This activity is aligned to my anatomy and physiology curriculum where students study the structure and function of muscle tissues. This has been a challenging topic to cover remotely because I can’t use traditional models. Typically, I would use straws and rubber bands to model fascicles and myofibrils.
This activity is part of a unit on the muscular system.
This year, students get a modified version of the lesson on Google Slides which explains how actin and myosin are organized and how those muscle fibers are grouped into bundles (fascicles) that make up a muscle.
You are welcome to make a copy of these slides and modify them for you own class. I use a phenomenon based approach where each unit showcases a particular disorder and how that disorder affects the system. For the muscular system, students learn about a boy with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
Part 2 of the slides goes into more detail about how this disease affects the dystrophin in the muscles and how it is inherited as a sex-linked disorder.
The activity linked below is a drag and drop activity for students to practice labeling the muscles, there are 6 slides showing images of muscles and fibers and the connective tissue surrounding the fibers (endomysium, perimysium, epimysium).
