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Bone Lab | ASU - Ask A Biologist

4-5 minutes

Virtual Bone Lab

We need our bones to walk, run, jump and move, but this is not all they do. Bones are very busy
even when you are sleeping at night. They are where blood cells are made and store most of your
body's calcium. Bones are also very good at repairing themselves. In this lab you can explore the
bones of the human skeleton using our skeleton viewer that can also be played as a game. You
can also cut and peel apart a bone to look inside. For a closer look at bones you can use the
virtual microscope to inspect their tiniest details.

 Skeleton Viewer and Game

 Virtual Bone Dissection
 Virtual Bone Microscope

Skeletal System
Take a tour of the bones inside the human body with the virtual Skeleton Viewer. In the Explore
mode you can select a viewing window and locate the bones of interest. Take a snapshot and
then use the inspect icon to click on each bone to see its name and information. The Learn More
option links you direclty to the companion Wikipedia page for that bone.

Next up, play the skeleton game

Once you master learning the bones, test your knowledge by switching to the Skeleton Game
mode to race the clock while you locate and identify bones in the body.

Have you ever wondered what's inside your bones? Here is

your chance to explore the busy world of bones.
Explore Bone Anatomy
It's easy to look at bones and think of them as dry, dead sticks in your body, but this couldn't be
further from the truth. Bones are actually made of active, living cells that are busy growing,
repairing themselves, and communicating with other parts of the body.

In our Bone Anatomy Viewer, you can dissect a virtual bone and learn more about the busy
world of bones. You can saw, cut away layers, scoop, and zoom into the different parts of a
bone. If you want to learn about a bone part, click on the inspect tool to learn what it is and what
it does. You can then put it back together with our bone glue.

Virtual Microscope
Take a look at the microscopic world of bone in our virtual bone histology lab. Just pick a
microscope slide from below and click on it to view under the virtual microscope. You can zoom
in and explore the different parts of the bone. Move around and explore on your own or you can
click on the locator buttons to move to a specific part of the bone.

A cross-section of a long bone* The end of a growing tibia, cut lengthwise*

Cells in different stages of bone growth* Cells in different stages of bone growth*

Compact bone, densely packed with osteons* Spongy bone and marrow tissue*

Multiple osteons of the Haversian System* Close-up of an osteon*

*None of the slide images above are shown at their actual scale. However, when you click and
open the virtual microscope, each image has a scale bar that indicates the actual size of the bone
sample.

From Micrometer to Millimeter

As you look through the virtual microscope at the slides above, you'll notice a scale bar in the
upper corner of each image. You can use this bar to measure how big a part of the image is. As
you flip through the slides, you'll notice two differents units of measurement, micrometer and
millimeter.

1 millimeter (mm) = 1000 micrometer (μm)

To learn more about scale and converting from one unit to another, visit our Matter of Scale
article and activity.

Credits: All bone slide images on this page are copyright Professor Jeff Kerr. Used with
permission.

Explore Real Bones

Explore bones in person at the Arizona Science Center or schedule a bone lab at your school.

If you are a teacher looking for pre and post activities for your class, visit the Pathways for
Educators page. To learn more about field trips, fisit the Arizona Science Center Field Trips
page.