Lesson video

Hello and welcome to today's lesson.

My name is Mr. Swayze, and I'm looking forward to teaching you today.

We are going to be looking at the major bones in the body, where they are located and why the skeletal system is so important for us as humans and in sports performance.

Today's lesson is called Structure and function of the skeleton, and it comes from the Anatomy and physiology: the musculoskeletal system unit.

By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to locate the major bones of the human body and identify the functions of the skeleton.

My first question to you is, what is the difference between anatomy and physiology, and why is it important that we study this in GCSE PE? As sports performers or as people interested in general health and wellbeing, this is a big topic, but today we are going to focus in on the skeletal system, what bones are located where, and how the skeletal system plays such an essential role in our lives.

You'll have come across many of these bone names before, perhaps through science or discussions in practical physical education lessons, or maybe because you have broken one of these bones through an accident and heard its correct name from medical staff at a hospital.

Knowing the correct names and locations of these bones is essential if we want to analyse movements possible at different joints.

Can you name and locate the major bones in your body? The keywords for today's lesson are: anatomy, physiology, musculoskeletal, and skeleton, oh and joints.

You may want to pause the video to make a note of them, but I will explain them fully as we come across them in the lesson.

We will be exploring the anatomical position of different bones today, and by that I mean where those physical structures are located.

Physiology is more about how those different anatomical structures function, and hence when we dig into the function of the skeletal system and what role it plays in helping us move.

But we will also be looking into physiology when considering how to stay healthy.

Our muscles and our bones work really closely together to enable movement, and as such, we often talk about the musculoskeletal system as a combined system.

I'm sure you already know that all mammals, including humans, have a skeleton and that it is the structural frame that supports our body.

The bones that make up our body meet and allow movement at what we call joints.

Now in our lesson today, we are going to first of all define anatomy and physiology and then identify the major bones of the skeleton.

We will then look at the different functions of the skeleton to help us understand why it is so important for day-to-day living, but also as sports performers.

I hope you're ready.

Let's get started.

Before we delve into the specifics of the skeletal system, it's important to recognise how this system works collaboratively with other body systems. Anatomy and physiology is a broad term you will come across a lot in PE and in sports science in particular, and it concerns the study of four main body systems. The skeletal system provides the framework of bones that muscles connect to.

This forms the musculoskeletal system.

Meanwhile, the respiratory system gets air containing oxygen into the lungs where it comes into contact with the cardiovascular system, which circulates that oxygen in the blood around the body.

The muscular system then uses that oxygen to provide energy to produce movement by levering bones against each other at joints.

Dissecting the words anatomy and physiology a little further, I can clarify that anatomy is concerned with the physical structures of the body, whereas physiology is about how those features function.

In summary, the skeletal system is our support structure or framework that holds us upright and gives us our unique shape.

Here it is, made up of bones which connect via tendons to the muscular system.

We often refer to these systems collab, sorry, collectively as the musculoskeletal system.

So let's have a quick check.

Does the word anatomy refer to the makeup of the skeleton, the function of the body, or the structures of the body? I'll give you five seconds to decide.

Hopefully you have remembered that anatomy is the study of the body structures, whereas physiology is about how those systems function.

So what I would like you to do now is label the skeletal and muscular systems to include a short description of what each system does.

For part two of this task, I want you to explain how these two systems interact with each other.

This should be quite a quick task as we've got a lot more to get through in this lesson.

Pause the video and come back to me when you are ready.

Okay, hopefully you have come up with the following.

The diagram on the left is the muscular system, whereas the one on the right with the bones showing is the skeletal system.

The muscular system covers our body.

When muscles contract, they enable us to move as they are attached to bones.

Meanwhile, the skeletal system is made up of bones, which give us our shape, enable movement, and protect vital organs.

On to the second part of this task.

Hopefully you said something along the following lines.

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

When muscles contract, they pull bones to create movement.

This forms the musculoskeletal system.

Okay, let's move on to identify the major bones of the body.

There are 206 bones in the human body.

We are actually born with slightly more bones, but some fuse or join together, resulting in 206 bones in an adult human.

Before we identify all the bones you need, I wonder if you could point out the following bones: the cranium, the vertebrae, the ribs, the pelvis, the femur, and the humerus.

Pause now and have a go at that.

And secondly, can you name and identify any more bones on that human skeleton? Okay, let's check.

So the cranium, or skull, is the head as we know it, sitting on top of your shoulders and protecting the brain.

The humerus is that bone in the upper arm.

The ribs or rib cage, that I guess protective shield looking after your heart and your lungs.

The vertebrae or vertebral column runs all the way down the spine, from connecting to the head right down to connecting into the pelvis or hip girdle.

And then that pelvis or hip girdle also connects to the bone of the upper leg or thigh, which is known as the femur.

Well done.

So the cranium, or skull, protects our brains.

The vertebrae are a whole collection of individual bones that run from the neck down to our tailbone, forming the backbone.

They protect our spinal cord as well as allowing a wide range of movement.

The scapula, or shoulder blade, is a large triangular bone with lots of sites for muscle attachment.

A nice way to remember this is the S for scapula is the first letter in shoulder blade.

The clavicle, or collarbone, again, remember C for collarbone and C for clavicle, and this bone is really important for stability at the shoulder joint.

The humerus, that bone in the upper arm, connects the shoulder with the elbow joint.

You might have heard when people bang their elbow, they refer to their funny bone.

That is in reference to the humerus bone of the upper arm.

Let's just quickly check.

What is that large triangular bone called that's at your shoulder blade? Hopefully you have correctly identified it as the scapula.

On to the bones in the chest area here.

So you'll see the scapula and vertebrae are still there from the previous diagram.

The sternum, or chest bone, that connects the ribs at the front or anterior side of our body, the sternum bone is essential for protecting the heart and the lungs, but also allows a small amount of movement to facilitate breathing in and out.

Meanwhile, we have 12 pairs of ribs that connect to the sternum on our anterior side and the vertebrae at the back, which is also known as the posterior side.

The rib cage is essential for protecting lots of internal organs, but also to help with the mechanics of breathing.

Look, there's the rib cage moving.

And then the bones in the arm and hand.

The humerus of the upper arm joins at the elbow.

The radius connects closest to your thumb here, whereas the ulna attaches more on the side of your little finger.

The carpals, they're the bones in the hand and they connect to the metacarpals of the hand, which then connects to the phalanges, or fingers.

It's a funny word that one, isn't it? Let's pause for a moment and check.

Can you label this bone in the upper arm, this one up here? That's right, it's the humerus, and it's essential for joining at the shoulder joint and at the elbow joint.

The pelvis supports the body's weight and protects internal organs around that hip region.

The femur, or thigh bone, is crucial for weightbearing and is also the longest bone in the human body, which allows lots of movement and is also the biggest producer of blood cells within its bone marrow.

You can see the ball of the femur just here fits quite deeply into the socket of the pelvis.

When it comes to the vertebral column, it is actually made up of five regions: the cervical region at the top, which includes the atlas and axis at the head that allow that rotation.

The thoracic vertebrae attached to the ribcage to help protect, sorry, to help protect the heart and lungs.

The lumbar vertebrae form that curved part of the base of your spine next to your pelvis.

And I recommend you make yourself a little acronym to help you remember the order of these bones, with the sacrum being the bone that extends on into the tail in other mammals like monkeys.

So we've got the coccyx and the sacrum at the bottom there.

Now let's look at the bones in the leg and foot.

We've already identified the femur, which extends from the hip.

In the lower leg, we have the tibia and the fibula.

The patella, or kneecap, protects the joint where the femur, tibia, and fibula meet.

The tibia is on the inside and is much thicker, with a role in weightbearing.

The fibula helps support it and stabilises the ankle joint.

A top tip to help remember is the tibia is the thicker.

T for tibia, T for thicker.

On down to the foot then.

So the tarsal bones are in the ankle and connected to the phalanges, or toes, by the metatarsals.

Remember, the T for tarsals and metatarsals are close to your toes, whereas carpals and metacarpals are those very similar bones in your hand.

Let's do another quick check.

What is the thicker and main weightbearing bone in the lower leg called? So we know the one above it is called the femur.

And that's right, it is the tibia.

Well done if you got that one right.

What I would like to do now is get you to label the skeleton with 14 bones that play a really important role in sporting performance.

Those bones are the cranium, the vertebrae, the sternum, the ribs, the clavicle, the scapula, the humerus, and then the radius, ulna, pelvis, femur, fibula, tibia, and patella.

Pause the video and come back to me when you are ready.

Okay, let's check our work.

Running down the left side, first you should have the clavicle, or collarbone.

Underneath that we've got the scapula, so that triangular bone at the shoulder blade.

Then we've got the sternum, that chest bone down the front.

Then on down into the lower arm, we've got the ulna on the little finger side and the radius on the thumb side.

And then the tibia is that main weightbearing bone in the lower leg.

Then we've got our cranium, or skull.

Our upper arm has got the humerus bone.

Then that next label is illustrating the ribcage or ribs.

We're seeing the vertebral column or the vertebrae running all the way down the middle there.

Then we've got the pelvis at your hips.

Your femur in your upper leg or thigh.

Patella, which is your kneecap, protecting that knee joint.

And then your fibula, that little bone behind.

Okay, now I want you to label the bones of the hands and feet with these six bones.

So we've got an illustration here of the hand with those three sets of bones to identify and an illustration of the foot, which I've already labelled up with the tibia and the fibula of the lower leg for you.

Pause now whilst you do that.

Let's see if you've got these ones right.

So in the hand first, we've got the carpals at the wrist end.

We've then got the metacarpals, which join on to those at the forefront of your hand.

And then the phalanges, or fingertips, on the end of those hands.

And then similarly in the foot, we've got the tarsals at the back here, the metatarsals on kind of the bridge of the foot, and then they're called the phalanges again, the toes on the end.

For the final part of this lesson, it is important to be able to describe the main functions of the skeleton.

The skeleton supports our whole body to hold us upright, and hence it also helps with our posture.

In addition, the skeleton plays a vital role in protection, movement, blood cell production, and then mineral storage.

Let's investigate each of those in a little more detail.

Okay, for protection.

Flat bones, like those that make up the cranium, act as a protective shield, helping to prevent damage to the brain.

This is particularly important in contact sports like boxing and rugby.

Now, I've provided that one example of a bone that protects vital organs.

Can you think of the bones that are protecting the heart and lungs? What about the bones that protect our spinal cord? That's right, the sternum, or chest bone, and the ribs help protect the heart and lungs, whereas it's the vertebrae that protect the spinal cord.

Bones provide the anchor point for muscle attachment, so muscles are then able to produce movement at joints by contracting and leveraging one bone against another.

For example, as you can see here, as I'm flexing and extending my elbow joint, my biceps contract, and it pulls the wrist end of the ulna up towards the humerus when we prepare to make a chest pass in netball.

As living tissues, bones also play an essential role in blood cell production.

Platelets, red and white blood cells are produced in the bone marrow, which as you can see from the diagram there, it's the inside middle section of a bone.

Platelets clot the blood to stop bleeding after you cut yourself, perhaps if you've grazed yourself falling over.

Red blood cells carry oxygen, which provides us with energy.

So they're essential for those endurance activities.

And then white blood cells help fight infection and help us recover.

Bones are also essential for the storage of minerals.

So they store calcium and phosphorus, which are needed to keep bones healthy and prevent osteoporosis.

So sports performers really need strong bones, don't they, to reduce the risk of fracture, for example, in a tackle when playing football.

Let's do a quick check before the final task of the lesson.

Which of the following is not, I repeat, not a function of the skeleton? Is it a site for muscle attachment to allow movement, or is it not providing support to hold the body upright, or is it not production of blood plasma, or not storage of minerals including calcium and phosphorus? Hopefully you chose production of blood plasma.

So platelets, red and white blood cells are made in the bones, but blood plasma is not.

It is 90% water and makes up the large volume of blood to help with circulation.

But all those others are functions.

So yes, one of the functions of the skeleton is a site of muscle attachment to allow for movement.

Yes, it also supports the body to hold us upright.

And it also stores minerals.

So what I would like you to do now is describe each of the functions of the skeletal system and provide a sporting example of how each is important to us as performers.

Remember to make reference to support, protection, movement, blood cell production, and mineral storage.

Press pause while you do this.

Okay, let's check our work.

Your answer should include the fact that the skeletal system provides support to hold muscles and organs in place.

Then you should have said something about how bones provide protection of our vital organs.

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

In addition, bones provide a place for muscles to attach and hence produce movement at joints.

We used that example of a chest pass in netball earlier.

So flexion at the elbow joint to prepare to pass a ball.

Next, it is in bone marrow that platelets, red and white blood cells are produced.

Red blood cells help carry oxygen required in endurance events like a marathon, whereas those white blood cells fight infection, and then it's platelets that help clot the blood.

For example, if you cut yourself in a slide tackle in football.

Bones store minerals like calcium and phosphorus, and that's really important for bone health and to reduce the risk of breaks or fractures.

You may have provided some different sporting examples, and that's absolutely fine.

Well done on that one.

Let's summarise what we have learned about the structure and function of the skeletal system.

At the start of this lesson, we clarified that anatomy and physiology is the study of the body structures and how they function.

The musculoskeletal system is made up of muscles, bones, joints, and connective tissues, which all work together to allow us to move.

And then finally, we explored how the skeleton has the following key functions: support, protection of vital organs, movement, blood cell production, and finally, mineral storage.

Thanks for joining me in this lesson today, and I really look forward to seeing you in the next one.

See you next time.