Mr. Jenkins' Class Moves Into Muscles
by Gabe Jenkins
September 24, 2006
Following up on the Bones & Joints unit, my classes then moved right into a unit on muscles.
As part of this unit on muscles, my students and I worked in lab groups to dissect a chicken wing in order to see how the muscles, bones, tendons, ligaments, and cartilage all worked together to allow the chicken wing to move.
Some of the key ideas that students will be learning about include:
- There are 3 main types of muscle:
- Skeletal (also known as striated, or voluntary);
- Smooth (also known as involuntary); and
- Cardiac.
- Muscles' primary function is to help us to move (either our bodies, or substances within our bodies, such as blood or food).
- Muscles are only able to contract (or shorten); they are not able to stretch themselves back out.
- Because of this fact, muscles always exist in pairs (called antagonistic pairs): one muscle will contract to move a bone in one direction, while its pair will contract to pull the same bone in the opposite direction. As an example, the biceps pulls the hand toward the shoulder causing the arm to bend, while the triceps pulls the hand back down, causing the arm to straighten back out.
For more really interesting photos and videos, please see Mr. Jenkins for a copy of his PowerPoint presentation on muscles!
Enjoy!
