Volume 9, Number 3, April 2014
Teaching notes
Sliding filament theory
Ross Howitt
Teachers will be aware that current Ofsted requirements for teaching, learning and assessment
necessitate that all lessons embed suitable amounts of formative assessment to track student
achievement in relation to lesson objectives. Summative assessment should also be included in
suitable places of a scheme of work.
Formative assessment is generally carried out throughout a course or project. Formative assessment,
also referred to as ‘educative assessment’, is used to aid learning. In an educational setting, formative
assessment might be a teacher (or peer) or the learner, providing feedback on a student’s work and
would not necessarily be used for grading purposes. Formative assessments can take the form of
diagnostic, standardised tests.
Summative assessment is generally carried out at the end of a course or project. In an educational
setting, summative assessments are typically used to assign students a course grade. Summative
assessments are evaluative.
Ideas for formative assessment
Group task: students are divided into parts of a sarcomere. Some students form one Z line, and
others form the other Z line to distinguish the ends of the sarcomere. Other students line up in the
middle of the sarcomere as actin filaments while others line up as myosin filaments. An area of the
classroom should be labelled the sarcoplasmic reticulum, and the remaining students can be the
nervous impulse and the resulting released calcium. The teacher can now direct the calcium into the
sarcomere to bind with troponin etc. Note: it is advisable for students to hold paper sheets to signify
the tropomyosin, to show that it is moved when troponin and calcium attach.
Students could be asked to:

perform different roles

describe their role as they do it

describe others’ roles

write the process on paper
Pair work: Take turns to describe the various stages of the sliding filament mechanism.
Card work: State the various stages on card and cut them up to jumble up the order. Ask students in
groups, pairs or individually to rearrange the order. Note: this can be linked to trying to remember eight
or more points in case it were to come up in the 14 mark question.
Ideas for summative assessment
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Summative assessment should take place at the end of the lesson/topic and should predominantly
focus on the two exam questions: PHED 3 June 2013 Question 03 and PHED 3 June 2102 Question
06.
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