Lesson video

Hi there, my name's Mr. Swayze, and I'm really looking forward to teaching you today.

So in today's lesson we're gonna be looking at bones and the structure of the skeleton.

So I'm sure you will have come across lots of the terminology that we're gonna use today.

And it may serve as a bit of a refresher, but also we'll be layering on a bit more knowledge, particularly around the functions of the skeleton.

So what's the point in skeletal system? What does it do? Can you answer that already? And this lesson comes from the unit, Anatomy and Physiology, the Musculoskeletal System.

And the lesson is called Bones and the Structure of the Skeleton.

Okay, so by the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to locate the major bones in the human body and identify the functions of the skeletal system.

We'll be covering a number of keywords to include anatomy, physiology, musculoskeletal, skeleton and joint.

You may want to pause the video now whilst you make a note of these different keywords and their definitions, but we will obviously be revisiting them in slow motion through the lesson as well.

Okay, so how are we gonna break up the lesson? It's gonna be in three parts.

First part we'll dig into how to define anatomy and physiology before we go on to identify the major bones of the skeleton.

And I've got my little skeleton here that might help with some of that.

And then thirdly will be unpicking or describing the different functions of the skeleton.

So what's the purpose of the skeleton? What does it do? Are you able to pause the video now and have a little think about what some of those functions might be? Okay, let's get going then into the first section.

So anatomy and physiology, big words those aren't they? But they're basically just saying that this is all about the study of the body and the body systems and how it works.

So we've got within that broad area of anatomy and physiology or A&P, we've got the skeleton, the muscles, the cardiovascular system or circulatory system as it's sometimes called, and the respiratory system.

And there are also some other bodily systems that you might have studied in other subjects like science, like the digestive system or the reproductive system.

But the important thing to note is that anatomy is concerned with those physical structures.

So what are they? Well, anatomically this is the humerus bone.

Physiologically what's its function? Well, its function is it enables movement of the upper arm.

So let's have a quick check then.

Is it only doctors and the medical profession that need to learn about anatomy? I hope you selected false, but I wonder why.

Yeah, so sports scientists, athletes, we are better able aren't we to optimise our performance if we have that in-depth knowledge and understanding of how the body works and hence how it will respond to exercise, how it'll respond to training and how it'll respond to competition.

But it's also really important for general health and wellbeing for everybody to understand a bit more about anatomy and physiology.

So let's not just leave it to those in the medical profession.

Okay, so the skeletal system is our body's support structure.

It's made up of bones and those bones connect via tendons to the muscular system at different joints.

And we've mentioned it there, haven't we? So it connects really closely.

These two work really hand in hand together the skeletal system and the muscular system.

And that's why we sometimes refer to them collectively as the musculoskeletal system.

So let's do a quick check.

Which of the following is the best description of anatomy? Is it A, the makeup of the skeletal system? Is it B, how the body functions? Or is it C, the structures of the body? That's right.

It's C, isn't it? So anatomy is all about the different structures, whereas physiology is about how they function.

Okay, so let's do our first practise task of today's lesson.

So I'd like you to add labels to identify which of these images is the skeletal system and which is the muscular system, and then a short description to state what that system does.

And then as a second part to this task, I'd like you to briefly explain how those systems interact, work together with each other.

Pause the video now whilst you do that and come back to me when you are ready.

Okay, let's see what you came up with and hopefully you've labelled it correctly with the muscular system there on the left and the skeletal system on the right.

And you'll have described the muscular system along these lines.

So the muscles, or more specifically, it's actually the skeletal muscles that cover our body.

And when those skeletal muscles contract, they enable us to move and they are attached to bones, which is why they work in that way.

And bones are part of the skeletal system.

So the skeletal system is made up bones, which they give us a unique shape, enable us to move.

And as we will discover later in this lesson, they also protect vital organs and a couple of other functions as well.

And then the second part of this task was asking you to explain briefly how the systems interact with each other.

Hopefully you said something along these lines.

So the skeletal system provides the framework of bones that the muscles connect to.

When muscles contract, they pull bones to create movement.

And this is what forms the musculoskeletal system.

Okay, moving on then into the second part of today's lesson where we're gonna identify the major bones on the skeleton.

And I bet you know loads of these bone names already.

So in fact there's 206 bones in the human body.

And I wonder, given this illustration here, can you point out the cranium, the vertebrae, the ribs, the pelvis, the femur and the humerus.

And then once you've had a go at labelling those, don't worry if you get any wrong because I'm gonna reveal the answers in a moment.

But can you also name any other bones of the body and perhaps identify where they are.

Perhaps you've broken a bone and you know where that bone is on your body.

Okay, so we've got the cranium here or skull, we've then got the humerus and you might have heard of people refer to when they bang their elbow, they're like, ooh, that caught my funny bone.

Well that's in connection with the fact that it's called the humerus.

And that humorous bone goes all the way to the elbow joint.

And when you catch the end of it, it's not funny actually, is it? But we sometimes say, oh, caught my funny bone.

Then we've got the ribs, we've got pairs of ribs either side of the sternum there, which we'll come back to in a minute.

And then we've got the vertebrae or the vertebral column and that's made up of lots of separate bones all the way down the spine.

Then we've got the pelvis, this big flat bone here, which is actually made up of a number of different bones, but we refer to them collectively as the pelvis or the pelvic girdle.

And then underneath that we've got the femur, that big long thigh bone.

Okay, let's delve into the rest of the bones that I hope you were able to label.

So we've already talked about the cranium and the vertebrae, haven't we? So we've got the head and the vertebrae start at the neck and project all the way down the spine.

Then we look into the bones in the shoulder.

And if we look here, if I turn this skeleton round, you can see this big triangular bone here, which is called the scapular.

And that joins onto the humerus here in the upper arm.

So quick check then can you label this diagram? What's that triangular bone called? That's right, I just said it didn't I? The scapula.

Okay, next up then let's move into the chest area.

So what bones can we see here? Well we've still got that scapula you can see at the back there.

And we've got the vertebrae.

We've talked about the vertebral column or the spine that runs all the way down the length midsection of our body.

But what have we got on top of that? Well we've got the sternum or the chest bone.

So if you're a footballer, maybe you chest the ball down to the floor to get control of it when it's an aerial ball coming in, well you'll use your sternum to do that.

And the sternums a really important rolling, connecting those ribs at the front.

And then the ribs connect to the vertebrae at the back.

There we've said it haven't we? The ribs or rib cage and we've got 12 pairs of ribs.

Okay, so now let's look at bones at the elbow joints.

We've said it already, the humerus, this bone at the top, but you know what the bones are called below that, that join to the hand.

That's right.

We've got the radius which joins at the wrist.

So I remember there's an R in wrist and an R in radius and that bone is the one that's thicker down at the wrist end.

And the ulnar is that second bone that's thicker up at the elbow end of it.

So those two bones work down the length of your lower arm and they have an important roll there in enabling some of those fine movements.

So let's have a quick check.

We've got the radius and ulnar labelled here for you, but what's that upper arm bone called again? That's right, it's the humerus isn't it? And now let's move on down into the hip.

So down here I mentioned it already, we've got the pelvis or the pelvic girdle, which is made up of actually of a couple of different bones, but we refer to them collectively as the pelvis.

And that feeds into at the ball and socket joint here of the hip.

We've got the femur bone, the longest bone in the human body, even on short people, it's their longest bone.

And then let's move on down to the knee joint.

What have we got here? Were you able to label any of these? So we have the femur we've mentioned already.

We've got the tibia or the shin bone, which I hope you might have thought of.

And then the patella.

So the patella or the kneecap has got a really important role in protecting that knee joint.

But it also increases the angle of pull of the quadricep muscle as it stretches over the top of the patella when we want to extend our knee joint, for example, when we're kicking a ball.

And sometimes we can have problems with that patella, which is a bit of a floating bone really, particularly through growth spurts causing some problems there to the tendons, which you might have maybe heard of.

Osgood-Schlatter disease That's where you've got problems with that tendon stretching over your knee and almost your bones have grown faster than your tendons can keep up with.

And then we've got the ankle end here where you can see the tibia.

That front bone that starts at the top comes all the way down to the ankle joint and behind it is the fibula.

Now interesting fact the tibia is a weight-bearing bone.

So if you were to break your tibia you wouldn't be able to walk, whereas you can actually break your fibula, which plays like an extra role in support there.

But it's not a weight-bearing bone.

So you can break your fibula and still walk.

So if ever you've, you know, worried maybe you've broken your leg and you can still walk and people go, well you can't have broken your leg because you can still walk.

Well actually perhaps you've broken your fibula, not your tibia.

And then we've got the complex collection of joints at the ankle called the talus bone.

So let's do a quick check.

Can you label these ones for me? That's right.

So the thigh bone is the femur.

And then the bone down at the front there, the shin bone is called the tibia.

Well done on that one.

So that brings us into probably the biggest task of today's lesson where I want you to have a go at drawing up and labelling a skeletal system with all of these bones.

So you'll need to pause the video whilst you do this and come back to me when you are ready.

Notice we're not labelling all 206 bones of the even body.

These are the ones that are really important 'cause they are joining at the various joints that we want to explore as sports performers.

How do those joints work? So we want to be able to identify and name the bones to be able to talk about that.

So pause the video whilst you do that labelling task.

Okay, do you wanna compare your answers? So you should have the scapular or shoulder blade.

Underneath that we've got the sternum kind of chest bone there.

Then you've got the ulnar and the radius which joins at the wrist.

We've got the tibia, that main shin bone and the talus, which is the bone at the ankle.

Then we've got the cranium or skull which has got a really important role in protecting the brain.

Increasingly we talk about that, don't we? And things like rugby, contact sports where there might be damage to the brain.

We've got the humerus, that funny bone at the top of your arm, the ribs forming the rib cage, the vertebra which runs all the way down, protecting the spinal cord.

The pelvis or pelvic girdle, which is made up of a number of different bones.

The femur, that longest bone in the human body.

Then we've got the kneecap, which you need to refer to as the patella from here on in.

And the bottom one there is the fibula.

So that smaller bone at the back of the leg.

Okay, so there we go.

We can now label the major bones of the body and maybe you know some more bones as well, which is fine.

Now let's move into the third and final part of this lesson where we want to be able to describe the functions of the skeleton.

And I've mentioned some of these functions as we've gone through the lesson.

So that skeleton provides a really good rigid framework to support us and for the other bodily systems to fix to.

If we didn't have a skeleton, we'd just be a mush of muscles and organs in a pile on the floor, wouldn't we? So hence the skeleton is what provides us with our unique shape.

Some people, you know, we talk about big bones, don't we? Some people have perhaps different proportions of different bones that has an impact on their shape, but also it helps with our posture.

So there I am trying to sit up a bit better in my chair be better for my lumbar spine.

The lower part of my vertebrae.

Quick summary of the main functions that we need to be clear on is the skeleton provides support, provides protection of vital organs, it enables movement, it provides us with that structural shape and a point of attachment for muscles.

And then it also enables mineral storage.

So in our bones we store minerals.

And finally bones did you know, are where our red blood cells, our white blood cells and our platelets are produced.

So without bones we wouldn't be able to make blood.

Okay, let's explore those in a bit more detail then.

So here we've got our running skeleton.

Identifying that the skeletal system is really important for support.

It keeps our body upright and provides that framework for the muscles to attach to.

And that in turn allows movement to happen, doesn't it? If we didn't have the skeleton, if we didn't have joints, we wouldn't be able to move.

So if I fused the elbow joint together, we would no longer be able to flex or bend at the elbow.

We'd only be able to move the whole arm together.

So it's really important that we have these different joints that allow movement to happen.

And as I said a moment ago, if we didn't have a skeleton, we would just be a pile of muscles and organs on the floor.

So second one, the skeletal system provides protection and in particular it's the flat bones that make up the cranium, the pelvis, and then also the ribs and the sternum also have that really important role in protecting these vital organs.

So here we've got the cranium or the skull is protecting the brain, particularly important in contact sports like boxing and rugby.

But I wonder, can you think the heart and lungs, which bones are they protected by? There's two main bones that protect our heart in here in our chest and our lungs.

And then what bone is it that protects our spinal cord or what collection of bones I should say.

That's right, well done.

So it's the sternum and the rib cage that protect the heart and lungs.

So the sternum that breastbone, without that obviously we be able to reach straight in at the heart and lungs and then also the rib cage providing that protection but also that enabling of expansion of that thoracic area so that we can breathe in because our ribs aren't one fixed bone.

And then the vertebrae protect the spinal cord.

So we've got almost those electrical wires that run from the brain to all the different parts of the body and they run down the middle of the vertebrae.

Then we talk about movement and also these bones provide the structural shape of our body.

So bones provide that anchor point where muscles are attached.

So we've got here, haven't we, in the illustration we've got the humerus bone and we can see the radius and ulnar beneath that.

And because the biceps and triceps muscles bridge across that joint and they connect on the other side of it, they enable movement to happen when those muscles contract 'cause they connect across the joint.

So when muscles contract, they pull bones to create movement.

An example of that might be flexion at the elbow joint when the biceps contracts.

And I do that when I'm getting ready to do a chest pass or preparing to do a chest pass in netball.

And then I would extend at the elbow joint when I execute, I carry out that chest pass in netball.

And then bones also have that role of storing minerals.

So inside our bones we store calcium and phosphorus and they're really needed to help keep the bones healthy.

Without them our bones wouldn't be as strong.

And then we'd be at risk of a fracture or of a break.

So for example, if this number 21 here in the image, if he went in with a two footed slide tackle at that player with the ball and made contact with his lower leg, yes, the shin pads provide a bit of extra protection, but there's a real risk of a fracture there in the leg and that risk is reduced if we've got those minerals stored in our bones, which is another reason why your diet's so important to take on things like calcium from milk to help with that bone strength.

And then I mentioned already didn't I, blood cell production.

So we've got here, if I was to cut open this humerus or this femur and lay it open, we would see that there's like a softer section in the middle of those long bones, which is called the bone marrow.

And there's a really good blood supply to those so that they can create new blood cells.

So platelets, red blood cells and white blood cells are all produced in that bone marrow in the middle of the bone.

And of course we need them, don't we? Because platelets help clot the blood.

So they will stop us from bleeding.

So for example, that footballer earlier, if they went in for a slide tackle and grazed themselves and started to bleed, they would need platelets to clot that blood to stop them from carrying on bleeding.

And then we know don't we that red blood cells carry oxygen, it's that oxygen that we've got that circulate to our muscles to provide the energy for movement.

So red blood cells are essential for endurance sports but all sports.

And then white blood cells are the ones that help fight infection.

So they will really help us in our recovery from perhaps a hard training session and keeping us healthy.

Okay, let's do a quick check.

Which of the following is not a function of the skeleton? Is it A, a site for muscle attachment to allow movement? Is it B, providing support to hold the body upright? Is it C, production of blood plasma? Or is it D, the storage of minerals including calcium and phosphorus? Have a little think.

It was a tough one wasn't it? Well actually the answer's C, because we do not make blood plasma in our bones.

We only make red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets, whereas the other three are all true.

They are all functions of the skeleton.

So that brings us into our last task of today's lesson.

I'd like you to describe the functions of the skeletal system.

And you need to make reference to the following areas and provide a sporting example.

So I want you to mention support, protection, movement, shape, blood cell production and mineral storage.

So there's kind of six key words there that I want you to mention in your answer.

Pause the video now whilst you do that and come back to me when you are ready and let's compare answers.

Okay then, so here is an example you might have come up with.

So the skeletal system provides the support to hold muscles and organs in place and it also gives us a unique shape.

Bones provide protection of those vital organs.

For example, the cranium protects the brain when performing a header in football.

Or you might have said that the rib cage protects the heart and lungs from perhaps a punch in boxing.

Then bones provide a place for muscles to attach and hence to produce movement at those joints.

And we've talked a few times haven't we, about how flexion at the elbow joint to prepare to pass a ball in netball, but you could have used any example, so maybe you talked about the knee joint and when you're kicking a ball.

And then in the bone marrow there's platelets, red and white blood cells that are produced.

And we know that red blood cells help carry oxygen and that oxygen is required in endurance events like the marathon.

You might have also talked about how white blood cells protect us from infections and about how platelets clot the blood that's even better than my answer here.

And then into the last bit.

So bone store minerals like calcium and phosphorus and they will help prevent breaks or fractures from happening.

Okay, that gives us just enough time then to summarise today's lesson, really enjoyed it today.

And we talked, didn't we at the beginning about how anatomy and physiology is the study of the body, its structures and how they function.

We talked about how the musculoskeletal system is made up of muscles, bones, joints, and connective tissues like ligaments and tendons, and they all work together to enable movement to happen.

We then went on to unpick the different functions of the skeleton and we talked about how it provides support, protection of those vital organs.

Movement, so it allows us to move.

Structural shape, so without the skeleton we will just be a blob of organs and muscles on the floor.

And then also blood cell production.

Finally, the bones provide that important role don't they, in the storage of minerals.

And then in today's lesson, we also were able to label this skeleton with all those major bones that operate at the different joints and the names of those bones.

Hope you enjoyed it today.

And I look forward to seeing you again next time.