Okay, so I recovered from surgery and sent you all spinning along this nervous system lab work coupled with your work on Wolff's and numerous chapter assignments, so here's the deal...let's slow it down a bit and ease into the holiday break.  We will be starting some work with vision and finishing the work with the nervous system, so it's important that you continue to document your findings from the labwork, but your individual test will simply be a review of your notebook, while your group test will be an open note affair that we'll begin Thursday and end on Friday...with our soiree.  I think you'll enjoy it overall.

For those of you that keep track of due dates, you'll see that you and probably everybody else you know missed the deadline to add your "procedure" or "method" to your blossoming Wolff's Law Project, make sure you add it at some point prior to January 3rd, and we'll call it good....The guidelines to writing a good "method/procedure" are as follows...
      a.  as simply as possible, outline the steps someone would need to take to replicate your project.
      b.  to 'replicate' I mean repeat.  A person should be able to read your method page and then gather the required materials and actually do the experiment.
      c.  include how your measures are taken, and even include pictures or drawings if written descriptions can't communicate the work as well.
   
Apologies for speeding things up so much, but keep after it, this will all come together at the end, for now, take a deep breath, enjoy the season, and remember to get after those scientists, structures, and movements of the week.

Okay, you're well on your way to understanding this great big structure called the brain...Hopefully, by now, you know where the Frontal, Parietal, Temporal, and Occipital lobes are, along with the following other brain structures:  thalamus, hypothalamus, pons, medulla, cerebellum, amygdala, hippocampus, corpus callosum, olfactory bulb, and perhaps a couple others...Now, though, you're in the library and wondering what you need to do today...so here it is...

1.  The introduction to your project is due on Friday...it needs to be typed and either printed, or shared with bartschd@billingsschools.org, that's me.  Follow the steps below to complete this:

a.  Look up an original research article using the library data bases, base your selection on a key word related to your project...ex.  hand-eye coordination, motor skills, muscle hypertrophy, mental concentration, frontal lobe, learning, etc.  I'll help you with these if you are at a loss.
b.  Once you've found an article with a related keyword, read the introduction, then cite the article by writing the Journal name, the authors, the date, volume, etc.  The introduction to a scientific study has key parts to it, you should be able to identify them as follows...the first part usually defines whatever is being studied in five to seven sentences and explain the practicality of what is being studied (you will just write about Wolff's Law and how it affects you, and all the tissues in your body (not just bone))...the second part recognizes that other research has been done on the subject and summarizes the results of that research (you'll just summarize, using real numbers from class, what data you have already gathered that proves Wolff's Law...use stuff in your notebook)...the third paragraph introduces your study and why it's valuable and what important insight might be gained from your study, it can even include what you hope to find as a result of your study...
c.  Re-read the introduction you just read from the article, upload the article to your google account so you can reference it in the future...notice how words like "I" and "you" are never used, do your best to mimic the style of writing in the article, be precise and say only what you really need to say, but don't leave out what a reader would need to know in order to understand what Wolff's law is and how your study relates to it.

2.  Research who Phineas Gage was by finding both a book and an article from one of the databases (remember to cite both...just cite them in your notebook)
...find out the following about Phineas:   when he lived, his occupation, his injury specifics (seriously, get very specific...location, etc)  and why he is important to the study of the brain.
 

3.  Next, using your text book and Chapters 5, 6, 7 or 8...find one of the CSI studies from the six chapters (you choose)   and find a real journal article that addresses the condition that the CSI features and write a one paragraph summary of that condition, cite both your book and the article appropriately.  Email to me by Friday, December 7...

4.  Purely for extra credit, look up a part of the brain on one of the database pages, any part and put the word "lesion" behind it...example "frontal lobe lesion" and find 5 to 10 effects of such an occurrance, cite the article, list the effects, and BOOOM! (just like atp), there's some extra credit.

The notes from Monday are posted on the calendar page, at the bottom, titled muscle work.   I'm working on getting better at posting this stuff, hope this helps as you study for the test tomorrow...also, if you're studying for the test tomorrow, here's a couple examples of test questions...wow, smart move to check out this stuff huh?

1.  The elbow when flexed by the biceps is what type of lever

                a.  first class        b. second class                  c.  third class

2.  Which muscles below originate or start on the sternum.

a.  sternocleidomastoid   b.  biceps brachii  c.  latissimus dorsi  d.  pectoralis major              e.  a and d

3.  Which muscles originate on the scapula

a.  biceps brachii               b.  biceps femoris            c.  triceps femoris  d.  trapezius                  e.  a and c

4.  Which muscles do flexion?

a.  biceps brachii               b.  triceps brachii              c.  rectus abdominis    d.  deltoid                e.  all but “b”

5.  Which muscle is named for its shape?

a.  deltoid                            b.  rectus femoris             c.  trapezius  d.  transverses abdominis  e.  a and c.

6.  Which muscle opposes the lateral rectus of the eye?

a.  superior rectus            b.  inferior oblique           c.  inferior rectus              d.  medial rectus

7.  If a muscle is a flexor and is located on the anterior side of the body, which side of the body would its antagonist be found on…

a.  lateral              b.  posterior       c.  medial             d.  distal

8.  If a muscle’s main action was medial rotation, what would its antagonist do?

a.  flexion            b.  extension      c.  supination     d.  lateral rotation

9.  What is an antagonist of the deltoid?

a.  pectoralis major          b.  biceps brachii               c.  triceps brachi                d.  latissimus dorsi    e.  a and d.

10.  What is the insertion point for both the gluteus maximus and the iliopsoas?

a.  femur              b.  pelvis              c.  tibia                  d.  humerus

11.  What do we call a muscle contraction involving the shortening of a muscle?

a.  isometric, concentric                                b.  isotonic, eccentric      c.  isometric, eccentric   d.  isotonic, concentric

12.  When you push against something that doesn’t move, what type of contraction is taking place?

a.  isotonic           b.  isokinetic       c. isometric

13.  If the abductors of the body are primarily located on the lateral surface of the body, where would we find the adductors of the body.  A. on the anterior surface            B. on the medial surface  C.  Proximal

14.  What two muscles below have origins that include the spinal column…

a.  trapezius, pectoralis major     b.  latissimus dorsi, iliopsoas        c.  trapezius, sternocleidomastoid

15.  Which two muscles insert on the humerus

a.  pectoralis major, trapezius     b.  latissimus dorsi, deltoid           b.  biceps brachii, deltoid

16.  Which muscle below is named for both fiber direction and location.

a.  rectus abdominis        b.  rectus femoris             c.  lateral rectus                                d.  all choices

17.  Because muscle responds to stimuli, like the e-stim machine, it has this feature

a.  elasticity         b.  extensibility c.  contractility   d.  excitability

18.  Which muscle is named for both its size and its action

a.  gluteus maximus        b.  biceps brachii               c.  adductor longus          d.  flexor carpi

19.  What muscle inserts on the radius and ulna

a.  biceps femoris             b.  biceps brachii               c.  deltoid            d.  trapezius

20.  Which muscle opposes the movement of plantarflexion

a.  gastrocnemius             b.  quadriceps    c.  tibialis anterior             d.  hamstring

Hey, welcome back from Thanksgiving vacation, hope it went well and that maybe you got some extra credit in the process...some things to watch out for and to be excited about in the coming days.  We'll be finishing up working on muscles this week and hopefully give you some good experience regarding not only understanding how muscles work, but how the process of science works so you can have an excellent experience for your Wolff's law projects....

A timeline of sorts for you:  This week finish muscle...test on Wednesday, take home portion of the test is due on Friday.

Thursday...begin the nervous system...of course we'll be drawing a bit and doing a lot of clinical type tests ranging from sensory and reflex testing to memory and cognitive tests as well.  The vocab is going to get steep, so we won't be doing the usual concept check questions, we'll be delving pretty deep into memorization and reading strategies...so get to class.

Next week...continue with your questions, learn how to test reflexes, do some sensory testing of people who live at home, learn about the placebo effect as well as the law of initial values, and hey, let's dissect a brain or two.

Lever example

Here is how to solve a lever problem, particularly a second class level like the one you use in your ankle when you plantar flex and stand on your tippy toes. Just follow the steps in the video below...

Okay, crazy couple of weeks since the last post, important assignments to note and stuff you should have done because Friday, November 15 is the last day of the six weeks grading period...

The Midterm and its retake, very important.
Chapter 6 concept checks - we spend less time in this chapter, but use the material for the rest of the semester, so it's good if you could have these in by Wednesday, November 13.
Stay up to date on your structures of the week (or scientists or movements, or all of them), any extra you do go to help your grade.

Wolff's law project...by Thursday, we hope to have you committed to your project so you can truly begin to gather data for this...more to come soon...if you read this, draw pictures of the three types of lever on a sheet of paper and give an example of each as found in the human body for 10 extra points.  Take care.

October 25 thru October 31...

Okay, so we finished up the foot, did a review activity for chapter 5 and are about to put the skeleton and the bones behind us so we can start adding flesh to this skeletal framework of knowledge that we have regarding human anatomy (lame metaphor, but sorta funny if you think about it.).  Since we've begun our studies of the joints, moving on to how our skeleton is structured and moved by muscles will be the next third of the course.  Expect some calculation work here and there and expect to be haunted by thoughts of levers. Alas, though, you're probably reading this to get some extra credit or some insight into the midterms...so here you go...write out 10 rules of three from your studies in anatomy so far...ex.  the shoulder is made up of three bones and they are... and I'll give you two points for each rule of three if you get ten, otherwise, they're only worth one.  I also need that prior to taking your midterm.  As far as what's on the midterm, well, I'm glad you asked...

If you choose the hand...there will be questions about the carpals, phalanges, and joints of the hands.  you will have an anterior view of the hand...just like the x-ray above, thumb is to your left.
If you choose the foot...there will be questions about the tarsals, phalanges, and joints of the foot...you will have a top-down view of the foot....just like below

After that, you'll have about seven questions about specific bumps on bones or holes in bony surfaces...things like the greater trochanter, the coracoid process, the olecranon process, and the foramen magnum.

Next, there will be about twenty questions in a matching type format and a survey where you'll answer some questions regarding how the course has gone so far.  The matching will include three categories...

The big eleven, joints and articulations, and tissues.  That will be it.  here are some of the questions...

What function of the big eleven, do squamous cells allow for...
What is joint between the distal phalange and the middle phalange...
What type of joint is found between the sacrum and the pelvis (ilium)..
What type of movement does a fibrous joint allow?
What type of movement does a synovial joint allow?
What type of joint has fluid, articular cartilage, and a capsule of ligaments?
What holds bone to bone and is made from connective tissue?
What type of tissue has cells that are long, full of protein, and have many nuclei?
What type of tissue has cells that secrete a hard mineral-rich matrix?
What part of the big eleven deals with cells taking materials that they've absorbed and making new molecules with them?

October 22 thru 24

Okay, this week we've begun putting the memorization and rote-work involved with Anatomy on the backburner a bit.  Knowing the bones and all their processes is certainly important, but it's important not to lose site of the big picture:  which is the real world and how knowing anatomy could be really important to getting through everyday situations.

Our structure of the week is a case in point.  Many of you thought the "anatomical snuff box" was something I made up, but it's not.  In fact, if you read up on this little area of the human body, you'll find that tenderness in this area following a fall of some kind might mean that you've fractured a carpal.  You should also notice that this structure of the week is really just an area, but it's interesting in that it's bound by two tendons and that to understand what it is you have to know the joints that are nearby and that it can only truly be located by moving your thumb into a particular position...explain that position in the comments below and you'll find yourself in extra credit territory.

We also engaged in reading "Pitched from the Vertical" a dramatic story about falling written by Peter Stark, in his book Last Breath.  Since we've all fallen at times, this is a story we can all relate to.  Many of us are also afraid of heights, so that's another point we can identify with...think about it, are you really afraid of the height? or just the sudden stop after falling that distance?

Today, Wednesday, we traced your feet and reviewed the anatomy of the foot from the perspective of our footprint.  Which tarsals really bear our weight?  Reply again, and there's some more extra credit.  Also, today we looked specifically at your text from 192 to 194 and reviewed the different categories and classification schemes for joints in your body.  Now, obviously the content (diarthrosis, synovial, etc) was important, but as important was the way we looked at these three pages.  We took pains to organize the text into a small concept map and drew connections between the various types of joints.  So the point of the work was to get familiar with the vocabulary as well as with how the narrative of your text could be read and then put into a format that could be usable for you.  Try this on any two to three pages of text from Chapter 5 and show me what you come up with...include at least 7 to 8 important terms and make sure that you write some connections and I'll throw in a free quiz for work like that.  Thanks for reading...