Lesson: Muscle Contraction Biology • Third Year of Secondary School

Students will be able to

• recall that muscles can be voluntary or involuntary,
• describe the coordination of the skeletal, nervous, and muscular systems in moving the body,
• describe how electrical impulses are transmitted across a neuromuscular junction, including the role of calcium ions, acetylcholine, and sodium ions,
• recall the sliding filament theory as the accepted theory of skeletal muscle contraction,
• describe how muscles contract according to the sliding filament theory, including the action of actin and myosin filaments and the role of tropomyosin, calcium ions, and ATP,
• suggest what happens when muscles become fatigued.