Portfolio Entry 1

 Have you even wondered what happens when you eat your food? How it ends up in the toilet? Well me either, even though I have never really thought about what happens, learning it was really cool. I always knew that I had a large intestine and a small intestine, heart, liver, lungs etc. But I never really knew how they worked or what they did. I was curious, but not so curious that I looked it up or anything. I made my own theories about what the different body parts are and what there functions are.

 For instance, maybe the small intestine could be a passageway to the brain, or maybe it helps moves blood to your body! - From your one and only brain.

But I learned the truth behind all of the different body parts, and what their functions are, and how they work in science class this year. That is why I am going to choose the body systems/functions for my growth. This whole unit in science took a long time to get through all of the body. I have learned so much about all of the different body systems. Although I am happy I learned them. I still am a bit sad that most of the theories I made growing up were wrong.

                For my first artifact I am going to use my final draft of the science project. It shows all of the different body processes including Digestive, Circulatory, and Respiratory systems. But I am focusing on the digestive system, just because I understand it the best. When looking at you might be overwhelmed. When you first look at it you will see different colors and different systems and organs. Focus on the items that are green, green represents the digestive system. I understand it the best and I know the most about it. When my partner and I were brainstorming ideas, our original idea was to make some sort of Rube Gold Burg Machine, but we soon had another idea. We came up with a transparent book that explains and shows all of the different body systems. Once we had our idea we started working on it, we started typing information on each of the body systems and how it works. Once we had a section done with information we would print it out. We took that information paper and cut out a body outline in the middle of the page, after that we would draw the body systems for that page. On each information page we explained what was going on in the different body parts. For example, after breaking down in the stomach the food moves through your pyloric sphincter (which is like a little whole that opens and closes to let a small amount of food come in at a time), it is now called chime. It then moves into your small intestine, we kept on repeating this until we had the three systems and most of their functions. I really enjoyed this project and I am really happy with our final product. It is surprising to me how I went from making my own theories to making a whole interactive book about it!

For my second artifact I am going to use my brainstorming sheet for the science project. This is where me and my partner got together and started to talk about an idea for how we could physically represent the different body systems. Although we ended up not using our original idea, it can show our understanding of the body systems during this time. I show inside the body, mouth, esophagus, stomach, etc. Even though we did not go with our original plan, our next idea is even better. My partner comes up with the idea to do an interactive book. It would have transparent paper that would be in the shape of a body. Looking at the book from the top it looked like a totally functional body. But when you opened it layer by layer you get to see the different body parts and how they work. I think that this brainstorm sheet is showing my growth over the topic through our ideas. Even though we did not use all of the ideas that came to mind we still understood what was going on and how we could represent it. If I ever misunderstood something as I was explaining why this would happen, then my partner was there to tell me that this was actually what happened. Even though this is not a huge dramatic growth, I did learn quite a few things over the course of the brainstorm sheet.

I think I have really grown in the body systems and how they work. I have gone from making up my own theories on how they work to making an interactive book that explains the body and how it works. I guess you can say that I have gone from zero to hero in body system. This can help me later in the future in a couple of ways. An example of one of those things could be if I ever become a teacher I could better understand this topic, or I could help someone who needs help learning this topic.