Chicken Dissection

During the chicken dissection lab, Nicole and Angela dissected the chicken by removing the chicken skin and internal organs. They slit the chicken medially and worked on dissecting different parts of the chicken. Meanwhile, Simrun and I identified the different muscles in the chicken, labeled them accordingly, and snapped pictures of the labels matching the muscles. 

There are many muscles involved in flexing and extending the leg. The semimembranosus and the semitendinosus, for example, are all involved in extending the thigh; the satorius and iliotibialis extend and flex the leg.

The origin is the immovable end of the muscle and insertion is the movable end of of the muscle. When a muscle contracts, the insertion is moved toward the origin. The iliotibialis, for example, is identified as the insertion because it extends the thigh and flexes the leg. 

Chicken muscles and humans are remarkably similar but also have apparent differences. 

• The gastrocnemius are both attached to the two organisms´ Achilles tendons; however, the Achilles tendon runs around the hock in the birds and the heel in humans. 
• Both the chicken and humans have latissimus dorsi that are directly distal to the trapeziuses of the two organisms´ back and extend or pull the wing for the chicken and arm for humans.
• The satorius runs down the front edge of the thigh from the ilium to the knee in birds but across the front of the thigh in humans.

Quadriceps Femoris: Muscle lying on the inside of the thigh just medial to the sartorius in the bird; Flexes the thigh and extends the lower leg

Gastrocnemius: Primary muscle of the dorsal and medial sides of the drumstick; Extends the foot and flexes the lower leg
Tibalis Anterior: Muscle larger than and directly under the peroneus longus in the birds; Causes pain in the disorder known as ¨shin splints¨ and flexes the foot
Peroneus Longus: Primary superficial muscle on the lateral side of the drumsticks in birds; Extends the foot

Brachioradialis: Largest muscle on the superior side of the lower wing closest to the alula; Pulls the hand back
Flexor Carpi Ulnaris: Largest muscle on the posterior side of the lower wing away from the alula; Flexes the hand

Semimembranosus: Muscle inferior and medial to the biceps femoris and extends the thigh
Biceps Femoris: Muscle lying just medial and inferior section of the iliotibials in the bird; primary upper leg muscle powering running and flexing the leg
Semitendinosus: Muscle anterior and medial to the semimebranosus on the inside of the thigh and extends the thigh

Sartorius: Muscle running down the front edge of the thigh from the ilium to knee in birds and flexes the thigh to allow the crossing of legs

Iliotibialis: Muscle that thrusts the knee back into hyperextension thereby locking the knee

Trapezius: Muscles running perpendicular from the backbone to the shoulder of the bird and pull the shoulder back
Latissimus Dorsi: Muscles directly distal to the trapeziuses on the bird´s and the human´s back that extend or pull the wing or arm

Pectoralis Major: Large superficial breast muscles of the bird that pull the wing ventrally, powering flight
Pectoralis Minor: Thin, triangular muscle situated under the pectoralis major that lifts the wing dorsally

What Happens When You Stretch

Relate and Review

When you stretch, the muscle fiber is pulled out to its full length by the sarcomere, and then the connective tissue takes up the remaining slack. Stretching helps to realign any disorganized fibers, rehabilitating scarred tissue back to health.

Earlier this school year, I suffered a major pain injury in my quadriceps during the tennis season due to not stretching before the match. Stretching rehabilitates scarred tissue, and I usually never stretch.
Therefore, my quadriceps were never able to recover from the previous day's match; thus, my major pain in the quadriceps developed. Thankfully, I recovered from the pain with the help of BenGay and bags of ice.


Quotes

• "the stretch flex nerves increase their firing rates (signaling) as their length steadily increases"
• Author Brad Appleton's use of "firing rates" as a synonym for signaling to describe a static component of the stretch flex adds another dimension to the actions of the stretch flex. "Firing rates" really provides the reader information on the rapidity of the stretch flex sending the signal, which cannot be described in any better words.
• "Picture little pockets of fibers distributed throughout the muscle body stretching, and other fibers simply going along for a ride"
• The analogy of other fibers going for a ride really demonstrates the process within our body. While some fibers are distributed throughout the muscle body when stretching, others are just "going along for a ride."
• "proprioception: the perception of one's own body position and movement"
• Proprioception is the source of proprioceptors, which detect any changes in physical displacement. This process is very important, due to the fact that these nerve endings relay all the information of the musculoskeletal system to the central nervous system.  

Unit 6 Reflection

Unit 6 discussed the skeletal system and topics relating to this system. Themes related to this unit were maintaining a healthy lifestyle and learning disorders that may be present in our lives. Learning disorders relating to the skeletal system and the different bones in our body will help us diagnose our own medical problems and be more knowledgeable about our own bodies. This enhancement of knowledge will also give us more incentive to intake vitamin D and calcium due to the fact we are aware of the possible disorders we might have if not we do not intake those nutrients.

Learning about the skeletal system and its disorders was quite fascinating and I would be interested in learning more in details of the skeletal system and disorders.

During this unit, I found dissecting the owl pellets fascinating because it was interesting to see how all the disarranged bones would form a skeleton. In addition, the process of dissecting an owl pellet of an object was fun.

As a student, I believe that I have started my journey in accomplishing my New Year's Goals. I have been sleeping more during the weekdays and weekends, sleeping 6 to 7 hours. Although I am not sleeping the standard 8 hours teenagers should sleep daily, I find this as progress and I intend on improving as the semester finishes. Unfortunately, my procrastination has not gotten better but actually worse. I need to remind myself to always finish my homework before 12 am, or I will always procrastinate. I may be at my low point in accomplishing my goal in stopping to procrastinate; this, however, is a working process.

Pictures below are from the owl pellet lab, in which we scavenged bones from the owl pellet to form a skeleton and determine the animal.

Bones

Skeleton of Shrew

Owl Pellet Lab

After separating the bones from the owl pellet, my partner Vega and I began arranging the bones to resemble a skeleton of an animal. We found many small bones in our animal, which we thought were ribs of the animal. The key, however, of determining what the animal was, the shrew, was its pelvis. The pelvis, shown in the picture below, most resembles one of a shrew, which have bones that are irregular and have a hole in them. Another indicating factor was its tibia and fibula; however, this was not as detrimental in determining the animal due to the fact that two animals´ tibia and fibula resembled the ones we scavenged from the owl pellet.

Remains of the Shrew´s Skeleton

Bones and other remainings

The skeleton of the shrew is quite similar to the human skeleton. Both skeletons have pelvis that have a hole in it, tibia & fibula that allows them to walk, and ribs that protect vital organs. The differences, however, are marginally large, as shrews walk on four legs while we humans walk on two. This will effect the difference in size of the tibia and the femur. The way that the shrew´s skeleton is formed is also different from human´s, as the shrew´s skeleton curves more than the human´s. Another difference between the two skeletons are the size of the bones. The size of the bones is really indicating the size of the organism, hence the marginally large difference in height between humans and shrews.

Bones

Unit 5 Reflection

Unit 5 discussed about the digestive system, fuel metabolism, diabetes, the endocrine system, and the lymphatic system. The common theme for this unit was the continuation of last semester´s theme: the effect of these systems on our body´s daily activities. For example, we learned that diabetes is a very prevalent disorder in our society that can be developed genetically or through natural causes. Short terms effects of this disease can include slurred speech, coma, and even death. Therefore, we need to be aware of all diseases apparent in our world and try to prevent acquiring them by taking certain precautionary measures.

In terms of lab readings and activities, we actually did a profuse amount. For example, in class, we created posters that helped us learn the fed state, the fasting state, and the starvation state. My group created a poster based on the starving state, providing description, a chart, and a cartoon. Through this activity, we had to present our product and the presenting part reaffirmed our knowledge on the subject and encouraged to somewhat use our presenting skills more.  

What I want to learn more about is more systems of our body and those systems' role in helping our body function. It is quite fascinating that all of these systems work with another, like an automobile engine, to make the final product function.

My progress in completing my New Year's Goals is somewhat nonexistent, unfortunately. In fact, I have staying up later than last semester largely due to studying for the SAT, and I have been procrastinating the same. However, moving forward, I want to achieve these goals by taking baby steps, sleeping progressively more each day and completing homework earlier. Although this may seem impossible to me at the moment, these are my New Year's Goals and I want to at least achieve my goal by the end of this semester.

The Digestive System Lab

1. One of the main "take aways" from the activity was learning the length of these digestive organs. From afar, these digestive organs do not seem excessively long because they are capable of fitting in our somewhat compact bodies. However when these digestive organs are spread out, some of them are as long as a full tennis court. This amazing fact demonstrates how much more there is to learn about the digestive system, piquing my interest even more about the anatomy of the human body.

DIGESTIVE ORGAN	COLOR and LENGTH (CM)
MOUTH	GREEN AND 11.5 CM
ESOPHAGUS	BLUE AND 46.2 CM
STOMACH	RED AND 17.9 CM
SMALL INTESTINE	YARN AND 696 CM
LARGE INTESTINE	GOLD AND 174 CM
TOTAL	945.6 CM

2. The length of my digestive system is about three times more than my height. The digestive system is able to fit in my abdomen because such organs are rolled up so much that their width is longer than their length.

3. I believe that it takes about a day for food to travel through my entire digestive system. The actual time it takes to digest food, however, is 6 to 8 hours. Factors that influence the time to digest are chewing, eating with digestive limits, intaking liquids and condiments, and the frequency of meals.

4. Although digestion and absorption are two functions in the digestive system, digestion is the breaking down of food into smaller pieces and absorption is the taking in of nutrients, water, etc. Both processes occur in the stomach; however, absorption also occurs in the large intestine.

5. From this unit on the digestive unit, I am interested in learning about how our body recognizes food poisoning and what our body does to respond to the food poisoning.

New Year´s Goals

New Years is the time which we all make goals for the new year, whether they are to adopt a healthier lifestyle or simply strive better in your environment. Goals are often measured by five factors- specificity, measurability, attainability, relevancy, and time boundedness. These goals are otherwise known as SMART ones.

My two SMART goals include sleeping more and procrastinating less on schoolwork and on any other task. Although these goals were my health goals for last semester, I feel that I have not accomplished these goals enough or at all. To accomplish these goals, I need to factor in a predetermined time of my bed time on weekdays, preferably 11 pm or earlier. My earlier bed time will thus prevent me from procrastinating at midnight for an assignment the following day and somewhat decrease my stress levels.

When I accomplish my SMART goals, I will be able to pay attention more in class and learn more, making me into a better and more healthy person.