~ How can muscles move your skeleton around? ~

The Dr Anna Does curriculum theme of ‘Muscles’ fits into the ‘Animals, including humans’ and ‘Forces and magnets’ programme of study sections from the Key Stage Two stage of the National Curriculum. To help the children make sense of their own bodies and how they compare with other animals, we investigate how Muscles help to move the body. The children make their own mechanical models during the session to observe how the interactions of ‘push’ and ‘pull’ move bones to result in movement of that body part. By using the four STEM elements with an extension section, we aim to enhance the children’s understanding of Muscles, building on the schools usual teaching of the different animal systems by showing how things that cannot naturally push can still move things around. Additional resources and models demonstrated by Dr Anna Does help to explain the concept of contraction (shortening and tightening) to work in collaboration with relaxation (elongation and loosening) to produce paired push and pull forces in the body.

See below for a cost breakdown and a lesson plan of what to expect during a Dr Anna Does Muscle session.