Overview of systems

Theme: Functions and interrelation of biological systems.

Once on Frog Island, go to Anatomy Land. There are various ways to get there:

• You can click on the forward pointers on the marker posts until you reach Anatomy land.
• Also, you may steer yourself there using the control stick at the bottom of the 3-D screen. Anatomy Land is located on the opposite side of the island from where you start, slightly to the right.
• Finally, you may get there by click on the bar next to the control stick at the bottom of the 3-D screen.

Once you have found Anatomy Land, go to the Organ Systems hut. Inside, you'll see the ranger's station, a computer screen, and a table with a frog on it with a number of books on a bookshelf above. Follow the Ranger's directions to go to the table with the frog.

You can learn about the different systems (like the skeletal or nervous systems) of vertebrates (animals with a backbone like humans, fish, etc.) by clicking on the appropriately labeled book. This information was available in other huts. Also, you may click on the computer screen to access the Creatures Vertebrate Biology frames. (If you want even more detailed information about the skeletal, muscular, or nervous systems, you can travel to the appropriate hut in the rest of Anatomy Land.)

By using the trackball below the floating 3D frog model, and the special glasses on the table, you can manipulate and view different parts of the frog. Play around with the model, and try to become familiar with the anatomy of the frog.

Use the information you gather (in this hut and in others at Anatomy Land) to answer the following questions:

Skeletal system

1. What is the difference between the axial skeleton and the appendicular skeleton?

2. In your own words, what are the 5 functions of the skeletal system?

3. Looking at the frog's skeleton, use your knowledge of the human skeleton (you can check a diagram in your text) to describe three differences between a frog's skeleton and a human's.

Muscular system

4. What are the three types of muscle tissues?

5. Besides location, how is skeletal muscle different from cardiac and smooth muscle?

Digestive system

6. Describe the pathway food takes as it passes through the body.

7. Name five things that help digest or breakdown food and the places where this occurs.

8. How can the excretory system help maintain homeostasis?

9. Do frogs have a cloaca?

Cardio-Respiratory system

10. What are two differences between arteries and veins?

11. What is hematopoeiesis?

12. What two gases are the main focus of the respiratory system and why does the body need to transport each one?

13. If a human's nose and mouth got blocked, they would have problems with respiration within a few seconds. Would frogs have that same problem and why/why not?

Nervous system

14. In your own words, what are the two main functions of the nervous system?

15. Why would the brain be surrounded and protected by bone, but many nerves of the peripheral nervous system are not?

16. Describe the relationship between the nervous system and the muscular system.

Reproductive system

17. In your own words, what is the function of the reproductive system?

18. In females, what are gonads called? In males?

Endocrine and Integumentary systems

19. What other system of the body is similar in function to the endocrine system?

20. What part of the body do you think helps link the activities of the reproductive and endocrine systems together?

21. How would you describe what makes up the integumentary system to a friend?

22. List at least 4 of the functions of the integumentary system and identify one which you think is more important to frogs and one which is more important to humans.

Extension

23. Which of these organ systems would be involved in a frog jumping (you should be able to identify and explain the role of at least three different systems)?

24. If you were trying to design a frog that could jump further and faster than normal, which two organ systems do you think you should make changes to and why?