Body Systems Lesson Plan: From Molecules to Organisms: Structures & Processes

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This lesson accompanies the BrainPOP topic Body Systems, and supports the standard of understanding how the body is made up of interacting subsystems composed of groups of cells. Students demonstrate understanding through a variety of projects.

Step 1: ACTIVATE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Ask students: 

• How do parts of the body work together when you exercise or play a sport?
• What do you think happens inside the body after you eat a meal?

Step 2: BUILD KNOWLEDGE

• Read the description on the Body Systems topic page.
• Play the Movie, pausing to check for understanding. 
• Have students read one of the Related Reading articles. Partner them with someone who read a different article to share what they learned with each other.
  

Step 3: APPLY and ASSESS

Students take the Body Systems Challenge and Quiz, applying essential literacy skills while demonstrating what they learned about this topic

Step 4: EXTEND AND DEEPEN

Students express what they learned about body systems while practicing essential literacy skills with one or more of the following activities. Differentiate by assigning ones that meet individual student needs.

• Make-a-Movie: Imagine you are in a microscopic car traveling through the human body. Create a virtual tour of one of the body systems.
• Make-a-Map: Create a flowchart showing how the organs of the digestive system work together to process nutrients. 
• Creative Coding: Code a sorting game to categorize organs into their different body systems. 

More to Explore

Guts and Bolts: Challenge players to apply knowledge of body systems as they construct a cyborg! 

Body Systems Unit: Continue to build understanding around the structures and processes of the human body by exploring more BrainPOPscience topics.

Teacher Support Resources:

• Pause Point Overview: Video tutorial showing how Pause Points actively engage students to stop, think, and express ideas. 
• Learning Activities Modifications: Strategies to meet ELL and other instructional and student needs.
• Learning Activities Support: Resources for best practices using BrainPOP