After the field trip outside, students should summarize the information learned throughout this lesson. They will journal how they integrated the concepts they learned in class to their practical experience for winter survival.
Further Enrichment
Have students brainstorm a list of other outdoor survival skills and first aid responses needed for seasons other than winter. Have the students individually research these skills and first aid technique, and demonstrate them to the class. Correct anatomy and physiology terms should always be used when describing how to provide first aid to the human body.
This activity might give students renewed thankfulness for warm
buildings in the winter! Express thankfulness for our places of shelter.
Then have hot chocolate!
____________________________________________________________
Handout Text - Use this text for a student handout, if you wish:
Team A – Winter Survival Research and Planning
Team A Members:
Team A Shelter Style: Stick Shelter
1. Describe 2 outdoor situations where you would need to seek and build an emergency shelter.
2. Research stick shelter construction on the Internet. Cite the sources you use below:
3. Sketch what your shelter should look like below.
4. List below the steps needed to construct a stick shelter
5. What materials will you need to construct your shelter?
6. What are the important things to remember about your shelter construction so that the bodies inside are sheltered from the cold conditions outside? Think through your shelter design and placement!
7. Meet with the members of your team right now. Choose a leader and member roles to efficiently construct your shelter. Record each person’s name and task below.
Team A First Aid Response: Hypothermia
1. Research hypothermia on the Internet. Cite the sources you used in this search below.
2. What environmental conditions cause hypothermia?
3. List the correct anatomy of the human body that is affected when a person experiences hypothermia? (Use correct names of anatomical features!)
4. What is the physiological response of the body to hypothermia?
5. How can you tell if a person is hypothermic? (What are the signs?)
6. What are the first aid responses to a hypothermic body?
7. What should you never do for someone who is hypothermic?
Team B – Winter Survival Research and Planning
Team B Members:
Team B Shelter Style: Snow Cave
1. Describe 2 outdoor situations where you would need to seek and build an emergency shelter.
2. Research snow cave construction on the Internet. Cite the sources you use below:
3. Sketch what your shelter should look like below.
4. List below the steps needed to construct a snow cave.
5. What materials will you need to construct your shelter?
6. What are the important things to remember about your shelter construction so that the bodies inside are sheltered from the cold conditions outside? Think hard about your shelter design and placement!
7. Meet with the members of your team right now. Choose a leader and member roles to efficiently construct your shelter. Record each person’s name and task below.
Team B First Aid Response: Ankle Sprain
1. Research sprains on the Internet. Cite the sources you used in this search below:
2. What environmental conditions cause sprains?
3. List the correct anatomy of the human body that is affected when a sprained ankle becomes the problem? (use correct names of bones, muscles, and tissues!)
4. What is the physiological response of the body to an ankle sprain?
5. How can you tell if a person has a sprained ankle? (What are the signs?)
6. What are the first aid responses to an ankle sprain?
7. What should you never do for someone who has a sprained ankle?
___________________________________________________________
Team A – Winter Survival Research and Planning
Team A Members:
Team A Shelter Style: Stick Shelter
1. Describe 2 outdoor situations where you would need to seek and build an emergency shelter.
2. Research stick shelter construction on the Internet. Cite the sources you use below:
3. Sketch what your shelter should look like below.
4. List below the steps needed to construct a stick shelter
5. What materials will you need to construct your shelter?
6. What are the important things to remember about your shelter construction so that the bodies inside are sheltered from the cold conditions outside? Think through your shelter design and placement!
7. Meet with the members of your team right now. Choose a leader and member roles to efficiently construct your shelter. Record each person’s name and task below.
Team A First Aid Response: Hypothermia
1. Research hypothermia on the Internet. Cite the sources you used in this search below.
2. What environmental conditions cause hypothermia?
3. List the correct anatomy of the human body that is affected when a person experiences hypothermia? (Use correct names of anatomical features!)
4. What is the physiological response of the body to hypothermia?
5. How can you tell if a person is hypothermic? (What are the signs?)
6. What are the first aid responses to a hypothermic body?
7. What should you never do for someone who is hypothermic?
Team B – Winter Survival Research and Planning
Team B Members:
Team B Shelter Style: Snow Cave
1. Describe 2 outdoor situations where you would need to seek and build an emergency shelter.
2. Research snow cave construction on the Internet. Cite the sources you use below:
3. Sketch what your shelter should look like below.
4. List below the steps needed to construct a snow cave.
5. What materials will you need to construct your shelter?
6. What are the important things to remember about your shelter construction so that the bodies inside are sheltered from the cold conditions outside? Think hard about your shelter design and placement!
7. Meet with the members of your team right now. Choose a leader and member roles to efficiently construct your shelter. Record each person’s name and task below.
Team B First Aid Response: Ankle Sprain
1. Research sprains on the Internet. Cite the sources you used in this search below:
2. What environmental conditions cause sprains?
3. List the correct anatomy of the human body that is affected when a sprained ankle becomes the problem? (use correct names of bones, muscles, and tissues!)
4. What is the physiological response of the body to an ankle sprain?
5. How can you tell if a person has a sprained ankle? (What are the signs?)
6. What are the first aid responses to an ankle sprain?
7. What should you never do for someone who has a sprained ankle?
___________________________________________________________
*(found at leafprogram.org or https://www.uwsp.edu/cnr-ap/leaf/)
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