SOUTH PORTLAND – Listening to their hearts beat, changing their breathing patterns and learning how food gets broken down within the digestive system were just some of the things South Portland third-graders did last week during the school district’s first Human Body Fair.

All third-graders in the city were given the chance to spend time at the Community Center learning about body systems from medical students with the Tufts Medical School program at Maine Medical Center.

The goal, according to Jane Eberle, director of business partnerships for the South Portland School Department, was to both enhance the curriculum for the students and to bring the wider community into direct contact with the city’s elementary schools.

She said the third-grade curriculum includes a section on the human body, and having medical students discuss body systems in a hands-on, engaging way was a perfect fit.

Superintendent Suzanne Godin agreed and said, “This (fair) is wonderful and fits in well with our project-based learning initiatives. It also created a great connection with the community. This is good for the interns, as well as the schools.”

Patti White, who administers the Tufts program at Maine Medical Center said the fourth-year students all volunteered to take part in the Human Body Fair and spent several weeks preparing their presentations.

In all, the South Portland third-graders were introduced to the muscular and skeletal systems, the circulatory system, the digestive system, the respiratory system and the nervous system, Eberle said.

“This is a great thing,” White said of the collaboration between the South Portland schools and the Tufts Medical Program.

“These (third-graders) are at a critical state in their own learning and development. To get them energized and engaged is great and it’s also a good chance to plant the seed that maybe someday they could become a doctor, too,” she added.

Anne Hicks, a local medical student, explains the workings of the digestive system to a group of third-graders from Skillin School in South Portland during the Human Body Fair last week. Jessica Stephenson, a medical student with the Tufts Medical School program at Maine Medical Center, asks a group of Skillin School third-graders what she’s holding in her hand. From left, Jacob Bucknell, Noah Viola and Thiliegh Kasprzyk all think they know the answer – a stethoscope.