Anatomy on a Budget: Muscles

 I’ve been saving materials for next year’s science course, Advanced Biology.  One category is muscles.   As always, the cheaper, the better.  

1. Muscle Models: Building an Arm Muscle uses paper, balloons, and paper clips. Muscle Lab  has a template and is designed for young kiddos.  KiwiCo has a Muscle Machine.  Exploratorium has a simple Hydraulic Arm.  Bioedonline has a simple arm model which uses two rulers with a complete lesson.

2. Take a look at this Skeletal Muscle Slide Deck.  

3. These slide outline a Muscle Fatigue Lab.  The materials required are timer, a clothespin or test-tube holder.  The slide include a data spreadsheet, something we emphasize in the science classes.  This lab version has a data table. Look at Muscle Action; it does require weights.  It asks students to recognize which muscles are exercised.

4. The Chicken Wing Dissection examines bones and muscles.  

5. View and sketch Skeletal Muscle slides, either online or under a light Microscope. 

6. Model muscles with Clay. I’ve used clay to model organs and bones—but not muscles.  We’ll give it a go next year.

7. Make a Muscle Model with straws or do Muscle Activities with rubber bands.  

8. Color a sarcomere,  Muscle Anatomy and Vocabulary, or these free Muscular System coloring sheets.   I’m buying used Anatomy Coloring books for the kids next year at around $5 each.  Usually, even the used copies have very few marks.  I usually order through Thriftbooks because they have points towards free books, further reducing the costs.