Human Health and Fitness – Muscles
Lessons 5 and 6
Lessons 5 and 6
Muscles
Essential Knowledge for Teachers
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Muscle is a soft tissue in the body of humans and animals. Its main purpose is to produce force and motion.
Muscles are responsible for maintaining posture, physical movement (sitting, walking, eating, etc.), and movement of
internal organs (such as keeping the heart pumping to circulate blood and moving food through the digestive system).
Tendons connect our soft contracting muscle to our hard bones.
There are around 650 skeletal muscles in the human body.
There are three types of muscle, skeletal, cardiac, and smooth.
Muscle (from Latin musculus, diminutive of mus "mouse") is the contractile tissue of animals and is derived from the
mesodermal layer of embryonic germ cells. Muscle cells contain contractile filaments that move past each other and
change the size of the cell. They are classified as skeletal, cardiac, or smooth muscles. Their function is to produce force
and cause motion. Muscles can cause either locomotion of the organism itself or movement of internal organs. Cardiac
and smooth muscle contraction occurs without conscious thought and is necessary for survival. Examples are the
contraction of the heart and peristalsis which pushes food through the digestive system. Voluntary contraction of the
skeletal muscles is used to move the body and can be finely controlled. Examples are movements of the eye, or gross
movements like the quadriceps muscle of the thigh. There are two broad types of voluntary muscle fibres: slow twitch
and fast twitch. Slow twitch fibres contract for long periods of time but with little force while fast twitch fibres contract
quickly and powerfully but fatigue very rapidly
An interesting research paper from the European Physiology Journal about actual gender differences in muscle strength
can be read at http://www.springerlink.com/content/l47235487q162675/
Common Misconceptions
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Meat is different from muscle.
Muscles can push as well as pull.
Muscle turns to fat if you stop exercising.
Muscles are not found all over the body.
Joints bend and allow us to move, rather than the muscles that are attached to our bones.
Muscles don't have layers, but work as one major unit.
Muscles control themselves (but only rarely do they).
Termly Scientific Skills Development Focus: Evaluation
Questions that should be asked: (For more suggestions see page 20 of the Scheme of Work)
 Are there any results/observations which don’t seem to match others?
 How would you explain any results/observations that you were not expecting?
 How would you use science to explain any results/ observations which don’t seem to match others?
 What could you do to make your method better?
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Opportunities should be given throughout the lesson for children to use and develop their knowledge of planning investigations
and collecting data. They should be encouraged to question the validity of their results.
Cross curricular links
Literacy
Numeracy
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Write an explanation text on the effect of being in space on human muscles.
Write a news story on how children are using exercise to improve their lives: eg
Newsround - http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/34499989
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Use data collected to produce a range of charts and tables.
Find averages of girls/boys etc.
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Human Health and Fitness – Muscles
Lessons 5 and 6
Other subjects
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Practise timing skills using stopwatches during the investigations. Children can use this
information for doubling, multiplying by larger numbers to calculate how many
repetitions may have been completed in an hour etc.
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DT: Experiment with making other models to show muscles working.
Art: Use the work of Kazuya Akimoto to inspire. (Please select images before allowing
children on the website) http://www.kazuya-akimoto.com/blog/man-male/
Starter Activity
Children’s Investigation : Finger muscles
You will need: a peg for each child
Give each child a peg and ask them to open and close it. Then repeat. Which parts of their body are being used? What could you
see if you removed your skin? What else would we not be able to do without our muscles?
Have children crouch with their toes on the floor, then stand. Which muscles are they using? Can we name any? Repeat with their
hands on their legs – ask children to describe what they feel happening.
Repeat with straightening and bending arms.
Possible Questions/ Suggestions for discussion
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What would happen if we didn’t have muscles?
What do they actually do? (See diagram attached)
Are all muscles the same size? If not, why not?
Are there any muscles you cannot feel?
Teacher Demonstration
Teacher Demonstration: Body Builders
In the absence of actual athletes it is worth showing some clips /pictures of the range in size of the different muscles different
athletes have from different sports and discuss the reasons for the differences and why each athlete needs different types of
muscle. E.g.
http://www.oddee.com/item_97013.aspx (Please look at the pictures and use as you feel appropriate.)
http://www.theworldsstrongestman.com/gallery.php
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVSmPBLnSXY (Flo Jo)
There is a click and drag game available at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/body/interactives/3djigsaw_02/index.shtml?muscles
Children’s Investigation
Children’s Investigation 1 : Gender differences in muscle strength
Children will need access to a range of exercise equipment plus school’s exercise mats.
Explain that pupils will be investigating to see if there is a difference between the muscle strength of boys and girls. Gather
predictions before they begin and ask for explanations to support their theories.
Demonstrate the apparatus that the students will be using and depending on the class either show / give them some written /
verbal instructions on how to carry out the investigation.
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Human Health and Fitness – Muscles
Lessons 5 and 6
The class could work in pairs and produce a ‘class average’ from their individual results and add this to a spreadsheet e.g.
Exercise
No of Reps / Time taken / Weight (N)
Girls
Boys
Press-ups
Bicep Curls
100 m run
Triceps Dips
Hand Grip Strength
Children’s Investigation 2 : Model Arms
Each pair will need:
 1 x thick card strips 15cm long x 4cm
 2 x long modelling balloons
 access to hole punch
 sellotape
1. Make a hole in either end of both pieces of card, about 1cm from the end.
2. Tape both pieces of card together, making one long strip.
3. Label one piece of card: HUMERUS and the other: RADIUS
4. Thread one balloon through the hole at the top of the bicep, tying a knot to ensure it doesn’t pull through.
5. Then thread it through the top hole of the humerus and tie a knot.
6. Repeat with the second balloon, on the opposite side to the first.
As pupils open and close the model, they can observe the “muscles” moving.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1phXt2Kumew …this one’s actually quite cool and could be modelled by teachers.
Children’s Investigation 3 : Microscopes + muscle slides
Allow pupils to use the viewers to make careful observations of the different muscle types. Pupils can record observations in
words or pictures.
Possible Questions/ Suggestions for discussion
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Did you find any significant difference between genders?
Could you explain differences any other way – height, age?
How did you ensure your results were valid?
What role do muscles play in the human body?
What would we not be able to do without them?
Do animal muscles work in a similar way?
Which muscles are easier to develop?
Which muscles are present inside the human body which we are not aware of? (heart, eyes, etc.)
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Human Health and Fitness – Muscles
Lessons 5 and 6
Learning Outcomes
All children should
Some children could
A few children could
 Know muscles are the parts of the body that permit us to move.
 Learn that muscles work by relaxing and contracting.
 Know how muscles can be trained to make them stronger and larger e.g. for
sports.
 Know that animals with skeletons have muscles attached to the bones.
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Learn that muscles give you the shape that you have.
Understand that everyone has naturally different amounts of each muscle.
Understand that a muscle has to contract (shorten) to make a bone move.
Know that muscles act in pairs.
Realise that there are often ‘patterns’ in science and these are important for
making scientific predictions to test.
 Learn the different types of muscle.
 Know that it is often difficult to carry out experiments with great ‘Accuracy’ and
this needs to be discussed when evaluating experiments.
 Learn that VALID data is obtained from experiments where only one variable is
changed.
Plenary/Review including Skills Progression focus: Evaluation
 Introduce and explain the terms ‘accuracy’ and ‘precision’ and discuss with the class how they felt their measurements /
data were accurate and precise.
 Walk the class through the process of evaluating the experiment, going through each part with contributions from the
class and once agreement has been reached the class should write these into their notes.
 Invite them in pairs to discuss the findings from their data and any conclusions they may have come to.
 How did we ensure our data was valid?
 Do we have any anomalies? If so, how can these be explained?
 What other investigations could we do to produce similar data?
Useful websites
Facts and figures for children: http://www.theschoolrun.com/homework-help/bones-and-muscles
Animation explaining the muscular system: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGR1eUGV-tA
BBC Bitesize: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks2/science/living_things/skeletons_muscles/read/1/
Fun activities for kids to try: http://www.nsbri.org/default/Documents/EducationAndTraining/Muscles/MB_Act7.pdf
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Human Health and Fitness – Muscles
Lessons 5 and 6
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Human Health and Fitness – Muscles
Lessons 5 and 6
NOTES:
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