One of my favorite units in Anatomy is blood. I have a few ideas.
1. Test blood. Use simulated blood for this Blood Typing lab (milk, vinegar, and food dyes). Investigating Blood Types uses dyes and chemicals, such as hydrochloride acid and silver nitrate. The ‘clotting’ is a precipitation reaction. If you teach Chemistry or have a MicroChem Kit, you may have the chemicals on hand.
2. Years ago, when I taught Anatomy to young kiddos, we did What is Blood made of? The activity uses red water beads, ping pong balls, and plastic felt pieces for platelets. The Anatomy class and the Biology class teamed up and delivered fun stations to the Head Start kids meeting at the church’s Knights of Columbus building. The blood station was a big hit. What’s in Your Blood? uses sprinkles. This version uses red gelatin and rice-items you may already have on hand.
3. Do a Forensics lab, Blood Splatter or Presumptive Blood Test (real blood). You may want to buy a simulated, presumptive blood test. Science Buddies has a lab, Crime Scene Lab Kastle-Meyer Test. (I didn’t think about using chicken or beef blood. I was thinking about pricking a finger.) Here are the chemicals to make your own Kastle-Meyer solution. It might be cheaper to buy a vial or just buy a kit.
4. Look at blood under the microscope. Even a basic set of slides has a blood smear slide. You can make your own blood smear slide. Here are blood images. Be sure to sketch and label the images, whether you use a microscope or your laptop.
5. Learn how to take Blood Pressures. Ask around to see who has a cuff sphygmomanometer with an stethoscope and digital kit. Ask a nurse to help.
6. Here is a blood presentation. I thought it was extremely useful for a high school anatomy class. Warning! There are 112 slides!
7. The American Society of Hemotology has several activities, including the ‘Mystery of Blood’.
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