We watched a great video from Teacher Tube, Amputations and Artificial Limbs in the Civil War.
It was pretty neat explaining to the kids about medical conditions, comparing what the North and South had as far as tools. I did warn them that it spoke about amputations. 7th graders dig this kind of stuff! I admit I caught myself in shock hearing about how they used the tools in the 1860s to perform amputations. The kids were grossed out as well.
What was interesting was that the video only lasted 5 minutes and just had a woman that explained on a mannequin how the process worked.
How this ties in with what we are beginning next week is we will begin studying body systems. It was a good intro to see how many of the body systems work together with other systems and do not just work independently.
They blogged and tied in the value of todays medicine vs. the medicines that were available in the 1860s. Overall it was a really productive day and I think the kids really enjoyed watching the video and blogging about the gross things they just learned about. Lots of new vocab too. The main word we learned was tourniquet. I was asked many times how to spell it and told them many times to 'look it up'.
Good times.....