Names Julia, Kayla, Elon, Niki Section 8-1

Precision at its Finest

Are You the Next Fine Motor Skills American Ninja Warrior?

SWBAT:

Utilize their frontal lobe and muscle memory to demonstrate precision in completing several small scale tasks.

I. Cognitive Ability

II. Muscle Memory

III. Small Scale Task Review

1. Slips of paper

2. 6-Pyramid cup stacking

3. Ping pong ball return

4. 90 Q-tip rotation

5. Tracing shapes

6.

IV. Data Collection

Directions:

1. Create a data table to collect your results for each small scale task, including two trials per group member.
[see example below]

2. Complete the following tasks as many times as possible in 60 seconds to demonstrate your dexterity and prove
that your fine motor skills are superior to that of your competitors.

Note: Complete in pairs, one completing and one timing.

 Niki T1 NIki T2 Julia T1 Julia T2 Kayla T1 Kayla T2 ELon T1 Elon T2

1. Slips of Paper 23 21 23 24 16 21 20

Niki T1 NIki T2 Julia T1 Julia T2 Kayla T1 Kayla T2 ELon T1 Elon T2

2. 6-pyramid Cup 7 7 6 7 2 6 10
Stacking

Niki T1 NIki T2 Julia T1 Julia T2 Kayla T1 Kayla T2 ELon T1 Elon T2

3. Ping Pong Ball 49 70 70 70 95 133

Return

Niki T1 NIki T2 Julia T1 Julia T2 Kayla T1 Kayla T2 ELon T1 Elon T2

4. 90 Q-Tip 35 53 28 32 39 41
Rotation

Niki T1 NIki T2 Julia T1 Julia T2 Kayla T1 Kayla T2 ELon T1 Elon T2

5. Tracing Shapes 16 18 9 9 13 13 19

V. Reflection

Note: Each person should answer reflection questions, #s 4-8 individually. Each persons name should be in bold
and underlined before their answer for questions.

1. Explain the role that the frontal lobe plays in a humans ability to complete the small scale challenge tasks.
Niki: The frontal lobe controls higher level thinking. Your frontal lobe plays a major role in the small
scale tasks because it tells your body what actions you need to make in order to complete the task. It
controls reasoning, problem solving, and motor function. For example, if you are performing the Q-tip
task, your frontal lobe will tell your hand to move it in a certain way so that the Q-tip will turn 90.

Kayla: The frontal lobe controls higher level thinking like planning, motor control, problem solving and
reasoning. In an activity like tracing shapes, the frontal lobe helps you plan out where to trace and use
the marker to always follow the line. The frontal lobe is important because it controls your body so you
can complete the task to the best of your ability.

2. Identify what dexterity is and how it affects the rate of speed in which one can complete the small scale tasks.
Niki: Dexterity is the ability to perform tasks with your hands. If you have high dexterity, you will be
more accurate in reaching where you want your hands to be placed and you will be able to move your
hands better once you reach your desired hand position. Therefore, you will be able to complete the
task faster. If you have low dexterity, you will not be able to place your hands where you want it to go
as accurately, and you will not be able to move your hands as well. Thus, you will complete the task
slower.
Kayla:Dexterity is the skill to perform small tasks with your hands. It affects the rate of speed in which
you can complete the small scale tasks because it affects your accuracy and precision in the tasks,
altering the speed.

3. Identify [2] variables that can affect muscle memory.

Niki: Two variables that affect muscle memory are how often you perform the task, and changes in your
muscles such as injuries. If you do not perform the task very often or if you have not practiced the
task, then your muscles would not have gotten used to performing the activity. So, you will do the task
worse or slower. If you do practice the task often, your muscles will remembered how to do it, so you
will perform the task better and faster. The second variable that can affect muscle memory is if there is
an injury or anything like that that will change how you use the muscle. If your muscles have gotten
used to performing a certain task, and you have injured something in your muscles, it will change the
way you have to move your muscles in order to perform the task. Since you have to do it a different way
than you are used to, it will be harder to complete the task.
Kayla: Precision and accuracy effect muscle memory. If you are precise and do something multiple
times, it will be easier for your muscles to do the the action. If you are accurate, your muscles will get
better and better at the action based on practice. Being both precise and accurate is important to
complete an action well and often.
4. Based on your day I data collection, rank the small scale tasks in order from least to most challenging. Be sure to
include data from the data table to support your ranking.
Niki: Based on the data I collected from performing the small scale tasks, I would rank the tasks as the
easiest being the Ping-Pong Ball Return, then the 90 Q-Tip Rotation, then the Slips of Paper, then the
Tracing Shapes, and finally, at the most challenging, the 6-Pyramid Cup Stacking. The ranking of my
tasks are all based off of my points in the data table. The higher results mean that the task is not too
challenging, and the low results mean the task is challenging.
Kayla: Based on the data I found from doing the small scale tasks, I found the cup-stacking the most
challenging, only stacking the cups twice on my first try but then 6 times on my second. I also found
difficulty cutting the paper and cut it only into 16 pieces on my first try, but using a different method I
cut the paper into 21 pieces. For the Q-tip turning task, my range was from 39 to 41 which was a good
amount for the challenge. I did well with tracing the shapes and traced 13 correctly on both tries which
was very precise. My best small task record was in the ping-pong task a range from 70 to 95 which was
a big improvements.
5. Identify the small scale task that you completed with the most success and explain why you were most successful
at this type of task.
Niki: Ping-Pong Ball Return is the task I completed with the most success because I got 49 and 70 as
my results for the two trials, which is larger than any of my other results. Getting points is very quick
in this task because you only have to drop the ping-pong ball and catch it one time to get a point. This
makes it quick and easy to get points fast.
Kayla:Ping-Pong Ball Return was the task I completed with the most success because my range was
from 70-95 in my two attempts. I think I did well in this task because it doesnt take as much
concentration as other tasks.

6. Identify the small scale task that you completed with the least amount of success and explain why you were least
successful at this type of task.
Niki: The 6-Cup Pyramid Stacking was the task I completed with the least amount of success because I
only got a result of 7 in my two trials, which is lower than any other result. This is because it takes a
long time and is not very easy to get a point. You have to put all 6 cups in a pyramid shape and then
bring them back to a stack to earn one point. You can only do this a few times before your 60-second
time limit runs out.
Kayla: I completed the 6 Cup Pyramid Stacking with the least amount of success because my range was
from 2-6 stacks. I think I didnt do that well with this task because I wasnt good at assembling the
cups quickly without knocking them over, causing me to run out of time.