bestology 2023 Week 6 – Skeletal System

Skeletal System

What is the skeletal system?  What role does it play in our bodies? Do you know what parts of the body are included in the skeletal system? Let’s take a tour and find out. Before we get started, take the following quiz to see just how much you really know.

Our skeletal system includes all the bones and joints in the body. It also includes a network of tendons, ligaments, and cartilage that connect our bones together.  The skeletal system has a task to protect our internal organs, produce blood cells, store and release fat all the while providing support and protection for soft tissues throughout the body.  It gives us the ability to stand up properly and to have mobility throughout the day.

Your bones are a living organ made of cells, protein fibers, and minerals to function properly. Within your bones, it is made up of three main types of materials.  The compact bone which is approximately 80% of your bone, the spongy bone which encompasses approximately 20% and bone marrow.  Watch the following video on an overview of the “Human Skeletal System”.

Do you know how many bones make up your skeletal system?  It’s made up of 206 bones coming in 5 basic shapes – Long bones, short bones, flat bones, irregular bones, and sesamoid. Your long bones are found in the fingers, toes, arms, and legs. Short bones are found in the ankles and wrists while your flat bones make up the sternum, ribs, shoulder blades, and skull.  The irregular bones are part of the spinal cord and face.  Lastly, the sesamoid bones are found in the hands, wrist, knees, feet, and ears.

Here are some fun facts about the skeletal system – Human Body Facts:

• At birth, the human skeleton is made up of around 300 bones. By adulthood, some bones have fused together to end up with 206 bones.

• Human bones grow continually from birth until our mid 20’s. Our skeleton’s bone mass is at its maximum density around the age of 30.

• Like our skin, the human body’s bones are also constantly worn down and re-made, to the point where every 7 years we essentially have a new bone

• The area of our body with the most bones is the hand, fingers, and wrist where there are 54 bones.
• There a just a few differences between human male and female skeletons. The female skeleton is generally slightly smaller and the pelvis bones differ in shape, size, and angle in order to assist with childbirth.

• Calcium is very important for our bones and helps keep them strong and healthy.

• The areas where our bones meet are called joints. The joints in our cranium have no movement while our hip joints allow for a wide range of movement.
• Bones are held in place at joints by muscles and also tissues called ligaments. Another type of tissue called cartilage covers each bone joint surface area to prevent the bones rubbing.

Resources

• Best Robotics  
• KidsHealth Quiz: Bones
• Human Body Facts
• The Functions of the Skeletal System
• Label the Skeleton
• Label the Skeleton Answer Key
• A – Z of coping at home
• Mindfulness techniques Workbook
• 100 Free Coping Strategies
• How to Make a Skeletal System Model
• Pasta Skeletons
• Scissors, Glue, Color Pencils, Journal.
• Playdoh
• Toothpicks
• Pasta (multiple shapes/types)

Research/Reflect/Brainstorm

 Grab a notebook or your journal and research the following:

• Research what parts are in the skeletal system. Write out the parts that make up the skeletal system. Next, go to the following worksheet, “Label the Skeleton” and fill it out.  Once you are finished compare it with the “Label the Skeleton Answer Key”.

• Next read the article, “The Functions of the Skeletal System” and answer the six review questions followed by the critical thinking questions. Once finished, check your answer at the bottom of the article.

Activity

 Group – As a group, create a colorful model of the Skeletal System using construction paper, noodles, glue, and anything else you need to create the skeletal system.  Check out this link on “Pasta Skeletons” for reference.  

Individual – Using playdoh and the toothpicks create a skeletal system model.  Follow this step by step instructions on “How to Make a Skeletal System Model”.

BEST connection 

Part one (next week will be part two)

Our skeletal system doesn’t work alone. In fact, all the body systems work together to create a working system. The BEST robotics kit is made up of many systems, all working together to make your robots move and function.

Look at the consumable and returnable kits and list all the parts that would fall under the skeletal system of the robot. Obviously this system can’t work without the other systems. What other systems does your robot have and what systems of the human body can they be compared to? Take a look at a robot you have built. At what point in your design process did your skeletal robot become a functioning robot? What components in your kit make your skeleton robot move?

Community Connection

The skeletal system does many things, but an essential part is that it supports the body.  Without the skeletal system, you would fall apart. The skeletal system is also our foundation for stability. Our coping tools or ‘stress relievers’ keep us strong and stable. Have you ever broken a bone? When you break a bone, the body forms a clot around the break.  Immune system cells in the blood clot get rid of germs that may have entered and begin to create a soft collagen callus around the break eventually creating a new bone. Just like when you break a bone and start the healing process, the trials that may break you in life have the capacity for helping you grow, learn, and change. It may mean moving forward in a different way with new routines or new people in our life.  Something that happens to you doesn’t define you or hold you back forever.  You will move forward, it just takes time, just like healing.

What helps keep you together so you don’t fall apart? Is it your family, faith community, your education, friends, or your future? Who do you run to when you have a problem or need someone to listen to you? Is it a teacher, school counselor, family member, church member, friend, or coach? We all need each other. We need things to go to when we are down, scared, worried, or facing an unknown.  It is important to have people and healthy things to turn to when you are struggling with a big feeling. This is why it is important to have calm down strategies to try and options to help us release stressors so you do not run to unhealthy avenues. There are many things you can go to for help when people are unavailable such as exercise, journal, mindfulness, deep breathing techniques, do something you love, distract your brain, listen to music, try a calm down app, create some art, take a break from social media, watch a show, call a hotline and many more.

Here are some apps to help reduce stress and anxiety.

Apps

“A – Z of coping at home” – A free poster you can download and post in the classroom.

“Mindfulness Techniques Workbook” – Different breathing and mindfulness strategies students can try when they need to calm their brain down and think rationally. Print off and let students take the strategy they want to try next time they need to breathe.

“100 Free Coping Strategies” – Students can highlight and add what strategies they will try next time they are faced with a stressor.

Hotlines:

National Suicide Hotline  1-800-273-8255  

https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/    https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/help-yourself/youth/

Crisis Text Line Text HOME to 741741 to connect with a Crisis Counselor

https://www.crisistextline.org/

National Safe Place-

https://www.nationalsafeplace.org/aboutus/about-where.php

Bloom’s Taxonomy: create, explore, evaluate, generate, include, identify, list, observe, reflect, review, use, and write

Workforce Skills – list workforce skills related to this lesson

Critical thinking, materials evaluation, reading comprehension, science, writing, research