When a school book a visit to Windmill, we try to provide a bespoke experience that relates to their curriculum work, and we love to throw in a little something that's weird but wonderful if we have the chance. Today we had a chance to help pupils revise their learning of the digestive system, through being swallowed!
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Pupils exploring where plants we eat originated and
investigating food miles |
Tracey realised that the pattern of the pathways and spaces in the orchard area could be used as a model of the human digestive system, so she mapped out a plan, and our student volunteer Komal got to work on creating the elements with some extra ingenious ideas from Joyce. The results seem to have gone down a treat with the pupils, especially when we sprayed them with water to show when the body releases different liquid chemicals to aid digestion.
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| Looking into the "mouth"... |
We've now got a kit together, including all the relevant elements of the digestive system, even a tongue with taste-buds (great idea Joyce!), so if you know of a class that will be studying digestion and might enjoy a trip down the alimentary canal, just let us know!
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| Pupils experiencing the "small intestine" with Komal |
Despite the heat, everyone did a great job. Mark wrangled teams of pupils doing watering and weeding, and Kath (the artist who created our log), put her environmental educator hat back on to run, and improve, our food miles activity. Hassan, Martin, Guy and Chris got on with the jobs around the site, and we were also joined by a volunteer from a few years ago, Emma Grivicic who proved to be completely heat-proof and helped us pick the crop from the fruit cage.
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| Our crops are doing well! |
Whilst some of us created a lunch of freshly gathered veg in a peanut sauce with rice, Kath got on with creating us a banner version of our logo. We also got a present from our allotment fairy godmother, Lynn, of more pond weed to help our pond stay clean, and volunteer Carrie turned up right on time to help us add that to the pond, and do a bit of extra watering to make sure that the crops survive the heatwave. Fab day!
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| Kath in mid creative mode |
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| The finished banner |
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