Students learn more about how muscles work and how biomedical engineers can help keep the muscular system healthy. Following the engineering design process, they create their own biomedical device to aid in the recovery of a strained bicep. They discover the importance of rest to muscle recovery and that muscles (just like engineers!) work together to achieve a common goal.
The musculoskeletal system includes bones, joints, cartilage, muscles, ligaments and tendons. In order to describe anatomical landmarks for example for the purposes of surgery and to be able to describe different directional information, for example when recording the view of a recently taken x-ray, it is necessary to have a way of describing the planes and axes that can be applied to the musculoskeletal system to pinpoint a specific anatomical area.
Students are introduced to the field of biomechanics and how the muscular system produces human movement. They learn the importance of the muscular system in our daily lives, why it is important to be able to repair muscular system injuries and how engineering can help.