By Isabella Shaya | Published 11/11/12 9:48pm

The MSU Department of Physiology and the American Physiological Society hosted Physiology Understanding, or PhUn, Day Saturday at the Impression 5 Science Center, 200 Museum Drive, in Lansing. The event was run by MSU students and faculty as part of the American Physiological Societys annual and national PhUn Week.

For the first time, MSU students and faculty participated in the American Physiological Societys national Physiology Understanding, or PhUn, Week by helping children understand physiology, or the functioning of living organisms.

In celebration of the week, the MSU Department of Physiology and the American Physiological Society hosted PhUn Day Saturday at the Impression 5 Science Center, 200 Museum Drive, in Lansing.

Sue Barman, professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology and president of the American Physiological Society, said the annual PhUn Week, beginning Nov. 5, hopes to reach 11,000 kids in K-12 schools across the country.

The American Physiological Society is very interested in making sure that young kids understand physiology, Barman said. Teaching them at a young age about what physiology is about will hopefully encourage them to stay interested and perhaps become the next generation of physiologists leading that discipline of science across the country.

The more than 50 volunteers were students, mostly from the MSU Physiology Society, and faculty and staff in the Department of Physiology, Dr. Erica Wehrwein, assistant professor of physiology in the Department of Physiology and lead organizer of PhUn Day, said.

Participants visited stations run and built by the students with different physiology-related activities, starting from cells all the way to the whole human body system. Some stations also looked at animal physiology, and another allowed the kids to be the doctor.

Alumnus Jimmy Poteracki helped with the station where the kids extracted DNA from strawberries using household items.

(The kids) really seem to like being hands on, Poteracki said. I love teaching little kids science. Its really exciting to see young minds really curious.

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Department of Physiology hosts educational day in Lansing