First Graders Learn about the Heart from a Brandeis Alumni Father-son Team

For the ninth straight year, cardiologist Dr. John MacGregor and son Jacob (class of 2016) visited Ms. Barbara Eisenhauer’s first grade class for a lesson about the heart. Dr. MacGregor and Jacob began the morning providing the first graders with an overview of the heart. They asked the first graders what they already knew about the heart (a lot!) and then used a model of the heart to explain the structure and function and discuss the causes and effects of heart disease. The highlight of the presentation was when the students were given the opportunity to examine, touch, and even hold three hearts: a healthy heart, a heart from someone who had a heart attack, and a heart from someone with high blood pressure. And finally, using stethoscopes, the students were able to listen to their own and each other’s heart beats.

 

“Dr. MacGregor gives the same lecture to my first graders that he gives to first-year medical students,” says Ms. Eisenhauer. “Dr. MacGregor and Jacob are so gracious to come in and teach my students for the past nine years. They give the students such an invaluable gift.”

 

Exclaimed one first grader following the presentation, “We heard our heart beats and it sounded like music!” MORE PHOTOS