Skeletal System Extra Credit

Due 10 days after the return of the Skeletal Unit Test

Case StudyThere is a volunteer

neighborhood cleanup day in your community. A young boy who is helping out by dragging a heavy bag of litter all of a sudden lets out a loud cry of pain.

You are thinking that maybe the boy pulled a muscle. To your surprise, you notice that his hand is dangling as if he broke his forearm.

You rush the child to his parents, and he his hurried off to the hospital. Later that day, you see the boy’s father and he tells you how the boy is doing. He laments that his son should really be more careful about his activities…

His son has broken both is legs twice, as well as that same arm, on the padded school playground. He then explains that it takes a long time for the boy’s bones to heal.

The father mentions that two years ago the boy lost his hearing in one ear after getting too close to an exploding fire cracker. The father ends the story saying, “Otherwise, he is your typical kid. He hardly has a sick day off from school and he is growing like a weed.”

Directions…• Do not start googling like a madperson! • Use your knowledge of bones and growing to figure

out what is going on here.

• Why is this boy so accident-prone?• How is it that his bones break so

easily?• How might his hearing loss be

related to bones?• Email me your answers! You will earn points based on the

rationale of your hypothesis, you don’t have to get an exact diagnosis!