Download KS3 worksheet 8- v3 - BAE Systems Education programme

TOPIC:
The skeletal and muscular systems
decreases to 206 bones by adulthood after some bones have fused together. The human skeleton can be
divided into the axial skeleton and the appendicular skeleton. The axial skeleton is formed by the vertebral
column (spine), the rib cage, the skull and other associated bones. The appendicular skeleton, which is attached
to the axial skeleton, is formed by the pectoral girdle (rib cage), the pelvic girdle and the bones of the upper and
lower limbs. The male and female human skeleton as that of many other primate species, is almost identical, but
subtle differences can be found between sexes in the skull, the teeth, the long bones, and shape of the pelvis.
J
A
K
L
B
M
C
D
N
O
P
E
Q
R
S
T
F
G
H
I
U
What to do:
Working with a friend try to label some of the bones of the
human skeleton and then discuss the questions in each section.
The skeleton serves several major functions which include
support, movement, protection, and making blood cells.
Support: Your skeleton provides the framework which
supports the body and maintains its shape.
Q What would happen if you didn’t have a pelvis or a rib cage?
Movement: The joints between bones allow movement, some
allowing a wider range of movement than others, for example the
ball and socket joint in your hip allows a greater range of
movement than the pivot joint in your neck.
Q What impact would it have on your ability to move, if your
muscles became unattached from your skeleton?
Muscles, bones, and joints provide the principal mechanics for
movement, all coordinated by the nervous system.
Q How might your movement be affected by malfunctions in your
nervous system?
Protection: Your skeleton helps to protect your many vital
internal organs from being damaged. For example,
• the skull protects your brain
• the vertebrae protect your spinal cord
• the rib cage, spine, and sternum protect your lungs, heart and
major blood vessels.
Q Which of your vital organs are less well–protected and so
most at risk from being seriously damaged?
Blood cell production: The skeleton is the site of
haematopoiesis, the name for the development of blood cells
that takes place in the bone marrow. There are three types of
blood cells – red, white and platelets – found in mammals.
Q Which of these types of cells has the iron-containing protein
and how is this vitally important to the function of your lungs?
Science Technology Engineering Maths
For more resources like this,
this visit
visitww.baesystemseducationprogramme.com/resources
www.baesystemseducationprogramme.com/resources
8
STRUCTURE & FUNCTION OF LIVING ORGANISMS
The human skeleton is the internal framework of the body. It is made up of 270 bones at birth – which
KS3
TOPIC:
The skeletal and muscular systems
People sometimes find bones when they are digging in their
gardens, working on building sites, or even just walking in the
countryside. How do we know whether these bones are human
and whether or not they are of any forensic interest or whether
they are from an animal and possibly even archaeological remains?
In order to identity skeletal bones which have been found,
forensic anthropologists rely on past scientific investigations,
experiments and studies of other skeletons. Through the
collection of thousands of specimens and the analysis of differences and sameness within a population,
estimations can be made. A forensic anthropologist can potentially determine a victim's age, sex, height
and ancestral origin. In addition to identifying physical characteristics of the individual, forensic
anthropologists can use skeletal abnormalities to potentially determine cause of death, past trauma such as
broken bones, medical procedures or diseases.
Three questions which will help tell
animal bones from human bones:
Does larger mean older?
Are there any distinct skeletal bones?
Many animals have adapted to living environments that
are very different to the environments we live in;
therefore, they often possess distinct skeletal bones that
humans do not have. The bones of birds are well suited to
flying because they are very light. Additionally, birds have
unique bones that are not found in the human skeleton,
including the furculum (wishbone). The presence of this
and other unique bones found together as part of a
skeleton is a tip off that the bones are not human.one
large bone, but the femur of a child is split into five parts
and it’s only when all the parts fuse that the femur is fully
developed, when a human is around 18 years old.
Some small animals have bones that look like tiny
adult human bones. A forensic anthropologist familiar
with the development of the human skeleton knows
that the bones of children do not look like small
replicas of adult bones. This is because until humans
reach adulthood, their bones are still growing in size
and changing in shape. Many of the bones of a human
child do not look identical to adult bones because they
are split into pieces that fuse as the child grows. For
example, the femur (the large bone in the thigh) of an
adult and a child are very different. The adult femur is
one large bone, but the femur of a child is split into five
parts and it’s only when all the parts fuse that the femur is
fully developed, when a human is around 18 years old.
Science Technology Engineering Maths
What shapes can we see?
Although animals and humans share
many of the same skeletal bones, these
often look very different from one
another. For example, humans and
chimpanzees both have pelvises, but
because the human pelvis is designed
for walking upright it has a distinctively
different shape from that of a
chimpanzee. The human pelvis is bowl
shaped, whereas the chimpanzee has a
long thin pelvis allowing it to walk easily
on all fours.
For more resources like this,
this visit
visitww.baesystemseducationprogramme.com/resources
www.baesystemseducationprogramme.com/resources
8
STRUCTURE & FUNCTION OF LIVING ORGANISMS
Forensic Anthropology – bone studies in a legal setting
KS3
8
N
STEM
ME
O
KS3
Clea Koff
As a 23 year old graduate studying
prehistoric skeletons in California, Clea
Koff was invited to join a small team of
United Nations scientists exhuming the
victims of genocide in Rwanda.
Mildred Trotter
During the 1950s, the U.S. Army employed forensic
anthropologists in the identification of war casualties
during the Korean War. The number of available
skeletons for anthropologists to study, whose identities
were initially unknown, allowed for the creation of accurate
formulas for the identification of sex, age
and height based solely on
skeletal characteristics.
Mildred Trotter pioneered
this work. She had had
an outstanding academic
career too – having taken a
PhD in anatomy in 1924. Her
formulas, developed in the 1940s and
by which she and her team identified 94% of
all individuals’ remains, are still in use
by modern forensic
anthropologists.
What to do:
What differences and similarities can you
observe in the skeletons of these vertebrates?
Other remarkable
women in Forensic
Anthropology for
you to research:
Sue Black
Karen Ramey Burns
Mary Manheim
Sara Bisel
Estelle Lazer
Kathy Reichs
and in the field of
Forensic Chemistry:
Niamh Nic Daeid
How can we apply this knowledge ?
Forensic anthropologists are called upon to investigate
remains and to help identify individuals from bones
when other physical characteristics may no longer
exist. They can provide physical characteristics of the
person to then input into missing person databases
such as that of the UK’s Centre for Anatomy and Human
Identification, the National Crime Information Center in
the US or the INTERPOL database.
In addition to these duties, forensic anthropologists
often assist in the investigation of mass fatalities
such as helping to identify victims of the 9/11
terrorist attacks and the Boxing Day tsunami. War
crimes anthropologists, like Clea Koff, have also
helped identify victims of genocide in countries
around the world, often long after the actual event.
Her scientific skills and knowledge helped her to
investigate victims of the Rwandan Genocide and the
Srebrenica Genocide.
Science Technology Engineering Maths
For more resources like this,
this visit
visitww.baesystemseducationprogramme.com/resources
www.baesystemseducationprogramme.com/resources
STRUCTURE & FUNCTION OF LIVING ORGANISMS
W
TOPIC:
The skeletal and muscular systems