Being an astronaut takes not only high mental acuity, but also a high level of physical fitness, especially for those who spend a long amount of time away from Earth, such as the astronauts serving on the International Space Station....

Got milk? Or almonds, sardines, or tofu? Calcium is important throughout life, but especially so for developing bodies. If teens do not consume enough calcium while they are growing, they are at a much higher risk of osteoporosis and...

What is the hip bone connected to? Learn about body parts and the human skeleton with a game of Simon Says, skeleton puzzle, and five question quiz.  

Would a baggie filled with water have the same shape sitting on a table as it would in a bucket of water? Why not? Allow learners to find out first-hand the effects of gravity acting alone on the baggie, as well as when gravity is...

Pupils familiarize themselves with the proper names of muscles and bones and where they are located.

Students conduct Internet research on the different parts of the skeletal system. Then they create a model arm that demonstrates how muscle and bone work together to create movement.

What is meant by the phrase "form follows function?" Allow your budding biologists to discover first-hand through two activities. In the first, groups work together to discover whether a solid cylinder or an empty cylinder can support...

Students explore the function of bone, muscle, and skin. Pasta and rubber bands are used to model how minerals and collagen contribute to bone strength. The effects of the reduction of these substances are explored in chicken bones.

Students explore the relationship between their skeletal and muscular systems, resulting in ability to name and compare types of joints and ability to demonstrate how muscles move bones.

How do muscles move bones? Find out using a built-in-class model. Pupils construct a hand model with paper and string, then follow a series of directions to explore the movement process. Discover additional information about the muscular...

Arm your young scientists with knowledge about anatomy as they build their own model of the elbow joint. Help them get a firm grasp on how muscles and bones interact to allow movement as they try different positions for the muscles on...

First graders explore how they can help their muscles and bones grow strong through the use of physical activity.

Leave it to the classic jump rope to get your class excited about physical activity! Your class will begin by discussing the benefits of jumping rope as a form of exercise and learning a few different types of jumps. Then in groups of...

What better way to learn about muscle than by dissecting one? Using cow muscle (beef), learners compare bundles of yarn to muscle fibers as they explore each. The supplemental reading about astronauts losing muscle mass in space and what...

How much activity is appropriate for elementary school youngsters? What kind of activities do they need to do? Check out the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. Look to see what are age-appropriate activities for each grade...

Young scholars explore a variety of factors that affect the health of the bone, muscle, and skin systems. Healthy lifestyle recommendations which include behaviors over which we have control are explored in this lesson.

Students explore data on the bone, muscle, and skin of living systems and then create a list of characteristics of these systems and relate these characteristics to bone, muscle, and skin.

Students play CD-ROM game My Amazing Human Body, and participate in relay game in Phys. Ed. where they put together skeleton on which body parts are labeled.

Stress the importance of the different types of pressure our mind and body experience in a lesson about how certain types of stress are actually necessary and good for our bodies. As astronauts and people with injuries can attest, not...

What happens in the muscles during anaerobic and aerobic exercise, and how does this affect the heart and our overall health? A cross-curricular lesson that introduces learners to the lifelong benefits of exercise, including the...

Don't be chicken to try a lesson plan that compares the anatomy of birds to humans. Read the background information so you don't have to wing it when it comes to the anatomy of a chicken. Prepare cooked chicken bones by soaking them in a...

Hosting a Healthy Field Day will take a lot of planning and organization, but with a lot of parent participation it can come together very well. The resource describes seven stations of the ten that were presented. Each of these has a...

What better way to study the structures of organisms than by creating a new being? After considering different types of skeletal supports (exoskeleton and endoskeleton), budding biogeneticists work together to create their own animals -...

Students make a model of a major skeletal muscle group. They consider how their life might change if they didn't have, or lack use of, this particular muscle group.