Did you know that our bodies create about a gallon of mucus in just two days! I do. In fact, I know a lot of other interesting information about the human body, and YOU WILL TOO if you read my paper! Within this document, you will find six different body system essays including the muscular, skeletal, circulatory, respiratory, digestive, and nervous systems, which all work together to operate our body. All of these systems have different components, each with their own unique functions that help to keep us alive. However, each system cannot operate alone - they need each other to be successful. For example, the nutrients gathered by the digestive system get distributed throughout the body in the circulatory system! Over the previous 12 weeks, we gathered information, organized our thoughts, and paraphrased what trusted websites taught us about each system. We worked with responsibility partners and our papers definitely benefited from the collaboration. Just like each human body system needs to rely on the other systems, we relied on each other to improve our writing and our process. The following is the result of our hard work.Our skeletal system is made up 206 bones. These bones work together to provide our body with support so that we can stand, help us to move so we can walk around, and protect our vital organs like our heart and our brain! Our bones even make and store blood cells for our circulatory system! Without our bones, we would be nothing more than a pile of skin, organs, and muscles on the floor. We wouldn’t be able to move and our organs wouldn’t be safe!
Skeletal System Our bones are made up of many layers. These layers are important because we need our bones to be strong, yet lightweight. In order to achieve this goal, the outside layer of bone is made up of solid, compact bone that makes our bones strong and dense. The next layer of bone is called cancellous (a.k.a. spongy bone). This layer allows our bones to be lightweight and transitions us from compact bone into bone marrow. Bone marrow is a thick and spongy section in the middle of bone where red and white blood cells are formed. Finally, our bones are all covered in a thin membrane called peritoneum which is where our muscles attach to bones. So that is how bones are structured in order to keep our bodies strong, yet lightweight! Although bones are extremely important, we wouldn’t be able to move without joints! Joints are places where two or more bones meet. There are several types of joints in our bodies, but we’ll just focus on four of them. The first type of joint is called a hinge joint. Just like the hinges on a door, they allow movement back and forth. We have hinge joints at our elbows and knees, and we even have them in our knuckles! Another type of joint is called a ball and socket joint. This is where one bone has a ball at the end of it and the other bone has a “baseball mitt” for the ball to sit in. Our shoulders and hips are examples of ball and socket joints. The third type of joint that we studied was called a gliding joint. Gliding joints are places where two or more bones meet and slide past each other. Our wrists and ankles are two examples of gliding joints. The last type of joint is called the pivot joint. A pivot joint works when one bone acts like a ring and the other bone sits inside the ring and rotates. Our neck is an example of a pivot joint because it can rotate around and move up and down. At each joint a soft, squishy material can be found between bones which keeps them from rubbing each other, which would be painful. This material is called cartilage. Cartilage, which is bendable, can also be found in our ears and nose. But all of this wouldn’t be possible if it weren’t for ligaments holding all of our bones together at each joint. Ligaments are long, stretchy tissue that connect bone to other bone and stabilize joints. Without these ligaments in place, bones wouldn’t stay attached to each other and wouldn’t allow joints to move. It’s interesting to note that people who are double-jointed actually just have extremely stretchy ligaments! Joints definitely make movement possible and without them, we’d have a hard time getting around our world! Bones definitely are important parts of the human body. They allow us to move, help provide us structure and support, protect our important organs, and even make blood cells! Because bones are designed so well, they are strong, yet lightweight. Thanks to joints, ligaments, and cartilage, we are able to bend and move throughout our world. Finally, the muscles in our body attach to bones, giving us the power to actually move around!
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