Mini Macks’ Science Fridays

For years the Mini Macks and I have developed our own science curriculum. The kids would come up with a science question by Thursday and by Friday morning I would have the answer, complete with hands-on activities. One of our favorites was “Why do leaves fall from trees?” Four hours of Thursday night research and college-level journals later, I had their answer.

So when Ryder asked me how coronavirus was contracted, I didn’t have the true scientific answer off the top of my head. A general understanding of viruses, sure. Anatomy and building immunity, maybe. But really, how did one contract it and what happened from there? Why was this virus different from others? The flu is nothing new.

Many hours of research later, I had an answer for them. Of course, this is a moving target topic, but I think we got pretty close to a solid understanding. We also included some great online videos to help visualize our findings.

Without further ado, we would like to give our Science Friday lesson plan to you! I think any age group would like all or parts of it! It is below for your viewing pleasure.

The links for the videos are in the downloadable PDF here. But I will list them at the end of this post as well since the coming image cannot be clicked.

Happy learning from our homeschool house to yours! We are just tickled the whole world is now homeschooling with us.

The links for the videos are in the downloadable PDF here.

Video Resources:

  1. VIDEO: How Does Your Immune System Work? YouTube. 8 Jan 2018. Accessed 27 Mar 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSRJfaAYkW4
  2. VIDEO: Butler, Enda. Oxygen’s surprisingly complex journey through your body. YouTube. 13 Apr 2017. Accessed 27 Mar 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVU_zANtroE
  3. VIDEO: Lungs 101. National Geographic. 6 Jun 2019. Accessed 27 Mar 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B75kBvjJink
  4. VIDEO: How does COVID-19 spread? CDC. 20 Mar 2020. Accessed 27 Mar 2020. https://youtu.be/WfJSVbQtHsk 
  5. VIDEO: How Mucus Keeps Us Healthy, Katharina Ribbeck. 5 Nov 2015. Accessed 27 Mar 2020. 
  6. VIDEO: The Coronavirus Explained and What You Should Do, Kurzgesag.19 Mar 2020. Accessed 27 Mar 2020.
  7. VIDEO: What are the Cilia? Daniel Izzo. 5 Jan 2009.  Accessed 27 Mar 2020.

Other Resources:

  1. McKeever, Amy. Here’s What Coronavirus does to the body. National Geographic. 18 Feb. 2020. Accessed 27 March, 2020. 
  2. Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Accessed 27 March, 2020. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html

The CDC is the Center for Disease Control and Prevention operated by the United States Government. “CDC is one of the major operating components of the Department of Health and Human Services. CDC works 24/7 to protect America from health, safety and security threats, both foreign and in the U.S. Whether diseases start at home or abroad, are chronic or acute, curable or preventable, human error or deliberate attack, CDC fights disease and supports communities and citizens to do the same. CDC increases the health security of our nation. As the nation’s health protection agency, CDC saves lives and protects people from health threats. To accomplish our mission, CDC conducts critical science and provides health information that protects our nation against expensive and dangerous health threats, and responds when these arise.” -CDC.gov


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