The «Museum Tour» project was launched last year and continues to be highly successful among schools. Thanks to the support of IBSA Foundation for scientific research, a 7th-grade class from the Canton of Bern was able to travel to Zurich and learn in a hands-on way about the importance of bones for our bodies at the KULTURAMA - Museum of Mankind.
With the Museum Tour organised by IBSA Foundation, school classes can visit a wide range of selected workshops in scientific museums throughout Switzerland free of charge. The program is aimed at Cycle 3 classes from German-speaking Switzerland. The students from the canton of Berne, who were able to visit the KULTURAMA free of charge as part of the IBSA Foundation's Museum Tour in August, had a great time studying the function of bones.
The KULTURAMA offers an exciting workshop on this topic, “Bones and Skeletons”, with plenty of practical exercises to make it easier to understand and therefore learn. And of course, a school trip is always an unforgettable experience.
Interactive Biology: observe, touch, learn
The educator Fabienne Spahn first guided the class through the exhibition, which featured both human and animal bones. The students were also allowed to touch and study a real human femur. Fabienne Spahn amazed them with the fact that this bone - when upright - can bear the weight of around 1.5 tonnes, which is roughly equivalent to the weight of an (old) VW Beetle.
The full-size vertebral bones of a giraffe were also a source of amazement. Because it has just as many neck vertebrae as a human - only the giraffe's are much bigger. The experiment with a chicken bone was met with laughter: the bone was soaked in vinegar, which dissolved the stabilising elements, making it elastic and pliable.
After a break, the class worked on tasks in the workshop room that illustrated the function of the bones. Among other things, a spinal column was built from foam and wooden elements, which could also be used to clearly explain back disorders.
Books and comics to discover the human body
Finally, the teenagers were delighted with the goodie bags from IBSA Foundation. In addition to a notebook and colored pencils for drawing comics, they also found the book «Let's move!» from the «Let's Science!» series. The book explains how our bodies move and the importance of exercise for our health - illustrated with an engaging comic story.
IBSA Foundation has recently published ‘Let's Science!’ a new series of books focusing on 10 scientific topics created in cooperation with DECS (Department of Education, Culture and Sport) and involving secondary school students from Ticino.
Each book is divided into two parts: in the first part, a scientist addresses a current scientific topic related to the human body. The second part is a comic strip that tells a story based on the subject discussed by the scientist: the script is written by students while the illustrations are created by experts from the Scuola Romana dei Fumetti.
