Making Anatomy Connections through Hula
The Upper School Anatomy class is learning how the human skeleton, which is comprised of bones and joints that work together as the framework, protects the body’s organs that ultimately support human life. As an interactive lesson about how joints and bones meet and move, Mrs. Sarah Schlussel’s classes learned some hula dance moves.
“Through doing the hula, a very fluid dance where the dancer uses the entire body, we see how different joints – hinge, pivot and ball-and-socket joints – operate,” said Mrs. Schlussel. “Students can understand the movements of a joint better through this experience using their whole body to perform the dance moves. The shoulders, the wrists, elbows, hips, and knees – all important and different joints – were used during the dance, allowing students to feel the differences and directly connect how a hinge joint in the knee compares with a ball-and-socket joint like the shoulder.”
Student feedback was positive with comments like “I liked learning Hawaiian dance moves – it was cool and made me realize how our joints move,” “My partner taught me how to move my hips,” “It was a good, fun way to learn about joints,” and, “I got a deeper knowledge of joints by feeling how they move.”
