Water, the Body’s Air Conditioner

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 body uses water.
  • Students will participate in an activity helping them understand how water in the body can help in cooling it.

Guiding Question: How is the water we drink used by the body to cool it?

Materials: thermometers (measure temperature by touching skin), water

Procedure: Review the story of Abraham focusing especially when he sent his servant to find a wife for Isaac. Explain how Rebekah gave each of the servants camels water. Explain that just like the camels needed water, people need to drink water to be healthy. Teach students the various ways the body uses the water we drink (moving nutrients throughout the body, eliminating waste, helping cell life, shock absorber for eyes, brain and spinal cord, aiding digestion and regulating body temperature.) Ask students if they can guess how the body uses water to regulate body temperature. Explain how the body gets overheated, it begins to sweat some of the water in the body. As the air dries the sweat, the body is cooled. Give each student or pair of students a thermometer.

Have them record the temperature of the skin on their arms. Have them run in place five minutes and measure the temperature again. If they are not sweating naturally, have them put water on their skin. Take the skin temperature again. What changes do they notice in the temperature? What would happen to the temperature if the wind were blowing and dried the sweat? What would happen to the temperature if they become overheated and did not sweat?

Additional Questions:

  • Can the temperature of the water we drink change our body temperature??

Supplemental Activity: Have more advanced students repeat the activity. This time instead of placing water on the skin, have students drink heated (not boiling) water, room temperature after and ice water. After each drink wait two minutes and take the skin temperature again. Did the temperature of the water change the temperature of the skin? Whether or not the temperature actually changed did the temperature of the drink change how hot or cool the students felt? Why do they think they got the results they found?

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