Impact

Graduate students, faculty share the 'PhUn' in physiology at elementary school

During PhUn Week, Easterly Parkway Elementary students learned facts about the heart and used stethoscopes to hear how their own hearts sound when they beat. Credit: Donna KorzickAll Rights Reserved.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- During the American Physiological Society's annual PhUn (Physiology Understanding) Week initiative, Penn State graduate students and faculty from the Huck Institutes' Intercollege Graduate Degree Program (IGDP) in Physiology partnered with a local elementary school to help first- and second-grade students explore basic concepts in physiology and better understand the study of how living things work.

PhUn Week is an annual outreach program that gives K-12 students a chance to meet research scientists, learn about physiology in their daily lives and explore physiology as a possible career field. The program also builds local partnerships between teachers and scientists to provide new materials for teachers and give researchers a chance to reach out to the next generation of scientists.

Penn State's outreach this year, under the direction of Penn State physiology and kinesiology professor Donna Korzick was a hands-on, interactive program put on by 14 Penn State physiology graduate students for more than 100 first- and second-graders at State College's Easterly Parkway Elementary School to learn about how the cardiovascular system functions in health and with disease. 

“It was truly amazing to watch,” Korzick enthused. “Our students made the heart and blood vessels come alive for these kids, and the beauty was that the kids really got it.”

The young students got to monitor their own heart rates, use stethoscopes to listen to their hearts beat, explore models of a working lung and act out the part of a red blood cell delivering oxygen to an exercising muscle. In another activity, sipping water through different-sized straws, the students learned and experienced firsthand how unhealthy, clogged arteries have to work harder than healthier, less-obstructed ones. Penn State faculty were also in attendance to shed some light on what real-life biomedical scientists do. 

Leading the organization of the sessions and coordinating the efforts of her fellow graduate students, second-year student Kahina Ghanem said it was no small task, but that “the most rewarding thing to me was seeing the kids fully immersed in the activities we put together for them and watching them actively learn physiology concepts. I am looking forward to doing it again next year.”

The event was also made possible through the support of Easterly Parkway Elementary's teachers and administration. 

“It was great,” reflected principal Michael Maclay, “to see the additional learning opportunities provided to our primary students through the Penn State-sponsored PhUn week activities. Students were thoroughly engaged and very involved with the hands-on/active lessons that were provided and supported through the instructors and graduate students.”

First grade teacher Alix Croswell had her students capture their impressions of the event in writing. “I thought it was awesome,” said one student, and others remarked how they loved pretending to be blood vessels and red blood cells.

“PhUn Week was a huge success.” said Croswell. “The students were fully engaged throughout the event. Dr. Korzick, her colleagues and students were very well prepared with age-appropriate activities that taught our students basic principles of physiology and the heart’s functioning through hands-on fun. The kids loved it, and we look forward to having Dr. Korzick and her team return for more PhUn Week activities next year.”

“A major goal of PhUn Week,” Korzick added, “is to stimulate intellectual curiosity, and I think this is a great example of how Penn State outreach efforts can have a significant, positive impact on the surrounding community. And nationally, this year's PhUn Week initiative was a great success – with over 250 classroom teachers and partnering university educators working together to reach more than 12,000 students at 83 event sites across the country.”

During PhUn Week, Easterly Parkway Elementary first-graders sipped water through large and small straws to learn about the benefits of healthy blood vessels in the body. Credit: Donna KorzickAll Rights Reserved.

Last Updated August 10, 2015

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