With a nearly $4,000 “bodyworks” grant from the Radnor Educational Foundation and elementary PTOs, health and wellness teachers Debbie Keyser, Doug Nowak and Brock Tracy were able to purchase models of the human heart, teeth and eyeballs as well as a full-body model showing muscles, the circulatory and nervous systems, and organs. These models help enhance student understanding of wellness concepts as well as helping increase student interest and understanding.

“The body models have allowed a more detailed look into the human body, to study both individual body systems and how the systems interact together,” says Keyser, who teaches at Ithan Elementary.

“The hands-on value of the models is incredible,” agrees Tracy, who teaches at Wayne. “The students are able to point, locate, and explain our body system functions. My fifth graders were able to use the models during project presentations to show and teach their classes about posture, scoliosis, teeth, and the skin.”

“The students’ eyes light up. They’re awe as we bend and manipulate the models to better explain the body,” says Nowak, a Radnor Elementary School teacher. “For the students to be able to study something that’s 3D as opposed to 2D makes the subject more real.

“It’s a ‘wow’ factor.”