For this project, we were put into groups and had to research about two different body systems. Our group did the muscular and nervous system. We had to research why they were important, what their functions are within our body, and how everything works together.
Important Concepts:
-Muscle Contraction: is the activation of tension-generating sites within muscle fibers. Muscle contraction is apparent in all movement and is crucial to mobility. In our project we used legos to push the model back to simulate contraction.
-Fast-Twitch Muscles: Fast twitch muscles are good for rapid movements like jumping to catch a ball or sprinting for the bus. They contract quickly, but get tired fast, as they consume lots of energy. Fast twitch muscles are important because we use them all the time whether we know it or not. It is used in day to day movements and vital to movement. In our project we used legos to push the model back to simulate contraction.
-Slow-Twitch Muscles: Fast twitch muscles are good for rapid movements like jumping to catch a ball or sprinting for the bus. They contract quickly, but get tired fast, as they consume lots of energy. The slow twitch muscles could be portrayed by contracting the lego "muscle" slowly.
-Smooth, Skeletal, and Cardiac Muscles: The three main types of muscles in your body. These three types are very important to the functioning of the body. In the presentation you can see the importance of these three muscles.
-Axons:a long, slender projection of a nerve cell, or neuron, that typically conducts electrical impulses known as action potentials, away from the nerve cell body. The function of the axon is to transmit information to different neurons, muscles, and glands.
-Neurotransmitters: Chemicals sent through your body as signals. We had lights emitting from the brain to simulate signals being sent.
Our Presentation
Reflection:
This was a fun project to work on. It involved a lot of research and work but I ended up learning a lot in the end. Overall, this project went smoothly. One of our peaks were that all of our group members each did our part. One of the drawbacks of our group was our lack of communication between ourselves. Another drawback was that our chemistry could've been better, and I think they all realized that as well. Besides that, our production was good and were efficient, which was our main peak. We always finished everything on time and we actually finished early in fact. Overall, this was a really fun project that we all enjoyed and learned from.