Life Cycle: Human Body Part II

Wednesday, 22 October 2014

The second and last part of our Human Body Study includes the Skeletal System and a brief introduction to the Permanent Teeth Development.

The Human Bones (Skeletal System)

Previous works on Skeletal System can be found here and here.

This year, I added some depth into our study. We started our work using the Skeletal Nomenclature Cards. This is an independent work for him.

Next, I have this small miniature of the human skeleton which I bought on a Euro Store and I started to cut it into pieces. Here showed Mavi the bone models and compare it to our image. We talked about the functions of each bones in the human skeleton. We also tried to compare the arm and the leg bones. Pointing out to Mavi that bones in the legs are longer than the arms.

We played around with the bones. Making different formations. Mavi thought that this was funny LOL.

Forensic Anthropologist (A Play Pretend)

I buried the bits and pieces of the skeleton I previously dismantled in a bowl of oatmeal. Here I asked Mavi to dig, brush and put the pieces of skeletons back together. “Oh, just like the dinosaurs Mommy!” he exclaimed.

And much to my surprise, this was an easy task for him. He was able to complete the work in no time. Though he wasn’t challenged, he really liked digging the bones and scrubbing the oatmeal off.

The Bone Experiment

We conducted an experiment on a chicken bone. This is to demonstrate the effect of acids on bones.

What you need: Vinegar, chicken bone and a jar

After cleaning the cooked chicken bone, we place it in a jar filled with vinegar. After 24hrs, we remove the bone from the jar and examined it, its texture and flexibility. Mavi observed that, the bone’s flexibility increases daily (for 5 days) having a feeling of a rubber.

This is because of the loss of calcium in the bones after exposing it to vinegar which is an acid and reacts chemically with the bone. As a result, Mavi and I discuss the importance of calcium in our body specifically in our bones. How it gives the bones strength and firmness. We also talked about the foods that are rich in calcium, which we need to eat in a daily basis for maintaining healthy bones.

Books

Our book from the library the Eyewitness Skeleton [aff. link] was also a great helped. It shows the contrast of human bones and animals bones, the structure and formation.