Names: Ben K & Ashley & Natalie 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

IV. Data Collection

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1j3n_Y0veYx8wkwPcam694V2YYT49g3FWV7gqj-
bjkYM/edit
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 30 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.

AY T1 AY T2 BK T1 BK T2 NR T1 NR T2

1. Slips of Paper 22 25 22 23 28 28

AY T1 AY T2 BK T1 BK T2 NR T1 NR T2

2. 6 Pyramid Cup Stack 7 9 7 8 E E

AY T1 AY T2 BK T1 BK T2 NR T1 NR T2

3. Ping Pong Ball Return 67 67 95 140 93 147

 AY T1 AY T2 BK T1 BK T2 NR T1 NR T2

4. 90 Q-Tip Rotation 72 83 79 103 100 125

AY T1 AY T2 BK T1 BK T2 NR T1 NR T2

5. Tracing Shapes 17 19 10 13 11 17

AY T1 AY T2 BK T1 BK T2 NR T1 NR T2

5. Tracing Shapes with nonpreferred hand 6 5 1 4 E E

AY T1 AY T2 BK T1 BK T2 NR T1 NR T2

1. Slips of Paper with nonpreferred hand 14 15 16 18 E E

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.

The role of the frontal lobe plays is that is basically controls the whole challenge as the challenge is
mainly based on fine motor skills, which is what the frontal lobe specializes in. With these
challenges, you need to know problem solving and motor function, which is what the frontal lobe is
for. If an individual did not have a frontal lobe, they would most likely not be able to perform these
small-scale fine motor skills challenges as they would not have the same ability to do so as we
would.

2. Identify what dexterity is and how it affects the rate of speed in which one can complete the small
scale tasks.

Dexterity means the skill in performing small tasks, most often with the use of hands. Well,
dexterity is the reason how you can complete these challenges. Without it, you would not be able to
complete them. With dexterity, one can use their hands quickly and respond to stimuli swiftly. Say
someone had an dexterity issue, they would not do the challenges as a normal person would.
Someone that was especially well with their working with hands, they would complete these
challenges much faster. Someone that does not have well dexterity, they would be slowed down
severely compared to other individuals. They wouldnt be as coordinated with their hands,
therefore making them complete the tasks at slower rate.

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

Two variables that can affect muscle memory are 1: If the person does the action repeatedly and
does not stop, the mind would eventually get trained to do it without cognitive thinking. It's like
putting your seatbelt on, after doing it for years of your life, you likely do not even have to
recognize the action as it is so common for you muscles to execute it. 2: Another variable that could
potentially affect your muscle memory is if the person stops doing the action as such and the
muscles begin to forget the natural way of motion. For example, say you suddenly had no more seat
belt in you car for years of your life and then suddenly were plopped back into a car that does, you
would likely not put the seatbelt like you did before because your muscles have adapted to not wear
a seatbelt for an extended period of time.

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.

Ben K. For me, I would say the order would be The ping pong ball return, the 90-degree Q-tip
rotation the slips of paper, the 6 pyramid cup stack, and then the tracing shapes. From these
examples, I scored by far the most on the Ping Pong Ball Return as it became very easy to me. I do
not know why, it just kind of came to me. I scored into the 100s in fact. The Q-tip rotation was
fairly easy to, only it gave a little pain into my wrist from all of the motion. Then the slips of paper
were pretty straightforward as I have been knowing how to cut since practically kindergarten. I
scored in the low 20s on that one. And again, I know how to stack cups fairly well, only the cups
that were used were very hard to separate. Have the Cubs been tournament cup stacking, my 6 to 7
average would have been greatly improved. And then came the tracing shapes, I am very terrible at
Art and this is likely why I did so poorly on this one. I got at least five shapes exed out in the end

Ashley: The order of the tasks from easiest to hardest for me was the six-pyramid cup stacking,
slips of paper, tracing shapes, 90 degree q-tip turns, and finally the ping pong ball return. For some
reason I had a really hard time with the ping pong ball return, I kept dropping the ball then having
trouble catching it. My hand wasnt very comfortable with the position it was in for the catching
part of the task. I had made only 67 bounces when my partners had made over 140 bounces. The
six-pyramid cup stacking was my favorite and the easiest for me, I was able to get the cups into
seven then nine pyramid smoothly and then bring them down to one stack easily.

Natalie: The order of the tasks from easiest to most challenging is the 90 degree rotation of a Q-tip,
bouncing the ping pong ball, the cutting paper into slips, and tracing the shapes. (All the other
activities I was excluded from because of my arm) The Q-tip rotation was the easiest for me because
it didnt involve really any concentration like the shape tracing and I was able to move the Q-tip
easily. Bouncing the ping pong ball was one of the easiest because it didnt take a lot of thought but
it was harder than the Q-tip rotation because the ping pong ball rolled away a few times. The paper
cutting was one of the most challenging because holding the paper was hard for me and it took a
while to cut one slice of paper. Outlining the shapes was the hardest for me because I wanted to try
and do a lot of them but most of my outlined shapes were not perfect so they didnt count. Also the
paper kept slipping away so I kept smudging it and it would make the shapes messy.

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.
Ben K. The task that I was most successful with was the ping pong ball return as this came fairly
easy to me. I do not know why, I guess I just have very good dexterity with opening and closing my
hand to catch the ping pong ball at very fast speeds. My best score was a whopping 140 bounces.
Ashley: I was most successful in the six-pyramid cup stacking. I was very comfortable with stacking
the cups and I was good at it too. I kept it organized and had a certain method, I held the stack of
cups in my hand and then used the other to take out the cups one at a time instead of placing the
stack on the table and then using both hands, one to hold the stack and one to hold the single cup,
and then organize my pyramid. When I used my method I got many complete pyramids in the sixty
seconds.

Natalie: I was most successful in the Q-tip rotation activity. This activity was really easy for me and
I could do it without thinking too much. Also, after my first time, I knew what to expect so I was
able to improve even more and I got the score of 125 turns. I must have good dexterity with being
able to turn my hand that fast.

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.

Ben K. Oh my God, the tracing shapes was by far my worst challenge. I severely did not color on
the line for many shapes. The fact that I am pretty bad at drawing and art in general, mainly
contributed to my lack of score in this challenge. My lack of precision with my hands with drawing,
severely diminished the quality of my tracings.

Ashley: The task I completed with the least amount of success is the ping pong ball return which is
also the task I least enjoyed. I think I was least successful because the my hand was used to being
palm down and closing to catch the ball. Also, because when I dropped the ball, either the ball
bounced higher off the table than I wanted it to and it hit the palm of my hand and fell, or it didnt
bounce high enough and it fall back to the table before I could catch it. Timing I believe was also an
issue. Since I was trying to get as many catches as possible in one minute, I feel I dropped the ball
rather than bouncing it which didnt give it enough power to reach to where my hand was.

Natalie: My worst challenge was tracing the shapes. I didnt really like this one in general because I
have very bad precision when drawing so my outlines werent perfect. This caused my score to drop
as lots of the shapes werent perfect so less of them counted. Also, the paper kept slipping away and
when I tried to hold it still the paper would smudge.

7. Explain what happened when you completed the small scale tasks #s 1, 3, 4, and 5, with your non-
dominant hand? Be sure to include data from the data table to support your response.

Ben K. I would say definitely, by a long shot, that doing challenge number five with my non-
preferred hand, was by far the hardest thing ever. Coupled with the fact that I am not good at
drawing and tracing with my left hand, my right hand was an absolute disaster and did not
resemble anything within the lines. I got at least half of my drawing taken off from my final score.
My lowest score was a whopping one shape fully completed and drawn

Ashley: When I used my non-prefered hand to do the challenges it was extremely difficult, which I
expected. I assumed that since writing with my left hand is hard, that these activities would be hard
too. When using my non-dominant hand I performed horribly, I went from precisely completing 19
shapes with my dominant hand, and 6 shapes with my non-dominant hand. My ability to draw the
shapes with my left hand was 13 less shapes than my right hand. Also, when I completed the paper
slips tasks, instead of making 25 slips of paper (which I made with my dominant hand), I made only
15 slips of paper. This was difficult because it was hard for me to hold the scissors in my left hand,
it was very uncomforting.
Natalie: I was excused from the nondominant hand challenges because of my broken arm but I can
safely assume that the challenges would be so much harder. I know trying to write with my non
dominant hand is almost impossible so I couldnt imagine trying to outline shapes which is already
a struggle for me.

8. Do you believe humans are genetically inclined to use one specific hand or both [ambidextrous] or are
they taught to use one hand more over the other?

Ben K. Well, in the US it is not taught to children which hand is the hand they should be using for
writing and other uses. Although in the past it has been required that children use the right hand to
write with. I know back in the Soviet Union students were forced to write with their right hand
despite if the were lefty. I myself right with my left hand which is in the wrong half of the
population as 90% of the world writes with their right hand. While I, and 10% of the world, write
with my left hand. So no, I do not believe humans are inclined, at any point in their lives, to be
writing with a specific hand more than the other.

Ashley: I dont think students are taught to use one hand more than the other, I believe that as you
grow up you start becoming comfortable with one hand more than the other, and your ability to do
things with that hand is better than the other. I do not think which hand you prefer to use is genetic
but I do think it can be influenced by others around you because if you are being taught something
and your mentor uses one hand more than the other, it might be easier to follow along using the
same hand as your mentor so that can help decide which hand you are more used to.

Natalie: No child is taught to use one hand over another its just how you end up learning to pick
things and use your hands. I know that in the past it was required for students to know how to
write with their right hands. I dont believe it is genetic because absolutely everyone on my moms
side and dads side of the family is a righty except for my younger sister. So I believe it is just how
she learned to use her hands and just used the hand she felt was the most comfortable.