Hands-on Muscle lesson

In our science lessons, we’ve been studying all about anatomy. In addition to learning about muscles through exercise, we also explored what muscles look like.  We’ve looked at joints and how they work (which apparently I need to track down and post that one…..).

Now to look at the actual muscle tissue.  We’ve explored chicken muscles before, but they don’t clearly show the muscle cell bundles, but steak works pretty darn well, and after you have a nice dinner.  Flank steak would have worked better, but they didn’t have it at the store at the time.

Supplies needed for a hands-on muscle lesson:

Steak (I bought some thin-cut sirloin, but flank steak works best), magnifying glass, paper (wait I like these notebooks), pencil, colored pencils, soap and water

Procedure for a hands-on muscle lesson:

The first step in any observation is using your sense.  So we drew and wrote about what we saw, how it felt, and what we smelled.

The kids all agreed it felt weird to touch.  This led to a short lesson on washing hands after handling raw meat.  Always a good point to reinforce with kids.

Next, we broke out our magnifying glass, I’d give you a recommendation on one, but sadly this one is out of production.  I’ve had it and used it for 10 years, and now it’s no more.  Waaaaahhhhhh.

Future Ticia 2022 has found a similar magnifying glass, but it also has a light you could turn on.

After observing both ways, here’s what we came up with.

All in all the kids declared this to be a great hands-on muscle lesson.  “And Mommy, now I want some steak.”  Well, child, that would be why we only used a small part of the steak, so the rest could be used for dinner.

For more hands-on muscle lessons:

• Learning about muscles through exercise
• Experimenting with flexibility
• How do muscles work?
• Learning about muscles
• Or follow my Anatomy pinterest board