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Year 7

Movement

I can explain how muscles work together to move bones at joints.

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New
New
Year 7

Movement

I can explain how muscles work together to move bones at joints.

Download all resources
Share activities with pupils

Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Bones meet at joints.
  2. Muscles can move bones.
  3. Muscles can only pull, by contracting, and cannot push.
  4. Some muscles work together in antagonistic pairs to move bones at a joint.

Common misconception

Thinking that muscles can push bones (when in fact they can only pull).

The lesson makes clear that muscles can only pull bones, and work in antagonistic pairs to pull bones in opposite directions.

Keywords

  • Tendon - A tendon attaches muscle to a bone.

  • Ligament - A ligament holds two or more bones together at a joint.

  • Joint - A joint is where two or more bones meet.

  • Cartilage - Cartilage is a strong, smooth tissue that is found inside a joint.

  • Antagonistic muscles - Antagonistic muscles work in pairs to move a bone at a joint.

The second part of the lesson includes photographs and videos from a dissection of a chicken leg, which could also be demonstrated to the class with a real chicken leg and a visualiser.
Teacher tip

Content guidance

  • Depiction or discussion of sensitive content

Supervision

Adult supervision recommended

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2024), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

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Starter quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
Muscle tissue is made up of specialised cells called cells.
Correct Answer: muscle
Q2.
Which piece of equipment would enable us to see a muscle cell?
Correct answer: Microscope
Oscilloscope
Periscope
Telescope
Q3.
True or false? Muscle cells have lots of mitochondria to help them contract.
An image in a quiz
Correct answer: True
False
Q4.
Which of the following are real types of muscle tissue?
Bone muscle
Correct answer: Cardiac muscle
Digestive muscle
Correct answer: Skeletal muscle
Correct answer: Smooth muscle
Q5.
What is the name of the junction where two bones meet?
Correct Answer: joint, joints, a joint
Q6.
Which types of muscles are involuntary?
Correct answer: Cardiac muscle
Skeletal muscle
Correct answer: Smooth muscle

Exit quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
Which joint is fixed and unable to move?
elbow
knee
Correct answer: skull
Q2.
Which statements about hinge joints are correct?
They are found in the skull.
They fix the bones in position.
Correct answer: They allow movement backwards and forwards.
They allow a circular movement.
Correct answer: The elbow is a hinge joint.
Q3.
Who is correct?
Sofia: “Muscles attach directly onto bone.”
Correct answer: Alex: “Tendons attach muscle to bone.”
Lucas: “Ligaments attach muscle to bone.”
Q4.
When a skeletal muscle it pulls on a tendon to move a bone.
Correct Answer: contracts, contract, shortens, gets shorter
Q5.
True or false? Biceps and hamstrings are an example of an antagonistic pair of muscles.
True
Correct answer: False
Q6.
When the biceps muscle contracts, the triceps muscle...
Correct Answer: relaxes, relax, lengthens, gets longer