Sep' 2026 Science Investigation

We are learning about skeletons and muscles as part of our science unit, ‘Why do humans have skeletons and muscles?’ We have been learning to name and locate different bones in our bodies. We measured some of our bones and discovered that the femur is the longest and strongest bone in our skeleton.

As scientists, we ask questions to help us find things out. We wondered whether our bones and height might change the way we move, so we planned an investigation to answer our big question: “Do the people with the longest femurs jump the furthest?”

To make our test fair, everyone measured their femur and jumped in the same way. This helped us compare our results and made them more reliable. We used our scientific knowledge, understanding and previous experience to make predictions. We also considered other factors that might affect our results, such as how fit we were and whether we did regular exercise.

We had lots of fun jumping and measuring the distance we travelled. We concluded that the people with the longest femurs did not necessarily jump the furthest. In fact, the child with the fourth-shortest femur jumped the furthest in the class!

We concluded that other factors can affect jumping distance, including fitness, strength, starting position, weight, previous practice and technique. We really enjoyed working scientifically and are looking forward to learning more about how our bodies work.