Grade Level 4-6 Building Big Bones Students will work in pairs to investigate how the light, spongy layer around the bone s marrow makes the bones lighter for easier movement, by comparing cardboard tubes filled with rocks and filled with kitchen sponges. Doctor, Doctor! Pretending they are doctors, students will work individually to investigate how the appearance of bones changes once they are broken by creating patient files and reports. Salt Dough Skeletons Working in groups of four, students will use Salt Dough to create their own Salt Dough skeletons and label five bones using the Labeling Boxes Handout and glue. Time 40 minutes each Skills Compare, Contrast, Construct, Describe, Explain, Examine Pennsylvania State Standards Science and Technology 3.1.4: Unifying Themes A. Know that natural and human-made objects are made up of parts: identify and describe what parts make up a system. 3.2.4: Inquiry & Design A. Identify and use the nature of scientific and technological knowledge. 3.3.4: Biological Sciences A. Know the similarities and differences of living things: identify life processes of living things. B. Know that living things are made up of parts that have specific functions: determine how different parts of a living thing work together to make the organism function. Classroom Activities the Bone Teacher Pages Full educational standards available online at www.sepa.duq.edu/education 13
Dear Evaluator In this section we plan to list relevant keywords, interesting conversation starters and frequently asked questions. Please list any key words, questions or any other content you would like to have for support. TEMP PAGE - Teacher Pages Keywords Extracellular Matrix- The area surrounding the outside of the cell, this area can be made up of liquid, solid, or semi-solid. 14 Bone Marrow- Bone marrow is a highly vascular cellular substance that is found within the center of large bones of the body. Bone marrow is responsible for blood cell production. Fracture- To break a bone Cartilage- Soft flexible connective tissue that is found in the nose, ears, and throughout the body. Calcium- Calcium helps bone building cells in the body build new bone. Vitamin D- Helps the absorption of calcium through the small intestine. Materials Needed Handouts 4 and 5 Discussion time Discuss the bone with your students. Direct your students to fill out the KWL chart (handout 4). They should fill out the first column with what thewant to know about the bone. Finally, when all activities are complete, fill in the last column with what they learned. You can use the KWL chart (handout 5) to track the classroom s responses.
Bone Activity I: Building Big Bones Bone Heart Module - - Teacher Pages Our legs have many layers of tissues, including skin, muscle, blood vessels and bone! Every human being has a skeleton that is made of 206 bones. All of these bones work together to help you to move however you want to move. The bones also hold your body up like a strong, supporting scaffold and protect the organs within your body! Inside each bone you will find blood vessels, and at the center of some bones, there is bone marrow. Both parts are important since the blood vessels help give your bones calcium and other important nutrients to stay strong and healthy, while the bone marrow helps make new cells. In between the two layers of blood vessels and marrow is a layer that is soft and light, almost like a sponge! This spongy layer is important in helping you move because if this layer was solid, bones would be much heavier and hard to move. 15 Time 40 minutes Set-Up Work with your partner and gather all material. Read the directions carefully before you start to work! Also, decide which partner will fill the cardboard tube with rocks (Student #1) and which will fill a different cardboard tube with sponge (Student #2). Instructions 1. Using a ruler, measure and mark 2 (2 inch) long sections on the masking tape. Cut these two sections into two separation pieces of tape. 2. Student #1: Place one piece of tape on the side of your cardboard tube and write the word ROCKS on the tape to create a label. 3. Student #2: Put the other piece of tape on the side of your cardboard tube and write the word SPONGE on the tape to create a label. 4. Next, Student #1 and Student #2 will use additional pieces of masking tape (about 5 pieces) to completely cover one end of each tube. Student #1
Materials Needed: Regenerobot Workbook & direction page 1 cardboard tube for each group member 10-15 small rocks Kitchen sponges Masking tape Safety scissors Ruler Marker Handout 5, 6 and Student #2 will then place each of their tubes on a flat surface (a table or desk) with the taped end down. 5. Student #1: Fill your cardboard tube with small rocks until the tube is filled almost to the top. Then, use additional pieces of masking tape (about 5 pieces) to completely cover the remaining open end of your ROCK cardboard tube. 6. Student #2: Take the kitchen sponge and cut it into small pieces (no bigger than the width of the cardboard tube s open end). Then, fill your cardboard tube with the small pieces of kitchen sponge until the tube is filled almost to the top. Use additional pieces of masking tape (about 5 pieces) to completely cover the remaining open end of your SPONGE cardboard tube. 7. Taking turns with your partner, compare and contrast the filled cardboard tubes by holding one in each of your hands. Write your thoughts in Handout 5. 8. After completing the Bone Composition Chart, complete the reflection questions found on Handout 6. Heart Bone Module - - Teacher Pages 16 What are the differences between rocks and sponges? Follow-Up Write a short story (2-3 pages) about a character whose bones do not have a soft, spongy inner layer. How would this character s life, movement, appearance, etc. differ if the bones had a hard layer instead? Make sure to use proper grammar, sentence structure and story structure. Be creative!
Doctors can help bones heal from breaks. But in some cases, like we can see in the X-ray above, a cast alone is not enough! Bone Activity 2: Doctor, Doctor! While it is true that bones are strong enough to your entire body, too much pressure or force pushing down on them can cause one to break. A broken bone can happen any time really, from a bad fall while climbing a tree or from a bad collision during a game of soccer. In order to look closely at a broken bone inside of you, a doctor will take an x-ray at a hospital. When a break, or fracture, occurs, the broken bone tries to fill in the fracture, first with a blood clot and then with young cells. These young cells then form a clump of cartilage, which helps create a frame for new bone cells to settle and eventually harden. Once the new cells harden successfully, new, hard bone tissue will be created! As you can see, bone is very good at healing itself through the natural process of bone remodeling! To heal a fracture, a doctor will put on a cast to immobilize the broken bone, to hold everything in place. This helps the bone heal correctly. Usually, a cast will stay on for six weeks. If the break is really bad though, a cast may not be enough. In this case, surgery may be required to pin and set the broken bone so it can properly heal, but now, new advances in regenerative medicine can make healing happen faster. In the near future, doctors may remove some young cells from your bone marrow, take them to the lab to grow more of them and put them back into your body to help heal the broken bone. The young cells grow new bone much more quickly than if the bone healed on its own. This new technology may heal a broken bone in a much shortened time instead of the usual six weeks. Or this technique may help bones heal that are so badly broken that they would not normally heal otherwise. How cool is that! Bone Heart Module - - Teacher Pages 17 Time 35 minutes What Will You Be Doing? Working individually in your Learning Center, pretend you are both the patient and doctor in a hospital. As the doctor, you will create a patient file including a drawing of your patient, an x-ray drawing of the patient showing a broken bone and a hospital report about the patient s injury. You will then use a file folder to create the patient s file!
Materials Regenerobot Workbook & directions page paper Handout 7 Handout 13 Handout 14 Handout 15 Sheet of black construction Drawing Supplies (Crayons, Colored Pencils, Markers, etc.) Pencil White crayon Safety scissors File Folder Glue Teacher Materials Teachers, you can track your student responses with the following handouts: Handout 8 Handout 9 Handout 10 Handout 11 Handout 12 Class Discussion Worksheets 8-12 can be used as a discussion guide before completing the Doctor! Doctor! Activity in the Bone Module. Have students fill out the Broken Bone Report (handout 7) and ask the questions found on the Classroom Broken Bone Report (handout 8). Record their results in the spaces provided. After the classroom chart is complete, decide with your class which two questions they would like to examine by graphing their responses on the bar graphs from pages 9 and 10. Using pages 11 and 12 first create keys for your classroom charts. Then using the worksheets from pages 9 and 10, complete the charts with help from your students! Try letting the students draw the bars to complete the graphs! Don t forget to discuss and create an appropriate title for each chart with your students! Instructions 1. To start this activity, take your Patient Report-External View handout 13 and draw a picture of yourself using the drawing supplies. This picture will show what you look like on the outside, or how other people see you. 2. Grab your Patient Report- Internal View handout 14 and a piece of black construction paper. On the piece of black construction paper, use a pencil to draw the outline of your body. This outline drawing should be very similar to the outline of the body you drew on your Patient Report-External View handout 13. 3. Using the safety scissors, cut out your black construction paper body along the pencil outline. Glue this outline in the center of your Patient Report- Internal View handout 14. Don t forget to write your name at the bottom of this page on the line labeled Patient s Name. 4. Using the white crayon, draw an interpretation of what your skeleton looks like on the inside. The contrast of the white crayon against the black construction paper will look just like an x-ray! Remember to include the broken bone you chose to cast on the Patient Report-External View handout. 5. Somewhere on your drawn body, make sure to include a drawing of a cast on one body part you may have broken in the past. If you have never broken a bone, choose a body part (arm, leg, wrist, etc.) to draw with a cast. Don t forget to write your name on the page on the line labeled Patient s Name! Take the file folder and open it flat on your desk. The tab along the side Heart Bone Module - - Teacher Pages 18
Feel free to look at pictures of actual x-rays to help you draw the broken bones of your skeleton! of the folder should stick out along the right side. Glue the Patient Report- External View handout on the left side of the folder and the Patient Report- Internal View handout on the right side. Let the glue dry. 6. Finally, flip your patient s file back to the front and draw a picture of your patient s face, complete with their name, birth date, age and hometown. Reflection Pretend you are the patient s doctor in the hospital. Complete the questions on the Hospital Report handout 15 to create a report describing the patient s broken bones as you see inside the file. Once the glue has dried, close the file folder. On the back side, glue the completed Hospital Report on the back side of the folder. Make sure to include the patient s name on the line! Heart Bone Module - - Teacher Pages 19 Follow-Up Take home your Patient s File to share with your family and friends. Show them the drawing of the patient, their x-ray and the diagnosis and treatment plan for the patient. Ask your family and friends if they have ever broken a bone and discuss their experiences.
The human skeleton contains 206 bones! Bone Activity 3: Salt Dough Skeletons The 206 bones of the human skeleton are supported by cartilage and muscles that work together to help you move. While you may be wondering how all of these bones can fit inside of us, it is important to know that all of the bones are not separate, individual bones. In fact, some of the bones in the human skeleton are fused, like the pelvic bone or the skull. Illnesses like arthritis and osteoporosis and accidents like fractures can really affect the skeleton s overall health. So what do the bones in your skeleton exactly do? Most importantly, your skeleton gives your body your shape. If humans did not have bones to support their organs, muscles, and skin tissue, they would be a pile of mush on the floor! Really? Really! The bones in the skeleton have other important jobs to do too. Certain bones protect essential vital organs. If you think about it, the skull protects your brain and your ribs protect both the heart and the lungs from injuries. If you did not have these bones, a minor bump like running into the corner of a table could seriously injure your organs! Additionally, the marrow and blood vessels inside each bone help in the process of blood cell production. The cells in each bone also contain important nutrients and minerals, like calcium and oxygen, which can later be used by the entire body. Who knew that bones had so many jobs to do inside of you! Bone Heart Module - - Teacher Pages 20 Time 45 minutes What Will You Be Doing? Working in groups of four, you and your classmates will be using Salt Dough to create your own Salt Dough skeletons! Remember to label five of your skeleton s bones by gluing the labels you create around your Salt Dough skeleton. Set-Up - Day 1 Your team will prepare the salt dough. Set-Up - Day 2 For the Salt Dough Skeleton Learning Center, two of your group members will get the salt dough you made on day 1 (in the refrigerator). While your members get the dough, the other two group members will need
Materials - Day 1 Salt Dough (makes enough dough for one group of four students): Measuring cups Measuring spoons 4 bowls Water source Hot tap water (microwaved) 4 cups flour 1 cup salt 1-1 ½ cups hot water (Note* for safety, teacher should heat and handle hot water) Air-tight container or sealable, plastic sandwich bag for storage. Materials - Day 2 4 pieces of colored construction paper (1 for each group member) Handout 16 Handout 17 Salt Dough Pen or marker for labeling Adaptation If your students create a wide variety of bones, you can try to put the skeleton together! Instructions - Day 1 to gather the materials. Carefully read through the directions before you start working! Before completing this center, your group will need to make the Salt Dough. 1. 2. You will mix flour, water and salt to make salt dough! 2. Carefully measure 4 cups of flour and place into bowl #1 Carefully measure 1 cup of salt and place into bowl #2 3. Have teacher s assistance to carefully measure 1½ cups of hot water (Be careful!) 4. Combine the flour from bowl #1 and the salt from bowl #2 and place them in a large mixing bowl (bowl #4). Then, slowly and carefully add the water from bowl #3, kneading the mixture until it becomes sticky. (Note: If your mixture becomes too runny, add a little more flour. If it becomes too crumbly, add more water.) 5. When your dough is completely kneading and combined, place it in an air-tight container or resealable plastic sandwich bag to store overnight. Place your container or bag in a cool spot (like a refrigerator). Instructions - Day 2 1. Cut our your Starter Skeleton (handout 17) and glue it in the center of your colored construction paper Take out your salt dough from the airtight container or plastic bag and place it on the table. Use your hand to evenly divide in into four parts (one part for each group member). 3. Looking at the diagrams of the human skeleton (handout 17), use the dough to form bones of a skeleton. Make sure your bones are small enough so you can fit an entire skeleton on the colored construction paper! 4. Once your skeleton is complete, take your Labeling Squares (handout 16) and cut them into squares. After deciding which 5 bones you are labeling on your skeleton, write the name of one bone on each label. 5. Finally, glue the label next to the matching bone on your salt dough skeleton and draw a connecting line from the label to the bone on your skeleton. Carefully move your skeleton to a flat surface to dry and harden Heart Bone Module - - Teacher Pages 21
overnight. Reflection Write a rhyme about the Salt Dough Skeleton you created. Give the skeleton a name! Include the names of the five bones you labeled on the skeleton in your rhyme. Illustrate your rhyme with a drawing of your skeleton! Follow-Up Write clues for each bone you labeled on your Salt Dough Skeleton. Make sure to include a physical description of the bone and a description of the bone s purpose in the body. Then, cover the labels of your Salt Dough Skeleton with small strips of paper. Working with a partner, quiz each other on the bones whose labels you covered using the clues you previously wrote. See which partner can correctly guess and identify the most bones! Heart Bone Module - - Teacher Pages 22