BY ANDREA TORTORA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
NEWPORT -- Using a small flashlight and a hand-held mirror, Erica Steffen got a good look at the biology under her tongue.
"I saw my veins," the kindergarten student said. "They looked good."
Students at Mildred Dean Elementary learned about all parts of their bodies -- and how hard it is to play and live when certain parts don't work right -- through COSI on Wheels, a traveling science education program of the COSI (Center of Science and Industry) museum in Columbus. Parents and other volunteers helped COSI outreach demonstrator Amber Rhoton teach students about their blood vessels, vision, mobility and heartbeats.
Second-grader Emily Goins tried tying shoelaces without her hands. Standing before a sneaker the size Michael Jordan would wear, she used tongs to learn what it would be like if she had a claw-handed, prosthetic arm.
Getting the two laces together wasn't easy. "This is hard," Emily said. "I give up."
Volunteer LaShonda Fraley said most students could only tie a knot. "Most of them are still learning how to tie their own shoes." Nearby, kindergarten student Chad Schlake strapped prosthetic feet onto each of his own feet. Then he tried walking.
He was taller. He wobbled. He needed the hands of parent volunteers to make it a few feet.
"It makes you feel like a giant," Chad said. "You need practice to do that."
COSI on Wheels travels to schools in Ohio and surrounding states to give students hands-on science lessons. Mildred Dean's PTA booked the traveling lab a year ago.
"It builds such excitement for the kids, and it's a chance for all of them to participate," said Sandy Bowling, PTA president. The most popular activities, at least with the younger students, were the blind basketball toss and the human organ puzzle.
Using a human model with the chest removed, Jenny Baynum helped students place all the organs in the right places.
The liver threw many students off. They couldn't remember what it was called or where it went.
After kindergarten student Ashley Drew got the liver in place, she put in the heart.
"Now the ribs!" she said, reaching to put in the right lung. Ms. Baynum corrected her. "That's what you use to breathe with. What do we call them?"
"Oh yeah. They're lungs!" Ashley said. She put in the left one and the puzzle was complete.
