Topic: Muscles

Target group

7th‑grade students of elementary school

Core curriculum

3. Locomotor system. Student:

3) presents the role and interaction of muscles, tendons, bones and joints in the exercise of movements.

General aim of education

Students describe the structure and functioning of skeletal muscles

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Criteria for success
The student will learn:

• to describe the functions of the muscle system;

• to show the connection between the build of the muscle and its functions;

• to explain the antagonistic nature of how muscles function;

• to describe how bones, joints, muscles and tendons work together in the motor system.

Methods/techniques

• expository

  • talk.

• activating

  • discussion.

• exposing

  • exposition.

• programmed

  • with computer;

  • with e‑textbook.

• practical

  • exercices concerned.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• notebook and crayons/felt‑tip pens;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers.

Lesson plan overview

Before classes

• Students get acquainted with the content of the abstract. They prepare to work on the lesson in such a way to be able to summarize the material read in their own words and solve the tasks themselves.

Introduction

• The teacher explains the aim of the lesson and together with students determines the success criteria to be achieved.

• The teacher, referring to the previous lessons, asks the chosen student to exchange the known elements of the movement system and explain whether they are enough to move.

Realization

• Students read the fragment titled „Skeletal muscles”. Then they explain in writing, which means that this type of muscle is an active part of the musculoskeletal system.

• The teacher asks pupils to view an interactive illustration of the double‑headed muscle and try to imagine what will happen when the biceps muscle contructs. Students provide solutions..

• The teacher asks students to explain what will happen when the biceps muscle contracted. Students provide different solutions.

• The teacher asks students to demonstrate the movement of the arm muscles and describe its mechanism. He announces that flexor muscles and rectifiers are also found in other parts of the body. He encourages students to try to find them by making various moves. Students present the results of their search.

• Students, working individually or in pairs, carry out interactive exercises to check and consolidate knowledge learned during the lesson. Selected people discuss the correct solutions for interactive exercises. The teacher completes or corrects the statements of the proteges.

Summary

• The teacher briefly presents the most important issues discussed in class. He answers the additional questions of the proteges and explains all their doubts. Students complete notes.

Homework

• Listen to the abstract recording at home. Pay attention to pronunciation, accent and intonation. Learn to pronounce the words learned during the lesson.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Muscles

Striated muscles of the skeleton are the active part of the motor system. They are attached to bones and allow their movement in regard to each other (and at the same time the movement of the body), participate in maintaining the vertical posture and facilitate breathing. A human being to a greater degree controls the movements of his skeletal muscles, thanks to which they can be exercised.

Skeletal muscles have different sizes, shapes, placements and functions.

Some of them, like biceps brachii, called biceps, is a surface muscle and you can feel it and observe how it works. Other muscles are invisible, situated deep under the skin or very small. Facial muscles, also know as mimic muscles, have one side attached to the skull and the other to the skin of the face. They allow us to express various emotions.

The most important muscle when it comes to its movements is the diaphragm. It separates the abdominal cavity from the chest cavity. Its contraction causes us to inhale.

Skeletal muscles are mainly fusiform. The main muscle mass is the muscle belly which is composed of long fibres that can contract. At its ends there are tendons, which attach muscles to the bones. Tendons are built of connective tissue which cannot contract, but it tenses during muscle contraction.The muscle belly at one end can be split and create muscle heads, just like in the case of a biceps, which has two heads.

In order to cause movement, a muscle must contract. The contraction happens thanks to protein fibers that are present in muscle cells. Reacting to a signal that comes from the nervous system (neural impulse) they slip between each other thus making the entire muscle thicker and shorter. When it is attached to 2 bones (which are connected together by a joint), over the joint and under the joint, it becomes shorter, bringing the bones closer to each other.

The majority of body movements is based on the work of pairs of muscles (single or working as a group) - when one of them contracts, the other loosens. Bones and muscles work closely together while moving, and together they act like levers. When we bend the forearm, the biceps contracts, its tendons are tense and bring the bones of the forearm closer to the arm. At the same time the antagonist of the biceps, the triceps, must be loosened. The triceps is responsible for extending the forearm in the elbow.

The biceps is situated in the front part of the arm, whereas the triceps is located in the back part of the arm. The muscle which contracts and brings the forearm closer is the flexor, and the one that is loosened at that time is the extensor. While the flexor contracts, the limb becomes bent in the elbow. The work of the biceps and triceps is antagonistic in nature.

• Skeletal muscles are the active part of the motor system, whereas bones and their connections are the passive part.

• Bones, muscles, joints and tendons work with each other to make our bodies move.

• Muscle is composed of a muscle belly able to contract and of tendons.

• Movement of the muscles is realized in an antagonistic way.

• The motor system works closely with the cardiovascular system and the nervous system.