On the Thursday, 8th of May we held our very first dissection, on a chicken wing. My group consisted of Me (Lottie), Hanin and Chris. Our aim was to see visually what we learnt in class about bones, muscles and joints.
Throughout our continuous research on bones the past couple weeks, we got to gain some knowledge on the human anatomy, this really helped us with our further learning on the structure of chicken wings.
(RESEARCH) The Wing consisted of its main bones: The humerus (The upper wing), Then connected by the elbow joint: The Radius and Ulna (The lower wing) and the Metacarpals and Phalanges that make up the manus/hand. These bones are held together by strong tissue fibers that connect and hold the bones in place called ligaments. We also saw and researched Tendons. We learnt that tendons are also super strong. Tendons are vital for movement as they connect the muscles to bones and allow contraction. They act like rope, when a muscle contracts it pulls on the tendon which then pulls on the bone making movement.
The Equipment we used:
- Surgical Scissors
- Paper
- Gloves
- Seekers
(METHOD) These were the following steps to our dissection:
- Ready equipment needed for our dissection: placed down our paper and got scissors.
- Took the skin off the chicken.
- Examined the muscles and tendons.
- Moved the bones to see the muscles move.
- Removed the muscle to see the bones.
- Looking and examining the joints, cartilage and ligaments.
(RESULTS) We took some photos of the process from dissection:
(DISCUSSION) The reason why we did this experiment was to help us get a better understanding on how muscles, joints, bones, ligaments and tendons work, through a visual activity where we got to see close up and experience things through our own senses. They all are built and are there for different functions but all come together in making movement and supporting the body. For example the bones are there to allow structure, movement and protection. The ligaments are there to connect those bones together. There are joints that allow more movement. Then there are the Tendons that attach muscles to bones, acting as a bridge, (and as I explained in my research) allows the movement of body parts.
(CONSLUSION) I feel as if the experiment did go according to plan, it answered my questions, and whenever we need to learn or go back to this type of work I will have a good visual and understanding. I think what I would have done a bit differently was that I needed to be a bit more careful, the chicken skin was a bit more delicate than I anticipated. I also should’ve put a bit more research on ligaments and tendons before the dissection, this was because they were a bit hard to recognize and see so we struggled a bit, this led to accidently ripping some ligaments and tendons. But overall it was a good learning experience and I would do this again, but take my mistakes and put them into consideration next time.
-Lottie