Hello and welcome to today's lesson from the Unit: Introduction to the human skeleton and muscles.

This lesson is called "The human skeleton: protection".

By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to describe how bones provide protection for our bodies.

Hello, my name's Mr. Loudin, and I can't wait to learn science with you today.

I know if you concentrate and work hard, you are going to be amazing learning superstars.

So let's get started.

Let's look at some of today's keywords.

Protect, organ.

Skull, ribcage, spine.

Have you heard any of those words before? Do you know what they might mean? Let's have a look at what some of the keywords mean.

The hard bones of the skeleton provide protection to keep organs safe from injury.

An organ is part of the body that does a particular job.

The skull is the name for the bones of the head.

The ribcage are bones that protect your organs and attach to the spine.

The backbone of vertebrates animals is called a spine.

Today's lesson is split into three parts.

The first part is about different types of human bones.

In the second part of the lesson, you'll be answering the question, what are my different bones for? And in the third part of the lesson you'll be thinking about, do we need to protect our bones? Let's start with the first part of the lesson now.

On the board is a picture, but what is it? Have a think.

It's a bone, but do all bones look like this? Are they all the same shape and size? Human bones are solid and strong and come in all different sizes.

They join together to form a skeleton and they're different shapes and sizes because they do different jobs.

Inside our head we have a bone called a skull, and here's a picture of a skull, but it's made of different parts.

Have a feel of your head.

Can you identify the different parts? We've got the top part of our head that's called a cranium.

We've got this part of our head, eye sockets and they contain eyeballs.

And this bit of our head is called a jaw.

We use our jaw to chew on food.

Inside our chest we have a rib cage and it's made of lots of bones called ribs.

Can you feel your rib cage? What does it feel like? Inside our back we have a spine and the spine is made up of lots of different bones called vertebrae.

At the top of our spine is our skull, and at the bottom is a bone called the pelvis.

Let's check your understanding now.

Human bones are different shapes and sizes.

Is that true or false? It's true, and let's justify your answer.

A, bones are different shapes and sizes as they do different jobs in our bodies or B, all our bones are the same shape and size because we are all humans.

Which one's right? A, bones are different shapes and sizes as they do different jobs in our bodies.

Now let's have a think about matching the names of the bones to the correct picture.

Which word goes with the first picture? The first picture is your spine.

Which word goes with the second picture? The second picture is your rib cage.

Which word goes with the last picture? The last picture is a skull.

Let's look at task A now, we are going to go on a bone hunt, but what we'll need to do first is get a friend or an adult to help hide pictures of bones around the room.

What I want you to do is collect all the bones and observe their different shapes carefully.

Then I want you to join the different bones together to form a skeleton.

After that, you need to write the name of the bones on your skeleton that you find in your head, chest, and back.

And finally, I want you to describe one feature that's the same about all the bones and one that's different.

Did you have fun on your bone hunt? Let's have a look at some answers you might have come up with.

Here's the skeleton, and you might have identified the skull, the rib cage, and the spine.

You might have thought about how the features are the same and different.

Features that the bones all have in common are that they're all hard and solid.

A feature that's different is that the bones are different shapes.

Can you point to the bones in your head, chest and back and shout out their names? Let's look at the second part of the lesson now.

What are my different bones for? Human bones are strong and hard.

They're joined together to form a skeleton, and the skeleton is used to support our body.

But Aisha's wondering, what other jobs does the skeleton have? Can you help her? What other jobs does the skeleton have? Aisha's had an idea.

Our skeleton also provides protection.

It protects the organs inside our body from damage.

Our organs are parts of our body that do important jobs to keep us alive.

Different bones, keep them safe.

Can you name any of the organs in the human body? Can you point to where these organs are in your body, your heart, your lungs, and your brain? Where's your heart? Your heart's in your chest, isn't it? Where's your lungs? Well, that's in your chest too.

And what's about your brain? Your brain is in your head.

And these organs have different bones that are different shapes and sizes that help protect them.

Our bones give protection to the organs inside our body 'cause they're very soft and can get easily damaged, just like an egg has a shell to protect what's inside the egg.

On the inside of the egg, there's the yolk and the egg white, and that's really soft.

Without the egg shell, it would get damaged, just like bones help protect our organs inside our body.

Let's stop and check your understanding now.

Which two answers are important jobs of the skeleton to protect, to breathe, to support? Remember, you need to pick two answers, have a think.

Let's go through the answers now.

Which two answers are important jobs of the skeleton? Well, the skeleton is really important to protect your body and to support your body.

Well done scientists.

Your brain is a soft organ that's protected by the skull.

The skull does a really important job of helping stop the brain get damaged.

Look at this picture of a walnut.

It looks a bit like a brain, doesn't it? And the outside of the nut is hard.

Just like the skull protects your brain in your head.

Your heart and lungs are soft organs too, and they're really important to help you stay alive.

They're protected by the rib cage, which are bones that surround the organs to help keep them safe.

Let's look at your spine now.

Your spine is made up of lots of little bones called vertebrae.

They're stacked on top of each other and they allow your spine to bend.

The spine is an important part of the body that protects your spinal cord and it's really important because it sends messages to the rest of your body.

Look at the picture on the left hand-side.

Can you feel the spine in your back? And in your neck? What does it feel like? Let's check your understanding now.

Fill in the gaps.

Our heart and lungs are protected by our? Our brain is protected by our? Our spinal cord is protected by our? Have a think, which words go in the gaps? Let's go through some answers now.

Our heart and lungs are protected by our ribcage.

Our brain is protected by our skull.

Our spinal cord is protected by our spine.

Well done scientists.

Let's have a look at task B now.

First I want you to cut out the images of the heart, lungs, and brain.

Next I want you to cut a long piece of string to represent the spinal cord.

Finally, I want you to add them to your skeleton you made in task A by placing them under the bones that protect them.

What does your model look like? Well, it should show the heart and lungs protected by the rib cage.

Your brain protected by the skull and the spinal cord protected by the spine.

Here's the rib cage, protecting the heart and lungs.

Here's the skull, protecting the brain.

And at the back is the spine protecting the spinal cord.

Let's go on to the last part of the lesson now.

Do we need to protect our bones? Here's Lucas.

Lucas was born with brittle bone disease, which means his bones break very easily.

He has to be very careful not to bump into things, lift heavy objects, and he can't play contact sports in case he gets knocked over.

He says, my bones are fragile, but most people's bones are hard.

Can anyone break a bone? What do you think? Can anyone break a bone? Well, we learnt earlier in the lesson that our strong bones provide protection for our body.

But despite being strong and solid, anyone can break a bone.

Do you know what shows the doctor if we've broken a bone? Have a think.

Well, here's a picture of a broken arm.

But how did the doctor manage to see inside this patient's arm? He used an X-ray to show where the arm was broken.

And you can see inside those blue squares instead of having straight bones, they've been cracked in the middle, they're broken.

Well, Lucas had an X-ray and it shows that he's broken some bones.

He has to protect his bones with strong material.

Do you know what types of material might be good to protect my bones? Maybe you've broken a bone before.

What do the doctors use to help your bones heal and to help protect your bones? It needs to be thick, stiff, solid material like rubber or fibreglass.

And it can be used to make protective equipment to help protect Lucas's bones.

People wear different types of protection at work made from these materials.

Which equipment is protecting which bone? Here we've got a picture of a builder.

What's he wearing that helps protect his bones? He's got a hard hat on and that helps protect his skull in case anything heavy falls on his head.

What about this police officer? What are they wearing to help protect them? They've got body armour on which helps protect their ribs.

This body armour protects bones in the arms. People wear different types of protection whilst taking part in sporting activities to protect their bones.

Which equipment is protecting which bone? This is an American footballer.

What are they wearing to help protecting their bones? He's got a crash helmet on to help protect his skull.

And what about this footballer? What are they wearing to protect which bone? Footballers wear shin pads to protect the shin bone.

Let's check your understanding now.

Jacob says, my mum says I need to wear a bike helmet when I ride my bike, but my skull is really hard and won't break, right? What do you think? Jacob is wrong.

Whilst our bones protect our organs, we may need to wear special items to provide greater protection to our bones.

Although bones are really hard, if we bang them on a very hard surface, they can still break.

That's why it's important to wear a bike helmet when you're riding a bike.

Here's Laura.

She says, when I ride my pony, I wear protective gear to keep me safe.

Can you spot what protective gear Laura is wearing and which bone it is protecting? Have a think.

Laura's wearing a helmet to protect her skull.

She's also wearing a back protector to protect her spine and ribs.

Let's look at task C now.

Fill in the table with some examples of how we protect our bones.

So for each organ, you need to say what bone protects it and where you might need extra protection in a job or sport to protect that bone.

Have a think and we'll go through some answers in a minute.

Let's go through some answers now.

These are some ideas.

You might have added some different ones.

Your brain is protected by your skull, and if you are a builder on a construction site, you might need to wear a helmet to protect your skull.

Also, if you are motorcycle racing or skateboarding, you might wear a helmet too.

'Cause if you fell off, you might hurt your skull.

Your heart and lungs are protected by your rib cage.

And if you are a police officer or in the army, you might need to wear body armour to protect your rib cage.

Just like if you were shooting or doing archery.

Your spinal cord is protected by your spine.

And if you were a warehouse worker or a builder, you might need to wear something to protect your spine in case you fell over.

Just like if you are a weightlifter or you are motorcycle racing, you might wear extra armour to protect your spine if you fell off.

Let's look at what we've learned in this lesson.

The bones of the human skeleton are solid, strong, and are various shapes with different functions.

The skull protects the brain.

The ribcage protects organs such as the heart and lungs.

The spine protects the spinal cord.

And despite being strong and solid, anyone can break a bone.

Now might be a good time to go back to those keywords at the start of the lesson and see if you can explain what they mean to a partner.