The Woodward News

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June 5, 2010

Class focuses on muscles

Rowynn Ricks Woodward News

Woodward, Okla. — Morgan Miller’s favorite subject is science.

That’s why the Buffalo 12-year-old  sacrificed some of her summer vacation to spend a few days this week participating in a health education class at High Plains Technology Center “to learn about anatomy.”

The 3-day “Anatomy in Clay” class was led by HPTC Health Careers Instructor Polly Cottom, who in addition to having the students use clay to learn the muscles of the body, also offered fun side notes to help the children remember what they were learning.

For example, as Cottom explained the masseter muscle, which aids in chewing,  is located on the side of the face, she told the young students that she thinks of it as “the Elvis Presley muscle,” because it reminds her of Elvis’ big sideburns.

As Miller worked to mold and striate little pieces of clay to form the muscles of the human face on a model skeleton Friday morning, she said the hands-on activity not only helped her as she was learning the various muscles, “it’s fun.”

That’s one of the reasons that HPTC students Ashley Gray and Mayra Rodriguez decided to use the “Anatomy in Clay” class as a fundraiser to help them fund a trip to a national Health Occupation Students of America (HOSA) competition this summer.

“It’s fun to get to play with clay,” Rodriguez said.

Gray explained they also chose to hold the class because “it’s what we’ve learned about; we’ve done it and we thought it would be something good to teach to children.”

Teaching others about health is important to both Rodriguez and Gray, especially as the two recently won 1st place in health education at the state HOSA competition, which earned them a spot at the HOSA National Leadership Conference in Orlando this June 23-26.

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