Unit 7 Reflection

3/24/16

Unit 7 Reflection

    As we get closer to the end of the year, we've started covering our last few topics. This unit was all about the muscles: how they work, their structure, the different types of movement, injuries, etc. We first started out with the different types of movements, which include motions like flexion, extension, abduction, adduction, rotation, circumduction, etc. However, movement is only one of the muscles various characteristics; they are also contractible, extensible, elastic, and excitable. These characteristics allow muscles to move and work in the way that they do. In fact, we learned just how muscles contract. It's the individual sarcomeres that do the work as actin and myosin filaments slide past each other to shorten the length of our muscle tissue. We then got a little more specific with certain muscles and what actions they perform. Our last lecture was on performance enhancements, which is a very broad category, and surprisingly, not all of the methods mentions were harmful. All in all, it was a very informative unit that definitely got me thinking about how I move. Even though we covered the basics, I would still love to learn about the muscle system in more detail and perhaps look at more of the muscles present in the human body or even animals.
   In order to solidify these new ideas, labs and short projects were utilized in this unit. We did a chicken dissection that helped us identify all the different muscles in our body without having to harm other human beings (always a positive). One of my favorite discoveries of that lab was the pectoralis minor (pictured below) because it was a muscle under a muscle.

Picture taken by Jennifer Poo

On top of the chicken dissection we also did things like making up dances to demonstrate all the different types of muscle movements. For how muscles function we had to create a short video that described the entire process (check out the video here). And, lastly, yesterday we made an advertisement for performance enhancing substances. Well, ours wasn't really a substance as much as it was an action. Either way, the picture below is what we came up with, and I'll say I find it pretty funny.

Ad for massages and myofascial release
Made by Jennifer Poo, Alexandria Tsao, and me

All of these were great ways which helped me solidify all the information I had been learning these past few weeks.
    In addition to doing this unit, our class has also been working on our 20 Time projects, which has been a load of fun. I find myself trying to think of new ideas for my page, but I've been in a bit of a tough spot with time and other schoolwork, which I am trying to change so I can focus on this project. Please feel free to contribute any ideas/ work to my 20 Time page on Facebook-- I would greatly appreciate it.
    Checking in with my New Year's goals, I feel that I have been doing a fairly okay job at maintaining them. However, with so many events during this time of the year I have had a harder time getting to work ever weekend, but I do work out extra days with  my manager, so I guess that's a plus.