Unit 7 reflection

Going into this unit I really did not have a good understanding of how muscles work and how much they actually do for us. A main topic we learned about was Muscle contractions. We did a stop motion video on this which we drew out the 12 steps involved in muscle contractions. Here is the link to the video. Muscle contraction video . Muscle contraction was a little difficult for me. Mainly just the memorization of all the steps because it is a long proccess. Muscle relaxation has to be a part of this lecture as well. It is a 4 step process and is much simpler. The Impulses pass, the Ca2+ gate closes, than Ca2+ is transported back into sacroplasmic reticulum and than the muscle finally relaxes. Here is a picture to go along with the repeated steps of muscle contractions.

We also learned about muscle twitch. There are three types of muscle twitches which have different features and roles. Slow twitch fibers contract relatively slow and are dependent of oxygen. They have high amounts of myoglobin, mitochondria, and capillaries. They have low amounts of glycogen stored. They are slow to fatigue and are usually red because of all the oxygen they get. Fast twitch(a) Fibers have a high contractile speed, and do not fatigue as easy. They have a high blood flow capacity because they are moving so fast and are white/pale color. Fast twitch (b) Fibers have low blood flow capacity, fast contractile speed and fatigue fast.

The muscular system involves movement, muscle tissue and connective tissue. The functions of muscles involve the movement of bone of fluid, maintain posture and body position, stabalize joints and heat generations. Along with this topic to get a better understanding we did a chicken dissection lab. It was probably one of the most hands on lab we have had all year and was quite interesting. We had to make difficult insitions and mark up the chicken with the parts of its body. That was the most difficult part of the lab. It was a set back as well for us because we had to go back after it was all done and label the parts via phone and label the parts because we initially forgot to do it on the chicken. Here is a link that has pictures and a better understanding of the parts of the chicken. Chicken dissection lab .

The lecture that was most interesting to me was the performance enhancement topic. The reason I found it so interesting is because I am playing sports year round and have seen and know people who take enhancement drugs. I have even been asked myself to take them and am glad I refused. We did a little assignment on google slides where we got to pick a enhancer and list its risk and talk about it. I chose creatine because it is the most common one that I see especially in highschoolers trying to get big and gain muscle and dont know what they are actually doing to their body.

Finally, My year goals are at a peak right now. I have 88 percent in this class and am working really hard to bring it up to an A. I am struggling in math class though and it is bringing my grade down. My goal for math is to have a solid C+ by the end of the year. Sports wise things are going very well. I was just accepted into my travel 7on7 team where we play in many tournaments and are top competetors. We won our first tournament, it was a very long day, we were there from 8 am all the way to 9 pm. I am really excited moving forward and hope to do big things.

-Kian G