Body Venture is a traveling health education exhibit for K-5 students operated by KSDE’s Child Nutrition and Wellness team. It is a great opportunity for students to learn about the importance of making healthy food choices and being physically active.   

The “Request to Schedule Body Venture” form for the 2025-26 school year is available at https://cnw.ksde.gov, SNP, SNP What’s New. The deadline to apply is May 31. 

This interactive exhibit travels in its own truck and is set up in a school gym or multi-purpose room. It is an enclosed walk-through exhibit representing the human body. At each of Body Venture's 11 learning stations, a volunteer presenter engages the students in an experiential and educational activity focused on healthy choices helping students learn to “eat smart and play hard.”  

The tour begins in the Body Venture lunchroom when students, in groups of eight to 10, receive a food tag designating them as a “local Kansas food” such as a carrot, lean beef or piece of cheese. The second stop is the brain where students learn about brain function.    

The "foods" step into the exhibit's larger-than-life mouth, are "swallowed" through the esophagus tunnel and move into the stomach. From the stomach, the students travel through the small intestine where they become nutrients and are absorbed into the blood. The nutrients then travel through the heart, lungs, bones, muscles, and skin stations.   

Students leave the body through a cut in the skin and proceed to the “pathway to life,” which recaps key health concepts from each of the ten previous stations. It takes each group of students about an hour to complete the Body Venture experience.   

Contact the Child Nutrition and Wellness team, cnw@ksde.gov, or (785) 296-2276 with questions.