Middle School Inquiry Lab on the Skeletal System
In this lab students will test if the cylindrical structure of the long bones of the appendicular skeleton is the most supportive shape.
Each inquiry lab will contain an essential question that will drive the lesson and make students think. For this lesson, the essential question is:
- Which structural bone shape is most supportive?
BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND MATERIALS LIST:
Students will begin the lab by reading the essential question and background information. This can be done individually, as lab groups, or as a whole class. If you consider lab groups, you also might include some type of whole class formative checks before digging into the lab.
Materials List:
- 9 sheets of paper
- tape
- 5+ books of equal weight
PROCEDURE:
In this lab, students are instructed to create a total of nine paper tubes of three different shapes: circular, triangular, and square. They should make three tubes for each shape. Students will then test the strength of each tube by gently placing books on top, one at a time until the tube collapses.
CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING:
At this point in the lab, students will be checked for understanding by answering questions about their findings. Here are a few that come with the lab:
- Summarize what happened with the different shapes.
- What makes the strongest shape able to hold weight better than others?
CONCLUSION
Students will go back to the essential question and write a CER (Claim, Evidence, Reasoning) to conclude the lab. Once completed, students will reflect back on their learning by answering the following questions:
- What did the model tell you about the structure of bones?
- What were some limitations of the model?
MODIFIED AND INDEPENDENT INQUIRY VERSIONS
All of the Kesler Science inquiry labs come with three different modification levels. Each lab is differentiated using the icons below.
STANDARDS ALIGNMENT
TEKS: 7.12B – Identify the main functions of the systems of the human organism, including the circulatory, respiratory, skeletal, muscular, digestive, excretory, reproductive, integumentary, nervous, and endocrine systems.
