Review for:Actin-Myosin Movie

posted: on June 3, 2008 at 9:12AM

Sensory and Motor systems

Muscle contraction

I wanted students to see the movement of the protein fibers in skeletal muscles.

A.P., Honors or Advanced

We looked at this animatin after veiwing another one posted on my teacher website (that provided simliar information but was not a 3-D view). We viewed it in class and they coudl also see it home because it is posted on my teacher website. We had already discussed what the relationship was between ATP, calcium, tropomyosin, and troponin. They needed to see it in motion to really udnerstand what was happening.

Provides visualization or animation, Increases modeling skills

The repetition of this animation geive students time to look at what each part of the animation represents. They can focus on one part and figure out what is happening based on what they already know. If they can't recall what is happening they can look at class notes to refresh their mememory, but the animation is still going in a loop so they won't miss anything. It can also be paused to stop the movement to examine the position of the molecule more closely. I also love that it can be sped up to mimic how fast the changes are really occuring in a muslce cell.

Used alone, I wish it had a refrence to the larger muscle so students could see where this is in reference to a muslce fiber. For this reason, I only use this animation in teh context of other animations that do review the structure of the muscle and the release of Ca+ from the sacroplasmic reticulum.