We often take for granted how much it really takes to get our muscles to move the way they do. I am personally amazed how we're able to respond to stimuli in a fraction of a second. There are so many steps required to get a single muscle fiber to contract, let alone all the fibers working together. And those fibers working together pull on tendons, which pull on bones, which then elicit the movement. There's a lot going on.
We're wrapping up our unit on the muscular system in my Anatomy and Physiology Classes. The last two weeks student groups were tasked with creating either a non-verbal skit, video, or animation to illustrate the complex steps of muscle contraction. For the most part, this was a homework assignment, but they were given some time in class to collaborate and plan.
I'm really impressed with how they came out. Below are some of the videos that help illustrate those steps of muscle contraction occurring in a single muscle fiber. They had to first illustrate the movement requiring the contraction, and then "zoom in" to the cellular/molecular level.
This one is too big to upload to the blog. Click on the link to view/download. It's worth watching.
You can see there's clearly a variety of methods. One group drew everything, filmed with a camera, and then used Windows movie maker, or something else, to speed it up. Some didn't speed it up, and just played in real time. Another group used an iOS app called "iMotion" to create the stop motion steps after drawing on white boards. Others did splicing of pictures with text. One group made a .gif from the images.
While not all are perfect, all did demonstrate the steps required for muscle contraction. Hopefully the act of making them, and then being able to watch them, helped students have a better understanding of the many steps of muscle contraction.
While not all are perfect, all did demonstrate the steps required for muscle contraction. Hopefully the act of making them, and then being able to watch them, helped students have a better understanding of the many steps of muscle contraction.
Why is this type of assignment useful?
While I love technology, I do not love technology for the sake of technology (mostly). For me, if I'm going to assign a multi-media project, I want to it do something that couldn't be done without the technology, and I want students to be gaining skills along the way. I think the "SAMR Model" is useful for determining what I'm getting out of the technology.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/souvenirsofcanada/16365262131/
Licensed for noncommercial reuse
The steps of muscle contraction are super complicated and difficult to visualize since it's occurring at the cellular and molecular level. Without technology, the best I could have them do is draw it or act it out in person, but by adding the technology we're able to shift from the enhancement up into transformational categories of modification and redefinition. The ability for a student to create a video that is posted on YouTube, where other students can watch and learn from watching, is transformational.
Do you have any ways this kind of assignment could be made better? Can it be more transformational? I'd love to hear some ideas. Also, if you want a copy of the activity we did, let me know. I'd be happy to share it.
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