Unit 7 Reflection: The Muscular System

This unit was about the muscular system. Some of the essential questions of this unit were:

• Describe the types of movements that can occur at synovial joints.
• What are the different ways in which we move?
• Starting at the muscle fiber, extending all the way to the body, how are muscles organized and classified?
• How does a muscle work?
• What are the roles of some of the muscles?
• How do muscle fibers facilitate and respond to different types of exercise? 
• What are the causes and effects of using performance enhancing substances?

At the beginning of the unit we made a chart of things we already knew, things we wanted to learn, and things we learned this unit (the last column was left blank until the end of the unit). At the end of the unit, I went back to compare what I had wanted to learn with what I actually learned and was pleasantly surprised that all the things I had wanted to learn, I did learn.
One thing I had wanted to learn (and did) was the names, locations, and functions of specific muscles, such as the trapezius, the intercostals, the gracilis, and the peroneus longus. To help us practice remembering so many muscles, we did a chicken muscle dissection. 
I also learned about the anatomy of a muscle and how a muscle contracts. To help us learn this, we made a silent video explaining muscle contraction.

One of the things I learned about that I did not even think about was performance enhancements. We learned about the truth of performance-enhancing substances, overturning many of the myths and discussing many of the risks. We also created a "advertisement" satirizing one of these performance-enhancing substances.

satirical "advertisement" we made for andro(stenedione)

At the beginning of the year I made some New Year's goals, but unfortunately this month has been hard for me to meet my minimum of eight hours of sleep every night. Hopefully next month (and spring break) will make it better.
We are also spending more time working on our 20 Time projects. I am quite pleased with the progress I am making so far.