I am a 29 year veteran middle school science teacher who strived to keep her students engaged in hands-on activities. I also liked to have students complete projects relevant to whatever we were studying and preferred they complete them in class to keep things on an "equal playing field". When studying human anatomy, I would have students create life size models of the body systems. While these projects were wonderful for display; rarely, if ever, did a student want to keep it after the display was removed from the hallway. I hated to see projects that had been created with so much time and effort end up in the dumpster, but I only had room to store maybe one or two.
One afternoon, while shopping a museum store, I saw a shirt featuring the human anatomy. I wanted to buy it and wear it to school when the thought struck me..."Why can't my students make their own shirt?" I'll condense the story considerably, but what it amounted to was me making LOTS of stencils of the organs, cutting them out, laminating them, and cutting them again out so they could be traced onto a clean white shirt that I asked each student to bring in. The tracing process was time consuming and frustrating for many of my students who made mistakes on their tracing and either had to "make do" and try to cover it up, or bring in
another white shirt and start over.
The next year I solved the problem. Through
Sportswear Graphics I was able to have my design screen made and shirts printed. Now I just send home a letter informing parents of our project and ask them to send $5 to cover the cost of the shirt. I collect the money, determine the best size for the student, send in my order, and we have them in less than two weeks! As we are waiting for them to arrive, we are studying organs and their functions and how the systems interact with each other. I give them a "plan sheet" of the organs that are depicted on their shirt and they color and label the organs to keep in their interactive science journal. When the shirts arrive, we are ready to paint them using fabric paints. I have posted tips for organizing this project, a sample parent letter, and even supplemental activities at
www.ScienceWear.net. Because
Sportswear Graphics is a "sole source" you won't need to worry about getting a bid for your school district and the shirts, with the screening, are still only $5 each, which is less than the cost of a good quality plain white shirt at Walmart.
I often see my former students and it is not uncommon for him/her to say, "I still have my guts shirt." That is music to this teacher's ears! I hope you give this project a try. Your students will thank you!
