Human Body: Bones and Muscles and Nerves—lab BUNDLE Collection for Middle School

From dissections to muscle fatigue to reflexes, this captivating collection will introduce you to the fascinating world of bones, muscles, and nerves. If you’ve always wondered why your vision rarely blurs, how we keep our balance, or how your bones compare to those of a bird, this book will help solve the mysteries! By starting with the scientific phenomena, you'll be intrigued and excited to dig deeper into the why’s and how’s of each scientific concept.

Beautifully illustrated and well laid out, these activities are easy to use. Experiments are clearly organized and written to the student so they do not need to be pre-digested by a teacher before beginning. Helpful tips throughout the experiments and the Teacher Notes leave the reader in no doubt about how to perform or understand an experiment.

Both the teacher and the student are addressed in each activity so no additional books are needed. Engaging Science Labs are useful for classroom or homeschool environments.

Topics Addressed

• Comparative Anatomy (Human and Chicken Bones)

• Bone and joint identification

• Microscopic study of bones, muscles, and nerves.

• Classification of joints

• Dissections: Chicken foot, chicken wing

• Investigating balance

• Investigating reflexes and reaction time

• Investigating responsive systems in live worms

• Demonstrate how muscles work

• Explore exoskeletons

• Investigating muscle fibers (smooth and skeletal)

• Investigating skin sensitivity (Braille, Von Frey hairs)

• Muscle fatigue

Materials Needed

Sets of chicken bones (directions included for preparing these for use in the classroom); spinning chair; dice; meter stick; prepared microscope slides and microscope (optional); worms for dissection; live worms, chicken wings and chicken feet for dissection; craft sticks; various types of fishing line; paperclips; brads; binder clips.

Answer Key

Extensive teacher notes address the many questions that come up. You shouldn’t have to do outside research on this topic unless you want to. Specific charts and graphic organizers have keys.

Student Sheets

• Scaffolded writing prompts & lab notes

• Data tables

• Diagrams for labeling

Other resources

If you prefer single labs on this topic, click here: Bones, Muscles, & Nerves Subunits

Time Required

Seventeen activities will each take about 30 minutes (more with writing assignments).

Target Audience

Middle School Students, Ages 11-14