Lesson 4 Muscles

1. What do muscles do?

a. They help us move.

b. They enable us to breath.

c. They pump blood.

2. Muscle facts

a. The smallest muscle in the body is in the middle ear.

b. The largest muscle is the Gluteus Maximus.

c. The strongest muscle is the masseter that closes your mouth.

3. Kinds of muscle

a. Skeletal Muscle

i. Most skeletal muscle is attached to your bones and enable movement.

ii. Muscles never push!

iii. When they pull they contract, they tighten and get shorter and fatter.

iv. They are voluntary, that means you can move them by thinking about moving them.

b. Cardiac Muscle

i. Cardiac refers to the heart and that is the only place you will find this type of muscle.

ii. Contracts and relaxes without you thinking about it, involuntary.

iii. You can hear this muscle in action by listening to your heart beat.

c. Smooth Muscle

i. This muscle is found in your blood vessels, intestines, and bladder.

ii. Involuntary.

iii. We will learn more about these organs later.

Take Home Activity:

Building Muscle

Supplies:

Clothes Pin

Timer

Pencil

Paper

1. Guess how many times you will be able to open and close the clothes pin in one minute. Write down your prediction.

2. Now set your timer for one minute and count to see how many times you can do it. Record this.

3. Were your muscles tired? Where does your hand hurt?

4. Try the same thing with your other hand.

5. What do you think would happen if you did this every other day for two whole weeks? Make your prediction.

6. Do this exercise with your dominant hand (the one you write with) every other day for two weeks and record the results.

7. You should have eight results to record. What do you notice about the numbers? Do they get bigger or smaller? What do you think that means?

8. Bring your results to class to share!