I recently was a presenter at a 5th grade Science Fair alongside professional astronomers, engineers, and physicists.  My high school science teachers would have never predicted this. I struggled to pass my science classes and it wasn’t until I studied fitness as an adult that I became interested in biology.

But as the pint-sized budding scientists filtered through my exhibit on muscles that evening, I was inspired by their thirst for knowledge. These were kids who could have stayed home that night to watch TV or play video games, but instead were back at school to learn more. Dozens of eleven-year old impressionable minds were available to me. I had mere minutes to take advantage of their desire to learn. So I started peppering my presentation with fun and unusual facts about the human body. They ate it up.

Trivia is defined as “insignificant information.” This may be true if the subject is, say, Little Known Facts About “American Idol.” But when the information has the potential to spark a child’s interest in health and the human body, it’s very significant, indeed. Listed below is a compilation of fun facts about the human body. Share it with your kids.

Amazing Anatomy

• The heart is the strongest muscle in the body.
• The largest muscle in your body is located in your rear end.
• The human neck has the same number of vertebrae as a giraffe’s neck.
• There are 22 bones in the human skull.
• The human skull is 80% water.
• The average human head weighs about 8 pounds.
• Your heart is just a bit bigger than your fist.
• The heart pumps 36,000 gallons of blood a day.
• The smallest bone in the body is in your ear.
• The femur (thigh bone) is the biggest bone in the body.

Gross-Out Goodies

• The average human will shed 40 pounds of skin in a lifetime.
• The strong contraction of your heart creates enough pressure to squirt blood up to 30 feet.
• About 75% of “poop” is made up of water. The rest consists of undigested plant fibers and germs.
• The average person loses about 80-100 hairs a day.
• Your nose makes about a cup of snot each day.
• You usually release about one and a half quarts of “pee” a day.

Fascinating Facts

• Your nose and ears never stop growing.
• Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
• The air released from a sneeze can exceed 100 mph.
• It’s impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
• From the age of thirty, humans gradually begin to shrink in size.
• At rest a normal person breathes 10-15 times a minute. A baby takes about 40-50 breaths a minute.
• Like a fingerprint, every person has a unique tongue print.
• Every time you step forward, you use fifty-four muscles.
• The surface area of a human lung is equal to a tennis court.
• Food stays in your stomach for 2 to 4 hours.
• Your funny bone isn’t bone at all. It’s a nerve that runs just under your skin in each elbow.

The web, bookstores, and the library all have resources that include trivia on the human body. I’ve listed the sources I used for my compilation below. As you might have guessed, kids especially enjoy the gross stuff. Even if you don’t have a budding scientist in your brood, these fun facts can help your kids develop a respect and admiration for their body. And there’s nothing trivial about that!

Sources:
http://www.DrLenKravitz.com
http://www.yucky.discovery.com
 I Wonder Why I Blink, by Brigid Avison
1001 Facts About the Human Body, by Backpack Books