Mississippi Science HAP.5.5
The Standard
- HAP.5
- Students will investigate the structures and functions of the muscular system, including the cause and effect of diseases and disorders.
Compare and contrast the anatomy and physiology of the three types of muscle tissue.
2026 Mississippi College- and Career-Readiness Standards for Science · Muscular System
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students identify skeletal, cardiac, and smooth muscle from images of their cells. They compare cell shape, stripes, location, control, and what each tissue does.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Given three unlabeled images, a student identifies each tissue using stripes, branching, and cell shape. They explain how skeletal muscle moves bones, cardiac muscle pumps blood, and smooth muscle moves food through the gut.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may call cardiac muscle skeletal muscle because both have stripes. They may say smooth muscle pumps blood, rather than recognizing that it changes the width of blood vessels.
How to Assess It
- Show images of a long striped fiber, a branched striped fiber, and a spindle-shaped cell without stripes. Ask students to name each tissue, state whether it is voluntary, and give one job it does.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs clay and markers to model three muscle cells, adding stripes to two and branches to the cardiac cell.
Ask, 'Why can you choose to lift a cup but not choose to stop your heartbeat?' Have students explain using muscle control.
Play a three-corner sorting game: read 'branched and striped,' 'moves food,' or 'moves a bone'; students move to the matching tissue corner.
Have students trace a bite of lunch through the gut and explain why smooth muscle keeps it moving without a conscious command.
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Printable HAP.5.5 Worksheet
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Related Standards
- HAP.5.6
Use technology to plan and conduct an investigation that demonstrates the physiology of muscle contraction, muscle fatigue, or muscle tone. Collect and analyze ...
- HAP.4.1
Use models to compare the structure and function of the skeletal system.
- HAP.5.1
Develop and use models to illustrate muscle structure, muscle locations and groups, actions, origins, and insertions.
- HAP.2.1
Analyze the characteristics of the four main tissue types: epithelial, connective, muscle, and nervous. Examine tissues using microscopes and other various tech...
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