Medical Museum Signup
There are five general aspects to United to Serve. To learn more about the available opportunities, use the links below. At each page, the table will list all of the available spots. Open ones that still say "sign up now" are still available.
Over The Lips, Past The Gums, Look Out Stomach, Here It Comes!
The GI guy has intestines made from shower curtain with chocolate “stool” that kids can push though... performing peristalsis! On the floor, there a linoleum mat the length of the large intestine (5 feet long) that kids can walk down, showing how long the intestines really are. The display board outlines each stage of digestion, from ingestion to excretion.
Mission Nutrition
The Mission Nutrition game teaches kids about food groups and healthy eating choices. Food cards have associated “fuel” points (a combination of calories, fat and carbohydrates). Participants will choose food for a day and learn how many fuel points they would eat in a day along with target fuel values. It’s important for kids to realize that fat and sugar are necessary in their diet, but within certain limits. There are also two bottles showing the amount of sugar in one Coke and the amount of oil in a small order of McDonald’s French Fries. For younger kids, there is play food that can be sorted into food groups.
Meet Your Teeth
The board has Who, What, Where, When, and How Q&A pertaining to healthy teeth. The baby food jars have real human teeth submerged in different liquids to show their effects on teeth. The different liquids are: Powerade, vinegar, water, orange juice, and Coke. For the flossing demo, ask the person to hold out their hand, palm down, with their fingers tightly together with an open palm. Have another person take a piece of yarn and slowly work it between two fingers, making sure to go all the way to the palm (gums).
Eww That's Gross!
Teach kids about gross fun facts about the human body that they’ll be excited to share with all their friends!
Sweet N' Low
Regulating the level of blood glucose is one of the body’s most important jobs. Two hormones, insulin and glucagon, help to regulate the level of glucose in the blood. Because these two hormones have opposite effects, it is important that a proper balance between them is maintained. Through a card game, you will simulate how this regulatory mechanism works.
Follow Your Heart
The heart model shows the four chambers of the heart. Listen to your own heart beat with a stethoscope. Remember those connect the dots games when you were a kid? This handout has a picture of the heart on it with numbered dots that outline the pathway of blood through the heart!
Bloody Details
Teach kids about all the different cells in human blood: red cells, white cells and platelets. Note how red blood cells have no nucleus! The large red beads are red blood cells (RBCs), and the large white beads are white blood cells (WBCs). The small white beads are platelets. Demonstrates how the spleen (a large strainer) filters the blood (beads).
Artery Maze
Supervise while kids crawl through a life-sized artery! At the start of maze, kids can choose food with corresponding balloons to deposit in the artery. At end of maze, explain why the vessel narrows with more and more balloons (Atherosclerosis!).
Flex Your Muscles
All muscle is not made the same. Explain the functions of cardiac, smooth and skeletal muscle, as well as the tendons and ligaments that hold it together with the skeleton. Demonstrate how muscle contracts with a sarcomere model and play with reflex hammers!
The Hip Bone Is Connected To...
...rest of the skeleton! Teach kids about the function of the human skeleton and how to keep their bones strong. You can also show them X-rays of broken bones and what doctors do to heal them.
Now Showing Your Epidermis
Teach kids about the different layers of skin and why sunscreen is so important to protect it. Also show them about their own fingerprints and the common fingerprint patterns seen.
Like Father Like Son
How you ever wondering why kids look like their parents? Teach kids about the cool inherited traits they might have gotten from their parents, courtesy of genetics.
DNA Decoded
Explain what DNA is and why it’s so important for life. Then help kids extract DNA from a strawberry! Strawberries have octoploid DNA, so it can be extracted! Guide kids through the process.
CSI: Dallas
Pretend to be a crime scene investigator and learn how to identify trace evidence, analyze DNA to identify a criminal and lift fingerprints from a crime scene. Kids can make copies of their own fingerprints!
Optical Illusion
What happens when the brain tricks itself ? This display has a variety of optical illusion puzzles for kids to solve. Volunteers provide the answers and explanations of how optical illusions work.
Do U C What Eye C?
Explains how vision is created by illustrating the anatomy of the eye, how both eyes work together and more! The display also includes information on cool visual phenomena such as afterimages, optical illusions and 3D images. A large model of the eye including eye muscles so kids can make the eye move! The board has pictures to demonstrate how people with color blindness see and 3D images to be viewed with 3Dglasses! Kids can also use their 3D glasses to watch a movie in 3D.
Can't Touch This
This booth explains different types of sensations, reflexes, the homuculus, and braille. Kids have to stick their hands in covered boxes to guess what they're feeling. Hopefully it's not something gross! We have push-pins and markers so that kids can punch out their name in braille and then decorate!
Play It By Ear
How loud is too loud, what is pitch, and how do you use a tuning fork to test hearing? Kids learn about decibels to try to protect their hearing. They can play with different sounds!
The Nose Knows
Teach kids how the nose works, why smell is connected to taste and memory and how a dog's sense of smell is better. Kids find how if their nose knows by trying to identify different smells.
On The Tip Of The Tongue
Where on the tongue are the five basic tastes? Match the taste to the tongue area and make the light glow! Also explain how the tongue works. Kids can also guess food with tasting samples.
Detective Face
Help kids learn about what makes them smile, cry, frown, or just anything about their face! Using a model of head and interactive head model, help kids solve the mysteries of their nose, eyes, and mouth by playing a board game that is similar to LIFE. Each place on a board game will direct kids to do certain actions such as "point to the place that you think your tear comes out" or "make the model smile." Volunteers will help kids to get to the correct answers and explain the processes.
Magic Science Bus
Remember Ms. Frizzle and her magical classroom adventures! Dat Le has his very own show filled with awesome science experiments sure to dazzle and amaze while teaching about the human body, Bill Nye-style.
A Cell's Life
Kids become scientists when they examine real pathology from a real slide with a real microscope! (Stools included for the vertically-challenged.)
Bits & Pieces Of The Body
Kids will trace themselves with the help of volunteers and figure out where their various organs go in their own body!
Home Safety
Kids will learn about precautions to take in their own home: recognizing poison and toxic symbols, planning a home fire escape plan and more! This booth is a collaboration with Health Fair to ensure that both parents and their children are both prepared for any home emergency.
Check Out The 'Dis' Abilities!
This booth focuses on showing the kids a variety of disabilities that they may encounter in their household or in their schools. Our goal is to show the kids that having a disability does not necessarily limit what they can achieve and also help them gain an understanding of the difficulties that some people with disabilities may experience. Activities include: sign language, decoding sentences (dyslexia), and wheelchairs.
Spanish-Speaking Floaters
Move around the Med Museum area to help translate to our Spanish-speaking visitors at various booths. We also need door greeters!
Don't Blow It!
Teach kids all about the lungs and help them make their own!