Staff writer
Marion Elementary School students walked through the human body, traveling from the brain to small intestine.
The Body Venture exhibit, the exposition is sponsored by the Kansas Department of Education, came to Marion on Thursday. Each Elementary School class took turns touring through the plastic tent like stations that mimicked the traits of specific body parts. Body Venture was separated into nine sections with each class spending five minutes at each body part.
The sections included the brain, mouth, stomach, small intestine, heart, lungs, bones, muscles, and skin. Students sat on top of large plastic molars when they visited the mouth and they dodged fluffy, purple villi that hung from the roof of the small intestine — like stalactites in a cave. The organs glowed with their characteristic pigments — red for the heart, pink for the stomach, and maroon for muscles.
The general theme of the exhibit was to encourage children to eat healthy, exercise, and avoid harmful products like fast food and tobacco. The best teaching tools at the volunteers’ disposal were the visual, some of which were actual body parts like lungs, props they used to illustrate their points.
Inside the mouth, Alison Eden used a set of teeth covered in the grime of tobacco use and general dental neglect. Inside the heart, Lori Garrett showed students a vial of neon yellow liquid illustrating the fat content of a Big Mac. Inside the lungs, Melissa Mermis showed students examples of healthy lungs and the charred, black lungs of a smoker.
The students were encouraged to eat according to the nutritional pyramid, wear helmets and other padding when riding their bikes or skateboards, and encouraged to play hard.
“We hope that with more continued exposure children will make good, healthy choices,” MES nurse and Body Venture organizer Kristen Garman said.