What do you get when you cross petroleum jelly, food coloring/fake blood, toilet tissue, and cocoa powder? A fun, engaging lab activity for your Integumentary System unit, of course!
My students sometimes think studying the Integumentary System can be a little boring so this year we tried something different– We created gross, realistic looking wounds to explore wound healing.
First Step: Easy Video Instructions
We watched this video before going into the lab. I think it does an excellent job of explaining the process. It also helped my students visualize what the process looked like.
In the Lab:
Students worked in partners and were given a choice of locations for the wound they were to create on their partner. There were 6 location choices (on arms and legs only) that were written using anatomical directional terms. For example, “the wound was inferior to the antecubital region of the right arm and superior to the phalanges”. They also had a choice of wound lengths. Their lab sheet also asked them what stage of wound healing their wound was in currently. When I checked the lab groups, they had to tell me exactly which wound (location and size) they created. I think it really helped them practice the anatomical terminology in a practical setting.
Here are some addition photos of our “wounds”
The students LOVED it!! (and some really got creative). I’ll definitely be doing this again next year!
Edgy Instruction 
This is a fantastic idea! I’m interested in what their lab sheets looked like and how you evaluated. Can you share any more information?
This looks amazing and I just started the integumentary system. I would love to see what the ab sheet looked like. Are you able to make those available?