One Comment

  1. Peer-Review for Payton Raffensperger by Mikkie Scott:

    Payton’s STEAM project covered how muscle contractions and relaxation occur. Along with what elements are present during the process, with a special focus on magnesium. Payton utilized a VLOG as the visual representation piece of the assignment, which I thought was really neat when paired with the relatability of her abstract. Payton does a great job of refreshing the course material while simultaneously expanding upon it. I felt like I could better follow the action potential as it makes its course to create a muscle contraction. Specific to this project more importantly, Payton expands into a topic I don’t recall covering in the base course material, cramps and the importance of magnesium. While magnesium only composes 0.1% of the body it’s role is not so insignificant. Magnesium sustains the binding and shape of actin to keep the muscle contraction as we know it. Additionally, in order to relax the muscle there must be enough magnesium to transport the calcium into the sarcoplasmic reticulum and T-tubules. Hence, why it is recommended to take a magnesium supplement if prone to muscle cramps, it could simply be a magnesium deficiency. What I gathered from this project is that magnesium keeps calcium in check with how much it contracts and relaxes muscles since it acts as an antagonist to calcium. Overall, I felt as though this project was in line with our course objectives, expanded upon the material, and gave a creative way of communicating the intended information and knowledge.

    Mikkie Scott

Comments are closed.