Unit 7 Reflection: The Skeletal System

This unit revolved around the skeletal system both as a protective structure and important provider for nutrients. There are two locations of bones, axial bones are base, supportive bones going down the vertical axis of the body. Appendicular bones extend from the axial bones, such as appendages.

There are 206 bones in the human body, but the basic structure of every bone is the same. Bones are made of compact and spongy bone. The compact protects the outer layer of the bone, and the spongy layer has many open spaces. They contain calcium and collagen that makes bones hard and flexible.

Bone remodeling occurs everyday in order to maintain bone strength and help. osteocytes are mature bone cells that control the breaking and building of bone cells. The osteoblasts are bone forming cells, and the osteoclasts destroy them.

In the owl pellet lab, we were able to see how the bones of rodents differ from human bones. Although there are many similarities, there are also differences that allow rodents to adapt to their environment such as a larger and longer jaw to consume prey.


Joints connect our bones in several different ways. Diarthroses joints are freely movable, synarthroses are immovable and amphiarthroses are slightly movable.

Testing Balance

For the last two weeks, I have been recovering from being sick, and can do more intensive workouts to continue my progress. I've also begun to time my peers to see how long they can stand on one foot with shoes/without shoes while their eyes are closed. I am comparing these times to the sports that they play so that I explore which sports can improve balance the most.

The more that I start working with others and grow in my own workouts, the more interested I become in how our bodies learn/ improve balance. The first four weeks I focused mainly on strengthening exercises that targeted deep core and back muscles, such as hollow dish isometric holds, hanging leg lifts, dead lifts and rowing. I try and incorporate balance into these exercises also by doing single leg reps whenever possible and record my progress. My most recent exercise to test my progress is to straddle press handstand with my back against a wall and my hands lower than my feet. This way, I have the leverage to lift myself up easier so that I can become confident with the balance and core activation needed.

Owl Pellet Lab Analysis

The purpose of this lab was to dissect an owl pellet to find bones of its prey. An owl pellet is the remains of an animal regurgitated by the owl that can be pieced together like a puzzle to identify it.

As we dissected the pellet, we noticed that the skull of the organism was small and pointed, compared to the flat and round shape of a human skull. It did not have the beak structure that a bird does, which is a sign that the animal is a rodent. The human skull and rodent skull both have basic defining features such as eye sockets, mandible and maxilla, and mouth. The skull measure 24 mm in length, which is close to the average length of a vole skull, 25 mm. The scapula is much wider and flatter than those of a shrew and mole, similar to the wide scapula of a human. Both the femur of a human and vole are similar, they are both the longest and strongest bone of the body, the difference is the pointy projection of the vole's femur.