Winging It
A Musculoskeletal System Lab
• How are the muscles and bones held together?
• How do the muscles and bones work together to
provide motion?
• What are joints and how do they function?
Safety
• Raw chicken can carry salmonella.
During the lab do not touch your face.
• Wear gloves and discard gloves in the
trash at the end of the period.
• Clean scissors and trays with soapy
water. Dry them and show them to Mrs.
Berry when your group is done!
How is your arm like a
chicken wing?
Look at your
wing, hold it up to
your body if you
need to, do you
think it is the right
wing or the left
wing?
Directions:
1. Carefully cut a slit down the wing from the
shoulder to the lower wing. Try to cut from the
inside of the skin to the outside so you do not
cut up the muscles.
2. Pull on the skin by the
shoulder and pull it back
to the lower wing. You
might have to cut some
of the connective tissue
to help the skin separate.
3. Use closed scissors to “tease” the skin from the
muscle.
4. Stick the scissor tip between the muscle and
skin, pointing toward the skin and away from the
muscle. Open the scissors to tear the skin from the
muscle.
5. You will see clear connective tissue. Pull the skin
back gently. Use the scissors and forceps, to cut
the skin and peel it away from the muscle below.
6. Identify the under layer of fat, the capillaries,
and connective tissue. Include all of this in your
drawing. Continue to skin the wing without
cutting the muscles!.
7. Observe the muscles in the wing. They look like bundles of
pale pink tissue.
8. Grab the wing by the wing tip and shoulder and pull and
push it.
9. Watch the muscles, and identify when muscles are
stretched and squished.
10. Identify the biceps and triceps. Draw and label them on
your diagram.
What happened to each
muscle as you raised
and lowered it?
Which bones in the arm
moved?
Which bones in the arm
didn’t move?
The biceps and the
triceps are the
muscles that work to
lift and lower your arm.
Your biceps are on the
upper front portion of
the arm, and your
triceps are on the
upper back portion, as
shown below.
11. Carefully work your fingertip or a probe between the
muscles until they separate into the muscle groups.
12. Pull on each group to see how the muscle makes the wing
move. Notice how and where the muscle attaches to the bone.
13. Use several muscle groups and see if you can get the wing
to punch or wave.
14. Identify the tendons and bones and add them to your
diagram.
The tendon is the white, tough, fibrous material that connects the muscle to
the bone. The tendons connecting muscle and bone can be seen in several
muscle groups. Where these tendons run over joints, like the elbow, they
are often in well developed sheathes. Such a sheath can be seen above. Do
such sheathes exist in the Human elbow?
14. Cut all the tendons around the elbow and pull away the
muscles.
15. Pull slowly on the bones to make a small gap in the elbow.
You should be able to see the ligaments inside the joint.
16. Cut the ligaments to separate the joint. Observe and see
how and where the ligaments and tendons attach.
17. Feel the cartilage in the joint where the bones touch.
Scrape the cartilage and bone to see how different they are.
18. Identify all the labeled all the parts of the wing on your
diagram.
Look at the
elbow joint.
Identify at least
one ligament.
Ligaments
connect bones
together.
Ligaments are
around between
the bones.
At the surface of
each bone
forming the joint
is a white, shiny,
slippery
substance called
cartilage.
What is the
purpose of
cartilage in
joints?
Based on your observations, explain the roles of muscles,
tendons, ligaments, cartilage, and joints in the back-and-forth
movement of the lower chicken wing. #3 on your worksheet
Look at a the bones of the human arm. Identify the humerus,
ulna and radius. Compare the similar features between the
chicken wing and the human arm. #4 on your worksheet.