Our Homeschool Field Trip to Body World

We finally got to take our homeschool field trip to Body World.  We had to put it off for several weeks due to our celebration of the early spring allergy season in Phoenix and to Daughter’s classes and my work schedule.  But we selected a day, I arranged to take off work, we bought the tickets on-line, fought the traffic snarls in downtown Phoenix created by construction of the light-rail project, drove around the parking garage until we found a spot in the lowest level, wove our way up to the entrance to the museum, waited in line to get our ID bracelets and in line again to get into the exhibit, and presto- there we were.

And it was worth it.  The exhibit is absolutely fascinating and I highly recommend it.  The plastinated models are posed in various actions and are displayed to illustrate how the muscles and tendons and bones look in those positions.  I especially enjoyed the film about how the plastinated models are created, with each model taking about a year to prepare.

As an educational exercise, the exhibit is outstanding.  Many of the attendees were in the medical field and there were several medical students, too.  Daughter called upon her nursing school lessons to explain anatomical functions, and we let The Boy pose himself as much as he was able in the postures of the models so that he could understand what his body was doing, how his joints move, muscles shorten and lengthen, where the tendons are connected.

I was unprepared (I don’t know why) for the artistic nature of the exhibit.  The curl of a finger or tilt of a head, the muscles bunching in a shoulder, or the way the bones of a foot look when the toes are pointed- all were displayed and illustrated in such a graceful and sculptural manner.

There was so much to absorb from Body World that I’m sure it will take some time to assimilate.  We had a little discussion this morning about the exhibit that depicts the difference between the lungs of a non-smoker and a smoker.  I think The Boy is preparing to talk to his grandpa; we’ll see how that goes.

All in all, it was worth the effort to get ourselves there.  I hope you get a chance to see it.