7th grade · Science · Unit 7 of 16
Heart, Bones & Muscles
Circulation, bones and muscles
What your child practices
The heart and blood vessels, bones, joints, muscles and tendons, how body systems work together, and heart-rate data.
Alabama Course of Study content standard: 7.4 · the circulatory, skeletal and muscular systems working together
How we explain it
Children can open this short lesson before they practice.
- The heart pumps blood through arteries and back through veins.
- Bones support and protect. Joints let them move. Tendons join muscles to bones.
- Muscles only pull: they contract and get shorter to move a bone.
Example: How does your biceps bend your arm? Your brain sends a signal. The biceps contracts and pulls on the bone through a tendon. Answer: it contracts and pulls on the bone
Heart, Bones & Muscles in Alabama
In the Alabama Course of Study, this is unit 7 of 16 in 7th grade Science, after Body Systems and before Food Chains & Energy.
Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.
Sample questions
A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.
Question 1
Put the steps of bending your arm in order.
- 🧠The brain sends a signal to the biceps
- ↪️The arm bends at the elbow joint
- 💪The biceps contracts (gets shorter)
- 🦴A tendon pulls on a forearm bone
The brain sends a signal to the biceps → The biceps contracts (gets shorter) → A tendon pulls on a forearm bone → The arm bends at the elbow joint
Hint: Your brain sends the message first. Then the biceps contracts, its tendon pulls the bone, and the arm bends at the elbow joint.
Question 2
What do veins do?
- carry blood away from the heart
- swap gases in the lungs
- carry blood back to the heart
- connect muscles to bones
carry blood back to the heart
Hint: Arteries carry blood away from the heart. Veins bring it back.
Question 3
What happens to your heart rate when you exercise hard?
🏃- it goes up
- it goes down
- it stays exactly the same
it goes up
Hint: Working muscles need more oxygen, so your heart beats faster to deliver more blood.
Question 4
What is the main job of the heart?
🫀- breaking down food
- pumping blood all around the body
- holding up the skeleton
- filtering the air
pumping blood all around the body
Hint: The heart is a strong muscle that pumps blood through your blood vessels all day and night.
Question 5
Which bones protect your brain?
🧠- the ribs
- the pelvis
- the skull
- the femur
the skull
Hint: The skull is a hard case of bone around your brain.
Question 6
How many more beats per minute was Amir's heart rate after jumping jacks than at rest?
Amir's heart rate (beats per minute) answer boxbeats
51 beats
Hint: Subtract the resting rate from the jumping-jacks rate: 132 − 81 = 51.