Week 9 A&P Lab & Inquiry: Build the Skeleton, Name the Joints

Human Anatomy and Physiology I Free sample edition

Part 1 — The Big Picture

This week you learned that the skeleton's 206 bones sort into two divisions, that a bone which attaches a limb counts with the limbs, and that every joint can be read by what holds it together, how much it moves, and, for a synovial joint, its shape. In this lab you do that sorting the way an anatomist does. You open a free virtual anatomy atlas, stand the skeleton in the anatomical position, sort six bones by division and region, and classify four joints by structure, by function, and by one movement each. Then you check a chatbot's account of the same bones and joints and catch where it mislabels a bone, gives a part the wrong job, scrambles an order, miscounts, confuses a direction word or a joint class, or invents a number.

Time budget: Plan for about 120 minutes.

Part 2 — The Task

Guiding question: Can you stand a skeleton in the anatomical position and sort six bones by division and region, then read four joints by their structure, their function, and one movement each?

Before you begin — hypothesis: Before you identify anything, write your hypothesis in the if… then… because… form: if you sort bones by the job they do rather than by where they sit, then the scapula and the hip bone will land in one division or the other, because of a reason you can state about what each bone attaches.

Workshop data: Your own identifications of six bones and four joints on a free virtual atlas, or the printed fallback descriptions

Source: Six bone identifications and four joint classifications you make yourself on a free virtual anatomy atlas with the procedure in Part 3; if you cannot open an atlas, use the ten printed descriptions in the fallback, which were written for this lab as a stand-in for an atlas view.

Rows: 10 observations: 6 bones, one row each in the bone table, and 4 joints, one row each in the joint table; the planning table has 3 rows that set up the hypothesis rather than data
Columns: for bones: division, region, and a location clue; for joints: structural class, functional class, synovial type, and one movement

Part 3 — Materials & Procedure

Tools and materials

A free virtual anatomy atlas or 3D anatomy viewer (Innerbody, GetBodySmart), a virtual microscope for histology (Histology Guide), free physiology simulations (PhET pH Scale, Membrane Channels, Neuron, Gene Expression Essentials), and a spreadsheet (Google Sheets or any free spreadsheet)

Ways of working

structure-identification-on-a-virtual-atlas
histology-on-a-virtual-microscope
at-home-physiology-measurement-and-data-table

Procedure

Open a free virtual anatomy atlas or 3D anatomy viewer that needs no login, in any web browser, and go to its skeletal system view. If your instructor names a particular atlas, use that one. Tool: A free virtual anatomy atlas or 3D anatomy viewer (Innerbody, GetBodySmart), a virtual microscope for histology (Histology Guide), free physiology simulations (PhET pH Scale, Membrane Channels, Neuron, Gene Expression Essentials), and a spreadsheet (Google Sheets or any free spreadsheet). Check: The atlas's skeletal view is open.
Turn the skeleton until it stands in the anatomical position: upright, facing you, arms at the sides, palms facing forward. Tool: A free virtual anatomy atlas or 3D anatomy viewer (Innerbody, GetBodySmart), a virtual microscope for histology (Histology Guide), free physiology simulations (PhET pH Scale, Membrane Channels, Neuron, Gene Expression Essentials), and a spreadsheet (Google Sheets or any free spreadsheet). Check: The skeleton stands in the anatomical position with the palms forward.
Before you identify anything, write your hypothesis and the view you chose in the first table in Part 4. Tool: A free virtual anatomy atlas or 3D anatomy viewer (Innerbody, GetBodySmart), a virtual microscope for histology (Histology Guide), free physiology simulations (PhET pH Scale, Membrane Channels, Neuron, Gene Expression Essentials), and a spreadsheet (Google Sheets or any free spreadsheet). Check: The first table has its three cells filled.
Find the six bones listed in the bone table: the atlas (C1), a rib, the scapula, the radius, a hip bone, and the tibia. Click or hover on each to confirm its name. Tool: A free virtual anatomy atlas or 3D anatomy viewer (Innerbody, GetBodySmart), a virtual microscope for histology (Histology Guide), free physiology simulations (PhET pH Scale, Membrane Channels, Neuron, Gene Expression Essentials), and a spreadsheet (Google Sheets or any free spreadsheet). Check: All six bones have been found and their names confirmed.
For each bone, record its division (axial or appendicular), its region, and one location clue, such as the bone it sits next to or, for a forearm or leg bone, whether it is medial or lateral. Tool: A free virtual anatomy atlas or 3D anatomy viewer (Innerbody, GetBodySmart), a virtual microscope for histology (Histology Guide), free physiology simulations (PhET pH Scale, Membrane Channels, Neuron, Gene Expression Essentials), and a spreadsheet (Google Sheets or any free spreadsheet). Check: Every row of the bone table has a division, a region, and a location clue.
Find the four joints listed in the joint table: a skull suture, the atlantoaxial joint between C1 and C2, the elbow, and the shoulder. Zoom in until you can see where the bones meet. Tool: A free virtual anatomy atlas or 3D anatomy viewer (Innerbody, GetBodySmart), a virtual microscope for histology (Histology Guide), free physiology simulations (PhET pH Scale, Membrane Channels, Neuron, Gene Expression Essentials), and a spreadsheet (Google Sheets or any free spreadsheet). Check: All four joints have been found and zoomed.
For each joint, record its structural class, its functional class, its synovial type if it has one, and one movement it allows, or write none for a joint that does not move. Tool: A free virtual anatomy atlas or 3D anatomy viewer (Innerbody, GetBodySmart), a virtual microscope for histology (Histology Guide), free physiology simulations (PhET pH Scale, Membrane Channels, Neuron, Gene Expression Essentials), and a spreadsheet (Google Sheets or any free spreadsheet). Check: Every row of the joint table has four entries.
Check every row of both tables, then answer the analysis questions in Part 5 and complete the critique in Part 6. Tool: A free virtual anatomy atlas or 3D anatomy viewer (Innerbody, GetBodySmart), a virtual microscope for histology (Histology Guide), free physiology simulations (PhET pH Scale, Membrane Channels, Neuron, Gene Expression Essentials), and a spreadsheet (Google Sheets or any free spreadsheet). Check: Every analysis question has a written answer.

Fallback route

When to use it: Use this route if you cannot open a free virtual anatomy atlas, if the atlas will not load on your device, or if it has no skeletal view you can turn.

Use the ten printed descriptions below, written for this lab as a stand-in for an atlas view, to fill every cell of the bone table and the joint table, then complete every analysis question and the critique from them and submit the same items for equal credit.

This route earns the same credit as the primary route.

Ten printed descriptions of the bones and joints as they would appear on a skeleton in the anatomical position, written for this lab as a stand-in for an atlas.

Fallback model data
Bone or joint	What the description shows
The atlas (C1)	A ring-shaped bone at the very top of the backbone, directly under the skull
A rib	A curved bone wrapping from the backbone around the chest toward the breastbone
The scapula	A flat, triangular bone on the upper back that the arm bone meets at the shoulder
The radius	The forearm bone that ends on the thumb side of the wrist when the palms face forward
A hip bone	One of the two large bones of the pelvis that the thigh bone meets at the hip
The tibia	The inner, thicker bone of the lower leg, running from the knee down to the ankle
A skull suture	A wavy seam between two skull bones, held by fibers, with no gap or fluid between them
The atlantoaxial joint	Where the ring of C1 turns around the upright peg of C2, letting the head turn to say no
The elbow	Where the arm bone meets the forearm inside a fluid-filled space, bending and straightening in one direction
The shoulder	Where the rounded top of the arm bone sits in a shallow cup inside a fluid-filled space, swinging in every direction

Part 4 — The Scaffold

State your question and hypothesis before you look, so the sorting tests an idea instead of confirming a guess.

Student scaffold table 1
Part of the plan	Your answer
The guiding question in your own words
Hypothesis (if… then… because…)
The atlas view you used to see the skeleton

Sort each bone by the job it does for the body, reading every limb bone from the anatomical position.

Student scaffold table 2
Bone	Division (axial or appendicular)	Region	Location clue
The atlas (C1)
A rib
The scapula
The radius
A hip bone
The tibia

Read each joint from its structure to its function to its type, then name one movement it allows.

Student scaffold table 3
Joint	Structural class	Functional class	Synovial type, if any	One movement, or none
A skull suture
The atlantoaxial joint
The elbow
The shoulder

Part 5 — Analysis Questions

Which of your six bones are appendicular, and which two of them sit on the trunk yet still count as appendicular? Name each from your table.
A made-up phone app labels the ulna as the forearm bone on the thumb side. Using the anatomical position and your bone table, explain which bone belongs there and why the app's label is wrong.
Two joints in your table are synovial and allow wide movement, but only one of them is a ball-and-socket joint. Name it, describe its socket, and explain why the same shape that gives it a wide range of motion makes it easier to dislocate than the hip.
Name one way an on-screen atlas skeleton, or the printed descriptions, differs from a real body, and explain how that difference could lead someone to a wrong division, a wrong medial or lateral call, or a wrong joint class.
Choose one reflection and answer it in three to five sentences: (a) which row of your tables would be easiest for a classmate to get wrong, and what cue would you give them? (b) which of this week's swapped pairs (axial and appendicular, radius and ulna, fibrous and synovial) did this lab help you keep apart, and how?

Part 6 — AI-Critique Moment

Choose one equal-credit critique route. Route A: ask an approved AI tool to critique your completed work, then check its response against your own evidence. Route B is the no-AI equivalent printed below.

Approved tools: Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT, Grok, Microsoft Copilot.

Prompt to paste:

I've pasted my completed Week 9 bone table and joint table above. For each of the six bones, tell me whether it is axial or appendicular and name its region. For each of the four joints, give its structural class, its functional class, its synovial type if it has one, and one movement it allows. Then tell me which forearm bone is on the thumb side in the anatomical position, list the vertebral regions from the top down with their counts, and add 80 + 126. If you use any measurement or study, give its source.

Test the response for these likely failures:

Chatbots often name the ulna as the forearm bone on the thumb side, picturing the hand palm down.
Chatbots sometimes say the articular cartilage makes the synovial fluid, or that the fibula carries the body's weight.
Chatbots sometimes slip a digit when adding the two divisions, reporting 80 + 126 as 216 bones.
Asked for the vertebral regions from the top down, chatbots sometimes list lumbar, thoracic, cervical, or swap the counts to 12 cervical and 7 thoracic.
Chatbots sometimes call the scapula part of the axial skeleton, or call a skull suture a synovial joint.
Asked about the shoulder, chatbots often supply a range of motion in degrees or a dislocation rate that this lab never gave.

In three to five sentences, quote at least two statements from the chatbot that you corrected, give the correction with evidence from your tables or Chapter 9, and name one thing the chatbot got right.

Equivalent route (no AI required)

No AI account is required for this lab. Instead of the chatbot, critique this flawed analysis, printed here in full: "In my atlas tables, the scapula is an axial bone because it sits on the upper back next to the ribs, and a skull suture is a synovial joint. With the palms forward, the ulna is on the thumb side, and the fibula is the bone that carries the body's weight. The articular cartilage makes the synovial fluid. From the top down, the vertebral regions are lumbar, thoracic, and cervical. The skeleton has 80 + 126 = 216 bones. An atlas study found that the shoulder moves through 180 degrees in every direction." Mark it up: quote each flawed sentence, name what is wrong (a mislabeled structure, a wrong structure-to-function pairing, steps out of order, a miscomputed value, a confused directional term or tissue type, or an invented figure), cite the evidence from your tables or Chapter 9, and write a corrected sentence beneath it. This route assesses the same objectives (Objective 4 and Objective 1) as the chatbot critique, takes comparable effort (about 30 minutes and 200–300 words), is scored by the same scoring criteria for the same credit, and its own submission artifact is the marked-up flawed analysis, posted in place of the chatbot share link and report.

Part 7 — What to Submit

All three completed scaffold tables, filled from your own atlas work or the printed fallback descriptions
Written answers to all five analysis questions, including your chosen reflection option
The chatbot critique report with its share link, or the equivalent route's marked-up flawed analysis

Deliverable:

A short A&P Lab & Inquiry report on building the skeleton and naming the joints: three completed tables (the plan with your hypothesis, the six-bone table with divisions, regions, and location clues, and the four-joint table with classes, types, and movements), written answers to five analysis questions, and a critique of a chatbot's account of your bones and joints, or, on the equivalent route, a marked-up correction of the printed flawed analysis. Submit in any accessible file type or as a link; a recorded response may be submitted as audio or video with a transcript, or as text. Choose a written, recorded, or visual form for your answers; every form is graded by the same scoring criteria.

Rubric

The rubric below shows how each submitted part is evaluated; bands are full, partial, or none.

Workshop evaluation criteria
Criterion	Full	Partial	None
Hypothesis and view set before identifying	An if… then… because… hypothesis about how the girdle bones will sort appears before the identifications, and the student names the atlas view or fallback used.	A hypothesis appears but lacks a because clause or is written after the identifications, or the view used is missing or unclear.	No hypothesis and no statement of the view used.
Bone table with correct divisions and regions	All six bones carry the correct division and region, the scapula and the hip bone are appendicular, and the radius and the tibia carry correct medial or lateral clues read from the anatomical position.	Three to five bones are correct, or a girdle bone is called axial, or the radius and ulna or the tibia and fibula are swapped.	Fewer than three bones are correct, or the table is missing.
Joint table with correct classes and movements	All four joints carry the correct structural and functional class, the three synovial joints carry the correct type, and each joint names a matching movement or none for the suture.	Two or three joints are fully correct, or the suture is called synovial, or a movement does not match its joint.	Fewer than two joints are correct, or the table is missing.
Analysis in words	Questions 1 to 4 are answered accurately: the four appendicular bones with the two girdle bones explained, the radius placed on the thumb side from the anatomical position, the shoulder's shallow socket tied to range and easier dislocation, and one concrete limitation of the atlas or descriptions; the chosen reflection option is answered.	The questions are attempted, but one or two answers misplace a bone, swap the forearm pair, or give a vague limitation.	The analysis questions are not answered.
Critique of the chatbot or of the printed flawed analysis	On either route, at least two errors are quoted and corrected with evidence from the student's own tables or Chapter 9, and one correct point is acknowledged; both routes earn this band equally.	On either route, errors are named but corrected without evidence, or only one error is caught.	No critique appears on either route, or pasted output is submitted without any checking.

Quality Gate

Every identification comes from your own atlas work or the printed fallback descriptions, never from memory or a chatbot.
The skeleton was set in the anatomical position, palms forward, before any limb bone was called medial or lateral.
Every bone is sorted by what it does, with the girdle bones counted as appendicular.
Every joint names a structural class and a functional class, and only joints with a fluid-filled cavity are called synovial.
No measurement, study, or source is invented anywhere in the submission.
The critique quotes the chatbot or the flawed analysis and corrects at least two errors with evidence from your tables or Chapter 9.

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