History is Herstory

Since Isabella wants to be a doctor when she grows up, it made sense for me to begin introducing her to famous doctors that changed the world. It just so happens that Marco Giuliani wrote an article 9 Famous Female Doctors that Changed the World.

Day 1 was spent introducing her Dr. Jane C. Wright. After reading a summary of her background and accomplishments from Giuliani's article, Isabella then took three facts and wrote a short summary of what she felt was important and how Wright made an impact in the world. Afterwards, we watched a short video on YouTube about her. Once the video ended, we both spent some time exploring The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) that was created by Dr. Wright.

On Day 2, we were introduced to Dr. Gertrude B. Elion. After reading about her, Isabella prepared a short verbal presentation where she explained who Dr. Elion was and her accomplishments as we sat together for dinner. Since Dr. Elion was motivated to study chemistry by the death of her grandfather, who died of cancer, we discussed how motivation can build success, and Isabella shared reasons why she was interested in becoming a doctor.

Tomorrow will be Day 3 of this topic, and we will be studying Dr. Gerty Cori. I found a slide show presentation that explains her life, the Cori cycle (which won her the Nobel Prize) as well as other amazing accomplishments. I plan to show her a model of the Cori Cycle, and help her understand the importance of this metabolic process.

Day 4 will be focused on Dr. Helen Brooke Taussig and her work in pediatric cardiology. Isabella has visited a cardiologist before and had an EKG, so this is familiar territory for her. She has also watched her brother have an echocardiogram done. I plan on sharing this lovely article written that talks about her work on Blue Baby Syndrome. Afterwards, we'll watch Doctor Ouch's Heart video. Then, for fun, I will have her try to Label the parts of a heart, and then we will find the answers together.

Day 5 of "9 Famous Females Doctors who changed the World," will be Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. I plan on sharing her Five Stages of Grief. We have all dealt with different forms of loss, so I plan on talking through each stage with her, and what they might look like. I found this beautiful website that talks a lot about grief, and provides handouts for children, teens and young adults to work through their feelings: Grief and Loss Worksheets.

Day 6 will be dedicated to Dr. Audrey Evans. This one hurts as my son had a friend who died of neuroblastoma, and that wake will forever hurt my heart. At the same time however, Dr. Evans founded the Ronald McDonald House, and Isabella volunteered there last spring with her girl scout troop for their Bronze Award. She and her troop performed music (violin/piano), song, led art activities, and served dinner to all the families.

After reading about Dr. Evans, we will look at a video Modern Hero about her life and accomplishments.

Day 7 will be Dr. Virginia Apgar. We will then look at an Apgar test and discuss why this is an important tool to use when a baby is born.

Day 8 is for Dr. Ana Aslan I'll be sharing this video with Isabella that explains the importance of her development of Gerovital H3 and what motivated her to study "life." This is similar to the motivation we talked about with Dr. Elion.

On our last day of the 9-day series, we will be looking at Dr. Rita Levi-Montalcini, her discovery of Nerve Growth Factor and how she founded the European Brain Research Institute in 2002. I was able to find an interview with her from 2008 that I plan on sharing with Isabella. I also found an amazing video Response of Cells to Nerve Growth Factor (NGF) that shows it in action.

Day 10 will be a review, where I will ask her to talk about one of the nine doctors and write a short report on her.

I also plan to talk about other women in history and would like to help her create a diagram 8 Famous Women showing eight famous women in different important and/or historical positions.

I am hoping this series in Women in History will help Isabella learn more about medicine, the important contributions on women in history, and, of course, girl power!

Teaching the nervous system (brain, spinal cord and neurons/nerve cells)

Science has been going great at our house. We started the science part of our homeschooling experience by reviewing what she already knew about planets, because she felt her school didn't focus enough on the subject. I shared a few fun videos I had found online, she colored some handouts, we learned facts about each planet in our solar system, and finally, Isabella did a short report on her favorite planet, Neptune. If it wasn't for the pandemic, we would have driven to the Air & Space Museum in DC. Unfortunately, we will have to table that field trip for another day (month? next year?)

After "Planets," we moved onto learning about cell structures (animal and plant cells). I continued the unit with having her label the parts of a cell, complete some worksheets, and then complete a short 8-question quiz that I found online that asked questions regarding to the functions of each part of a cell. She passed it with 100% accuracy so I knew it was time to move on.

Isabella has been wanting to learn about the brain since we decided to homeschool her. I told her we needed to first go through the rest of her 5th grade curriculum before introducing her to the nervous system. But now that she had mastered the basics of cells, it seemed like a good time to talk about the body, especially since I have also been teaching her Health "class."

I found a fantastic and short YouTube video that helps kids understand what part of the brain does what. I liked that it was a hands-on video, and Isabella was able to learn the concepts pretty quickly. I had traced the above picture of the brain diagram the night before, so I had Isabella label each part on the picture, and then write one fact or detail about each lobe.

After dinner, I made a quick power point presentation on the spinal cord using information I found on Google and Spinal Cord Lesson for Kids. I'll be sharing the power point with her tomorrow morning before my staff meeting (yes, I am working remotely while home schooling). After my power point (and hopefully before my meeting), I will show her how she can make a replica of a spinal cord using an egg carton. Once that is done, I would like to review the basics of neuron function using some colored playdoh and some other activities I found on this science homeschooling blog.

Once the basic overview of the nervous system is completed (brain, spinal cord and nerves), I am planning to return to the brain diagram and focus on each lobe with Isabella. I came across a really resourceful homeschooling blog when I was looking for a printable of The Stroop Effect. For those of you who aren't familiar with The Stroop Effect, I invite you to read the words below, and when you are done, go back and say the color you see instead of the word:

Basically, The Stroop Effect causes two conflicting signals to occur in the anterior cingulate region of the brain (between the right and left halves of the frontal portion of the brain). The Stroop Effect is a great way to show how the brain processes words and colors differently.

In any case, during my search for the printable, I came across the resourceful homeschooling blog that I linked above. The author shared several other activities that I am now planning to do to demonstrate different functions of the brain and go into more details in regards to each lobe and the neurons.

I am looking forward to some fun activities for Isabella to do!

Update: Here is Isabella's completed replica! (and we finished before my staff meeting started!)