Heartbeats and stethoscopes

As we move deeper into our Unit of Inquiry on ‘Healthy Lifestyles’ we are learning about different systems of our body and how they work together to keep us healthy. During STEM our first graders conducted an exploration into the Circulatory System which was fun and provided much scope for thinking critically.

During the exploration students worked with partners to build their own stethoscopes using large and small funnel cups, cardboard rolls and plastic tubing. They experimented by placing different variations of their ‘stethoscope’ on a friend’s chest and listen to their heartbeat. Some options were using just the roll, the roll with funnel, just the tubing, and the tubing with funnel. They also tried listening to heartbeats after working out to see if their hearts were beating faster!

Unfortunately the kids were unable to hear heartbeats using the stethoscopes made in class. However, this gave us an opportunity to explore some of the reasons why our stethoscopes didn’t work. Our students came up with multiple possible reasons such as noise level in the classroom, our own hearing, the materials that were used etc. Isn’t it amazing how creatively we learn when we’re completely engaged in an activity?