A Science/Literature Unit Guide for Using The Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body in the Classroom Based on the book written by Joanna Cole This guide written by Ruth M. Young, M.S. Ed. Teacher Created Resources, Inc. 6421 Industry Way Westminster, CA 92683 www.teachercreated.com ISBN: 978-1-55734-815-9 1996 Teacher Created Resources, Inc. Reprinted, 2010 Made in U.S.A. Edited by Cathy Gilbert Illustrated by José Tapia Cover Art by Wendy Chang The classroom teacher may reproduce copies of materials in this book for classroom use only. The reproduction of any part for an entire school or school system is strictly prohibited. No part of this publication may be transmitted, stored, or recorded in any form without written permission from the publisher.
Table of Contents Introduction.................................................................... 3 Before the Book (Pre-reading Activities).............................................. 4 Drawing the Inside of the Body Surveying What Students Know About the Human Body About the Author................................................................ 6 Book Summary................................................................. 7 Hands-On Lessons: Building Blocks of Life........................................................ 8 (Examining the Structure of Plant and Animal Cells) Into the Mouth............................................................. 10 (Investigating the Tongue) You Are What You Eat....................................................... 12 (Learning About Nutrition and Eating for Good Health) The Journey Begins.......................................................... 20 (Following Food Through the Body) Follow That Blood Cell....................................................... 24 (Riding Through the Circulatory System on Blood Cells Learning the Relationship Between Lungs and Heart Dissecting the Heart and Lungs of a Sheep) Control Center.............................................................. 31 (Studying the Human Brain and Checking Reflexes Dissecting the Brain of a Sheep or Cow) Dem Bones................................................................ 36 (Drawing the Skeleton Inside a Body Outline) Keeping in Shape........................................................... 38 (Learning About Muscles in the Face Dissecting Chicken Leg Muscles) After the Book (Post-reading Activity) The Eyes Have It........................................................... 41 (Learning the Parts of the Eye and How They Function) Unit Assessment (Culminating Activity) Assembling a Human Body Puzzle.............................................. 45 Resources Related Books.............................................................. 46 Related Materials........................................................... 47 Answer Key................................................................... 48 #815 Literature Unit 2 Teacher Created Resources, Inc.
Joanna Cole was born on August 11, 1944, in New York. She attended the University of Massachusetts and Indiana University before receiving her B.A. from the City College of University of New York in 1967. Joanna Cole loved science as a child. I always enjoyed explaining things and writing reports for school. I had a teacher who was a little like Ms. Frizzle. She loved her subject. Every week she had a child do an experiment in front of the room and I wanted to be that child every week, she recalls. It s no surprise that Cole s favorite book as a child was Bugs, Insects, and Such. About the Author Ms. Cole has worked as an elementary school teacher, a librarian, and a children s book editor. Combining her knowledge of children s literature with her love of science, she decided to write children s books. Her first book was Cockroaches (1971), which she wrote because there had never been a children s book written about the insect before. I had ample time to study the creature in my low-budget New York apartment! Teachers and children have praised Ms. Cole s ability to make science interesting and understandable. Her Magic School Bus series has now made science funny as well. Cole says that before she wrote this series, she had a goal to write good science books telling stories that would be so much fun to read that readers would read them even without the science component. At times, even a successful writer finds it scary to begin writing a new book. That was the way Ms. Cole felt before beginning to write the Magic School Bus series. She says, I couldn t work at all. I cleaned out closets, answered letters, went shopping anything but sit down and write. But eventually I did it, even though I was scared. Readers across the country love the Magic School Bus series and enjoy following the adventures of the wacky science teacher, Ms. Frizzle. Joanna Cole works closely with Bruce Degen, the illustrator for this series, to create fascinating and scientifically accurate books for children. She says, When I was starting to write The Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body, I didn t know whose body the bus would travel in. Then I thought of the idea that Ms. Frizzle and her class would go into Arnold s body, and that he would eat them as Cheesie Wheesies. Joanna Cole says kids often write their own Magic School Bus adventures. She suggests they just pick a topic and a place for a field trip. Do a lot of research about the topic. Think of a story line and make it funny. #815 Literature Unit 6 Teacher Created Resources, Inc.
Book Summary The Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body by Joanna Cole (Scholastic, 1989) (Canada, Scholastic; U.K., Scholastic Limited; AUS, Ashton Scholastic Propriety Limited) Ms. Frizzle s field trips are never dull, but not all her students would agree that they want to go along. One of these is Arnold. In this book, traveling through Arnold becomes the field trip. Actually, the class is supposed to go to a science museum, but what better way to learn about how the human body looks and works than to go inside one? On their way to the science museum, Ms. Frizzle s class stops to have lunch in a park. As they are boarding the bus, Arnold is busy finishing his Cheesie Wheesies and does not get on board. Ms. Frizzle pushes a strange button near the ignition key and the bus suddenly shrinks to bite size and is eaten by Arnold! Strange things begin to happen. Their exciting journey starts when muscles in the esophagus push the busload of passengers into Arnold s stomach. Here, they are nearly digested by the gastric juices before escaping into the small intestine. In the meantime, Arnold begins to feel ill. He thinks it is something he ate. Little does he realize how right he is. The bus passes into the blood stream, through one of the villi inside the small intestine. When one of the white blood cells mistakes the bus for dangerous germs and threatens to eat it, the children and Ms. Frizzle leave the bus and each grab hold of a red blood cell. Poor Arnold realizes by now that he is lost and begins to run, causing his heart to beat faster. This carries the class and their teacher into the heart, through the lungs, and finally into Arnold s brain. Neither Arnold nor the class are out of trouble yet. He attempts to use his brain to decide which way he should go to get back to school. The class and Ms. Frizzle are trying to get out of Arnold s body. Ms. Frizzle and the children climb down Arnold s spinal column, across some nerves, and onto a leg muscle. Arnold continues to run, which sends more blood to the muscle cells. The class follows the bloodstream until they finally find the bus. They jump inside and ride the bus to the inside of Arnold s nose! The tickle in Arnold s nose forces him to let out a giant sneeze. The bus goes flying out of his nose, carrying all the passengers. It lands in the school parking lot where they find Arnold! Back in the classroom, Ms. Frizzle has the children make a huge human body to put on the bulletin board. They know a great deal about the systems of the human body, as a result of their trip through Arnold. What a field trip! Teacher Created Resources, Inc. 7 #815 Literature Unit
Building Blocks of Life Your Body is Made of Cells The first thing Ms. Frizzle has her students do is to look through a microscope at their own cells, tiny pieces of themselves. These are dead epithelial cells scraped from the inside of the cheek. All plants and animals are made up of cells. There are even one-celled or ganisms. The human body consists of trillions of cells! Cells are usually so tiny a microscope is needed to see them. The cells in your body come in different sizes and shapes. Look at the drawings below to see the dif ferent shapes of your cells: Muscle Cells form the muscle tissue which can stretch Nerve Cells send messages by electrical signals to your brain Epithelial Cells join together to form the skin inside and outside your body Bone Cells form the bones which give your body shape, protection, and support Red Blood Cells absorb the carbon dioxide from the tissues and exchange it for oxygen in the lungs White Blood Cells search out and destroy viruses and bacteria Looking at Cells Just as the students in Ms. Frizzle s classroom did, you can look at a sample of your cells, too. Y our cells are animal cells. You can compare them to plant cells, using cells from an onion. Materials: microscope and two blank slides, iodine, flat toothpick, tweezers, slice of onion Procedure: Put a small drop of iodine on the slide and add a drop of water. Carefully scrape the cheek inside your mouth with the flat end of the toothpick to collect dead epithelial cells. Stir iodine and water with the toothpick, then spread it out across the slide. Look at it with the microscope and draw what you see on the data sheet on the next page. Next, collect the onion cell sample by pulling away a thin strip of the skin with the tweezers. Spread the skin on the other clean slide and add a drop of iodine to it. Results: You should see the cell membrane and nucleus of both these cells. #815 Literature Unit 8 Teacher Created Resources, Inc.
Building Blocks of Life Cell Drawings Make drawings of your cheek cells and onion cells below. Then compare them with the drawings of typical plant and animal cells. You may not see all the details shown in the drawings below since this requires very high magnification. Use the highly magnified drawing to help find the parts of your cell drawings; then draw lines from the names to these parts. T o find the total magnification of the cells, multiply the power of the objective lens times the power of the eyepiece lens (e.g., if the objective lens = 10X and the eyepiece = 10X, the total magnification is 100 times actual size). My Cheek Cells Onion Skin Cells Total magnification = Cell Membrane Cell Wall Cytoplasm Nucleus Total magnification = Typical Animal Cell (shown several thousand times actual size) Cell Membrane Cell Wall Cytoplasm Nucleus Vacuole Typical Plant Cell (shown several thousand times actual size) Plants have a cell wall around the cell membrane which can thicken and become the stem to support the plant. Animal cells do not have a cell wall. Teacher Created Resources, Inc. 9 #815 Literature Unit