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Hearts and other parts with TES Body Venture

By Shawn Linenberger - | Dec 23, 2015

Stephen Montemayor

Ray Marsh Elementary students sit and learn about the mouth at one of the Body Venture station on Wednesday, Oct. 12. The 11-station exhibit was stationed in the school gymnasium and travels to schools across the state to educate students on health and fitness.

Some 430 Tonganoxie Elementary School students made their way through the small intestine Thursday at the TES gymnasium.

The Body Venture exhibit returned to the school for another year, as students in grades 2-4 made their way through the various stations in the exhibit.

TES health and physical education teacher Diane Titterington said the school tries to bring the educational tool, which is administered through the Kansas Department of Education, to TES about every three years.

Body Venture is funded through a KSDE nutrition and wellness grant. Though the district has paid up to $500 for each of the previous Body Venture visits, this year’s visit was of no cost to the district.

Titterington said that with budget crunches and less funding to public schools in general from the state, this year’s appearance was free.

Body Venture, formally known as Body Walk, gives students a closer look at the human body and what foods and products are good and bad for it.

“It’s kind of like traveling the digestive system mostly,” Titterington said. “They also talk about the skin an the muscles and the brain and heart.”

Volunteers and teachers man 12 different stations that deal with those areas, along with the nervous system and circulatory system.

“Most of the stations talk about how the food you eat would help or hurt that system,” Titterington said.

Students spent five minutes at each station before rotating to a new one.

Various college students helped volunteer with the exhibit. There were three nursing students from Mid-America Nazarene University and two from University of Saint Mary, including Tonganoxie High School graduate Jo Kissinger. Her mother, Ursula, also is a PE instructor at the school.

Titterington’s son, Marcus, a student at Oklahoma Baptist University, also assisted.

Titterington said students voiced excitement for the exhibit. There wasn’t a clear-cut favorite station, per feedback Titterington received. Students liked a variety of stations, though many were in agreement about the smoker’s lung area being “gross.”

“It’s a lot of work, but it’s really a great thing,” Titterington said. “I hope we can keep doing it every three years so at least all the students get to experience it once.”