The AxialSkeleton

by: Dani and Sierra
 

   Without our skeleton, we would be balls of muscle, incapable of doing anything except for rolling. Our brain would be spread out in our bodies, and our lungs, heart, intestines and other hollow innards would be smashed. Our skeleton allows us to be us, and is made up of two sections: the axial and appendicular skeleton. The axial skeleton is the central section of the skeleton. Each part  of the axial skeleton is vital to our body, and not just as protection for our organs. Bone in any form stores food for our body.

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PARTS and PROCESSES of the AXIAL SKELETON

The axial skeleton is the central part of your skeleton (see picture). The rest of the skeleton is called the appendicular skeleton. The axial skeleton  is made up of the cranium bones (skull), the spinal vertebrae (spine), sternum (the bone that is in the center of the back, and that holds all the ribs together), and the rib cage. The cranium protects the brain, and is made up of multiple bones joined together. The vertebrae protects the spinal cord, and gives shape to the back. The rib cage protects the heart and lungs, and gives shape to the chest and abdomen. Every bone in your body produces red blood cells and antibodies, and stores fat.

THE AXIAL SKELETON
Disorder, Damage, and Disease of the Axial Skeleton
Numerous diseases can afflict the axial skeleton, but many of the more common ones affect the spine. Scoliosis, the curvature of the spine, affects people who's spinal disks did not fully separate or develop while still inside their mother's wombs. People with scoliosis have very curvy spines, often in an exaggerated "S" shape. A disease that can cause problems in the rib cage is costochondritis, a disease that causes inflammation in the ribs where they attach to the sternum. Cyriax's syndrome causes a rib to break off from where it is attached and float around inside of the rib cage. Both of the rib cage diseases cause a lot of pain to the infected person, and both can be treated with surgery. There is not a lot of diseases that affect the cranium that aren't induced without injury, but one of the few is called scaphocephally. Scaphocephally causes premature joining of the the skull's bones in the fetal stage. Because of the premature joining, when a one year old has its first growth spurt, the skull has to grow upwards, not sideways, making for a very long head. As in any bone, the axial skeleton can get osteoperosis, a disease caused by lack of calcium, that causes weak bones. 

A SCOLIOSIS PATIENT'S SPINE

Fast Facts:

A History of the Axial Skeleton
When people were still just figuring out the human body, just starting to realize that maybe, just maybe, the heart did not control the human emotions, Flemish physician Andreas Vesalius was dissecting human corpses. Vesalius drew very real pictures of the human skeleton (based on a firsthand basis, not just guesswork), and wrote a book that challenged the Catholic church's view of the way the human body was built at the time. Vesalius gave us the first factual look at the human body from the inside. When the skeleton was more intricately diagramed, its parts were given different names in 1872; one of which was the axial section of the skeleton. Nowadays, everything that there is to know about the axial skeleton is known, except, maybe, that our skeleton is actually an alien implanted device that will be used for the complete take over of the earth. (Hee-hee, wouldn't that be weird.) In the future, we might know how to duplicate an entire skeleton, just using a bone! This would be a little bit like cloning, except there would be no nine month waiting period.

 

A List of Links:
Note: @ stand as grades of web pages
@= poor (no graphics, blah text)
@@= okay (1 or 2 graphics, boring text)
@@@= good (good amount of graphics, mildly interesting text)
@@@@= very good (great graphics, interesting text)
@@@@@= excellent! (exceptional graphics, highly interesting text)

http://www.science.ubc.ca/~biomania/tutorial/bonesk/ancbk01.htm
 @@@@@ (Five web page points)
This is a very good web page. It has lots of graphics (you might recognize 1 or 2), and very clear, precise text.
No games, but educational value makes up for that. Shows ALL sections of the axial skeleton (not just big picture, but every single vertebrae bone). VERY good resource. On a scale of 1-10 for educational value: 11!
 

http://www.southalabama.edu/biomedical/311Anatomy/7AxialSkeleton/sld001.htm
@@ and 1/2 @ (two and a half web page points)
TONS OF GRAPHICS!!! Pretty long loading time for each graphic. Almost no text. Each graphic is actually a slide, complete with labels. Bad resource, except for downloading graphics. On a scale of 1-10 for educational value, is probably a 2.

http://library.thinkquest.org/10348/find/content/skeletal.html
@@ (two web page points)
A very short overview of the skeletal system, with no graphics. Lots of quick info, good for fast facts reasource. Scale of 1-10 on educational value: 6. Combined with the web page above, would make a great web page.

http://library.thinkquest.org/11965/html/cyber-anatomy_skeletal.html
@@@ (three web page points)
Good, solid description of axial skeleton's system, processes, parts. No graphics. Just a scientific description. Scale of 1-10 for educational value: 8 1/2

Games (flashcards, word-search)

http://www.quia.com/custom/46406main.html
This is our game! It is pretty dang fun! The flashcards aren't really a game but a review for the word-search. The word search is fun, and easy. Please try this! You can make your own game at quia.com, for any subject! Try it!