An Analysis of Bone/Muscle Movement

 

Alice Jacklet

Tested Studies in Laboratory Teaching, 1994, Volume 15

Abstract

By manipulating a simple kinematic model representing the leg and foot, students can get hands on information about the interaction of bones and muscles in humans. Having worked with the model, they then are able to predict and analyze the properties of bone/muscle systems in other vertebrates and understand how these systems have become modified during the course of evolution for a particular life style. By the end of the exercise, students have learned both traditional information (cellular structure, names of bones, taxonomy of vertebrates) and how to project the knowledge they gained from working with a model to the biological world.

Keywords:  evolution, muscle, skeletal system, kinematic model, biological levers

University of Toronto (1993)