Scripture: Genesis 24
Learning Objectives:
- Students will review the story of Isaac and Rebekah.
- Students will learn Rebekah provided water for each of the servant’s camels.
- Students will learn how the human body uses water to stay healthy.
- Students will participate in an activity helping them understand how the water humans drink helps move harmful waste products from the body.
Guiding Question: How does the body use the water we drink to help remove waste products from the body?
Materials: plastic beakers or other clear containers (2 for each student or pair of students), salt, warm water, tubing
Procedure: Review the story of Abraham focusing especially when he sent his servant to find a wife for Isaac. Explain how Rebekah gave water to the servant and to his camels. Explain the many ways the human body uses water to stay healthy (regulating body temperature, moving nutrients, boosting energy, cell life, shock absorber for eyes, brain, spinal cord, reducing kidney stones, lowering stress and blood pressure, preventing muscle cramps, aiding digestion, eliminating waste). remind the students that sometimes our bodies may have too much of a mineral like salt or needs to remove what is left after the body has absorbed all of the nutrients it needs.
Have students place a teaspoon of salt in one container. Have them place one end of the tube near the salt. Notice how difficult it would be to remove the salt through the tube. Now add warm water and stir until the salt dissolves. Have students notice how easily the salt water moves through the tube to the second container. Explain that minerals and other things are body no longer needs are often dissolved in the water in our bodies and removed in our sweat or urine.
Additional Questions:
- How does the amount of water a person drinks change the blood pressure of that person?
Supplemental Activity: Have more advanced students research the effects of after on blood pressure in the human body. Can they have an adult drink that amount of water over the course of a day and see an actual change in that person’s blood pressure?