Mount Florida pupils enjoy interactive learning sessions at Hampden Park

The University of the West of Scotland (UWS) has partnered with Hampden Park Limited to deliver a series of interactive sessions on the human body to Mount Florida Primary pupils.
Mount Florida  pupils with Professor Fiona Henriquez from UWS, Colin Lobban from Hampden Park Limited, Dr Stephanie Valentin from UWS and UWS Dr Chris Easton.Mount Florida  pupils with Professor Fiona Henriquez from UWS, Colin Lobban from Hampden Park Limited, Dr Stephanie Valentin from UWS and UWS Dr Chris Easton.
Mount Florida pupils with Professor Fiona Henriquez from UWS, Colin Lobban from Hampden Park Limited, Dr Stephanie Valentin from UWS and UWS Dr Chris Easton.

To help support the primary six’s classroom-based learning, UWS’ Dr Chris Easton, a Reader in Exercise Physiology in the School of Health and Life Sciences and his colleagues, Lecturer Dr Stephanie Valentin, and Interim Assistant Dean (Education), Professor Fiona Henriquez, delivered a four-part series focusing on the heart, lungs, muscles and skeletal system, and microbes and bacteria.

The sessions took place at Hampden Park allowing plenty of space for learning.

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Dr Easton carried out sessions on the heart and lungs where pupils were given heart rate monitors from UWS’ labs to record their pulses during exercise and a spirometer to read their lung capacity.

Dr Easton went one step further, using the indoor pitch at Hampden to involve the pupils in a visual representation of the cardiovascular system.

Here, the children took part in a red blood cell relay race, holding red and blue balloons to represent deoxygenated and oxygenated blood as it enters and leaves the heart via veins and arteries.

Week three was delivered by Dr Stephanie Valentin who focussed on muscles and the skeletal system. Given the sessions took place at Hampden, a football flavour was always on the cards.

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Special technology in the goals recorded how hard pupils were able to kick footballs, helping them to gain a clearer understanding of muscles and the skeletal system in action and how the two systems work in tandem to allow movement.

Dr Valentin brought jump mats so pupils could record how high they jumped and skeletons to familiarise them with the different bones in the body.

The fourth and final session was delivered by Parasitology specialist Professor Fiona Henriquez who spoke to the children about the influence microbes can have on health.

Theory was put into practice with a game of ‘Infection Tig’ where children were split into groups of viruses and healthy cells, with the viruses trying to catch the healthy cells.

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Dr Easton said: “Our sessions at Hampden Park have been a lot of fun and not just for the pupils. Classroom-based learning is incredibly important but sometimes it’s good to shake things up and learn in a new environment.

“By giving the children practical, hands-on experience of complicated systems such as the human body, they have a visual representation which may just stick in their minds longer than a diagram in a textbook.”

Caroline Gibson, headteacher at Mount Florida Primary School said: “The primary six pupils loved each of the sessions delivered at Hampden Park by UWS and we would like to thank everyone at UWS and Hampden Park Limited for making this happen.

“Learning about the human body is an important topic in our curriculum – we need to take care of our bodies and so it’s brilliant to be able to offer our pupils hands-on learning to supplement their lessons in the classroom.”