10 Terrific Human Body and Anatomy for Kids Websites

A class of children from a Colchester, Vermont, elementary school put the Human Body eBook together. Read-along passages are highlighted as kids learn basic body organs, the skeletal system, and their function.

This is a great activity idea for your own students. Have your kids to put together an eBook of anatomy concepts they need to know at their grade level. Perhaps combine it with Making a Model of the Human Body, illustrated by the how-to video below.

In Body Parts, from e-Learning for Kids, children get a tour of the human body with a guide who shows them the functions of each system.

The systems are contained in boxes:

• Bones, joints and muscles
• Senses
• Brain
• Heart and blood
• Lungs and diaphragm
• Stomach and intestines

The guide narrates as you touch the body part being explained. The accompanying text matches the narration. This is followed by a brief quiz at the end has a question corresponding to each body system explained.

Children's University of Manchester has several interactive learning tools for kids to learn about the brain, teeth, skeleton and digestive system.

The Brain and Senses illustrates how the senses work and the parts of the brain responsible for processing each of the senses, as well as personality and movement.

The Body and Medicines interactive guides kids through an exploration of the skeleton and bones and digestive system. Kids will also learn about the tests and instruments used to diagnose illnesses and the drugs used to treat them. There's also a section that illustrates how kids can distinguish good drugs from bad drugs.

The Teeth and Eating interactive explores the uses and structure of teeth, types of teeth and a timeline of the age at each type of tooth grows in. This is followed by proper teeth and mouth hygiene and healthy foods for your teeth.

Bone Biology for Kids was created by Dr. Susan Ott at the University of Washington to help middle school students to understand bone structures and composition.

Dr. Ott has detailed, well-illustrated explanations of the types of cells making up bones, and an A-Z glossary of terms related to bone biology. Students will learn about bone diseases and fractures and what makes bones strong and how you can strengthen your bones.

After reading all about bones and looking through the microscope slides, play Bone Quiz Yahtzee, an interactive game on the facts explained on the website. (The game only works in some browsers, such as Internet Explorer.)

The Blood Typing Game is based on discoveries by Nobel prize winner Austrian Karl Landsteiner in 1901. Students read illustrated passages to learn about blood groups, blood typing, and blood transfusions. Then they're ready to play the game.

You have to help three victims of a car accident in urgent need of blood transfusions. Take a blood sample, test it using the blood typing kit, then select the correct blood type and rh factor for the transfusion. If you choose the right one, the patient survives. Pick the wrong one, and they're dead!

Other popular human anatomy and biology games on the site include:

Nerve Signaling
The Diabetic Dog Game
DNA - The Double Helix

The Discovery Channel's Human Body: Pushing the Limits offers several 3-minute video segments showing human anatomy in action beneath the skin. The site also provides more in-depth explorations of sight, strength, sensation, and brain power.

Students can then use the Human Body Explorer interactive to put together pieces of the eye, see how much strain our bodies handle in everyday activities, and view the central, peripheral, and autonomous nervous systems. The culminating activity is the "Brain Power" interactive quiz and picture matching game.

Your students have the opportunity to put together the human systems puzzle of parts in BBC's Interactive Body. Choose a male or female. Then choose from the categories of Organs, Muscles, Skeleton and Nervous System. A body part appears in the box. You must put it in the correct place. To make the game even more challenging, you have to rotate it correctly before putting it in position.

You can ask for a hint, or to make it harder, turn off alerts that let you know what you're doing wrong. The major body parts are included, but not every bone in the skeleton, for example. Be aware that male and female organs are anatomically correct.

Explore the Human Body, from National Geographic, takes you on a journey through the brain, heart, digestive system, lungs and skin. This website has the best simulations of these body systems at work.

While the extensive written material is more appropriate for high school students, teachers can use the animations for anatomy studies with young children as well. For instance, in the "Feed the System" simulation, you see how different types of foods are processed by digestive system as they are consumed. View the anatomy and pumping action of the heart. Watch how the lungs function and what happens in the lungs of a person with asthma. See what parts of the brain are stimulated by different sensations. And watch what happens inside the skin as it ages.

Mapping Memory in 3D, from National Geographic, is all about brain anatomy. Simulations help students to see what happens in the brain to process visual information, auditory information, motions and sensations.

It also helps students visualize how thought and reason are processed by working memory. So they learn how the brain makes memories, stores them, and how it forgets information as it ages. This includes a progressive simulation of what happens in a brain damaged by Alzheimer's Disease.

J. Crimando's interactive anatomy tutorials do an excellent job of identifying body components for all the major body systems. The tutorials and quizzes encompass 11 systems:

histology
skeletal
muscular
nervous
endocrine
hematology
cardiovascular
respiratory
digestive
urinary
reproductive

These are particularly helpful to high school students taking AP Physiology or Anatomy courses.

Learn the basics of major body systems with the Human Body app for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. Labeled diagrams display the skeletal, muscular, digestive, nervous, endocrine and reproductive systems. Tap on a body part to learn more about it's function. Then go to the quiz section to label body parts.