BONES HUT

Before students explore the Bones Hut, you might take an opportunity to review with them the basic functions of bones in particular and the skeletal system in general. What kinds of animals have skeletal systems? What functions do bones have? How are these functions achieved in living things without bones (e.g., plants)? What would life be like without the development of skeletal systems?

Some objectives you might cover with students:

• Understand the basic functions of the skeletal system

1. Gives body structure and support
2. Muscle attachment
3. Protects organs
4. Storehouse for minerals
5. Produces red blood cells in marrow




• Understand the difference between endoskeletons and exoskeletons, and describe the advantages and disadvantages of each

1. Frogs, like humans, have ENDOSKELETONS (internal skeletons). Other animals have EXOSKELETONS (external skeletons), and still others have no skeleton at all. Have students think of examples of animals with each skeleton type (see table below). You might have them use various resources to fill out tables such as these:

• Relate the structure / support functions of bones to specific bones in the frog

1. Have students discuss the relation between the length and thickness of bones to their location in the skeletal system. What does the thickness or length of a bone tell us about its purpose or where it belongs?
2. Challenge students to discover which bones bear the weight of the frog? How can they tell? How are these bones different from the others?
3. In the same spirit, have students try to figure out which bones give the frog stability? What are the reasons for their choice? How do these bones stabilize the frog?
4. Finally, which bones are protective bones? What are they protecting? What if the frog did not have these bones protecting its vital organs? How might a creature compensate for the lack of this kind of protection?
5. Have students draw connections to the Jumping Frog Problem: How would altering the length or thickness of the bones in a frog's legs change its ability to jump?
   
• Identify different joint types and describe their affordances / limitations; identify joints by type on both frog and human bodies
  
1. ball and socket (shoulder and hip in human) - greatest range of movement (360 degrees)
2. hinge (fingers, elbows, knees in humans) - movement along one axis ("one way" like a door)
3. immovable (skull of human) - where two bones have fused together in a fixed position. (Do frogs have this type of joint at all? Why or why not? Why do humans have them?)
4. pivot (wrist, ankle of human) - one bone pivots around the other; almost as much movement as a ball and socket joint.
5. sliding (vertebrae)